Project-Based Learning

Many of the "best practice" ideas discussed in the previous section can be realized in what is called project-based learning. The World Wide Web is ideally suited as a research, communications and presentation medium for students' project- based learning activities. Furthermore, because the Internet contains so many resources, both information and people, it is an ideal medium for helping to gather and process much of the information for a project.

Teachers have used project-based learning as a supplement to their regular course of instruction for many years now. Any teacher who has taken a group on a field trip, or had students enter projects in a science fair, or had a class garden, or whose students collect and measure the pH of various water sources, or any one of a thousand activities that involve students in studying the real world around them has conducted a project-based learning activity. They have used a variety of effective project presentation media from shoe box dioramas, dramatic presentations and written reports to multimedia reports using audio, film, video, and hypermedia.

The unique features the World Wide Web bring to this traditional and effective learning approach the ability to share learning projects with an audience of millions, and, more importantly to the learning process, to build ongoing dialogues between the project authors and their audience.

Read the two following resources on project-based learning.

"The Project Approach" by Lilian G. Katz from the ERIC Clearinghouse on Elementary and Early Childhood Education is one of the best short introductions to project based learning activities.

The CoVis Project Pedagogy contains a comprehensive and useful definition of project-based learning. This site also contains useful descriptions and guides for collaborative learning and building communities of practice.