Engage Tech Experts
You don’t have to be a tech expert to succeed with PBL. Now’s the time to partner with your school or district technology team, media specialist, instructional coach, or other PLNs. Ask them to teach you how to use a tool that sounds promising. Better yet, invite them into your classroom to teach your students (with you learning alongside them).
As a final product, a middle school social studies teacher from Nashville, Tenn., wanted her students to create a virtual walking tour of civil rights era landmarks in their community. When the teacher discussed the project with her school media specialist, the specialist suggested an app called ThingLink that can be used for digital storytelling. She also offered to teach a mini-lesson about how to upload photos and other media, and then curate these artifacts with informational texts. That tech support let the teacher focus on teaching students to use primary sources to tell a compelling story about community history.
Who can you ask for help? (Hint: Don’t overlook the PLN you have been building through this course!) Make a note in your ePortfolio to follow up with potential collaborators.