Bringing Curriculum to Life: Enacting Project-Based Learning in [Computer Science] Programs
In this episode I unpack Tobias, Campbell, and Greco’s (2015) publication titled “Bringing curriculum to life: Enacting project-based learning in music programs” to explore how computer science educators could incorporate project-based learning in their classroom.
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When you do project-based learning in
your classes are you actually doing a
project are you unintentionally doing an
activity a task or simply a strategy
today we're going to unpack a paper that
talks about well what does project-based
learning actually look like and I'm
going to talk about how we might
actually do that in computer science
education the article we're exploring
today is called bringing curriculum to
Life enacting project-based Learning and
music programs this was written by Evan
s Tobias Mark Robin Campbell and Philip
Greco now even though this particular
article is about music education we're
going to talk about how this relates to
Computer Science Education if you don't
know who I am my name is Jared O'Leary
I've worked with every single grade
kindergarten through doctoral student in
a variety of contexts from music
education to Computer Science Education
now here's the abstract from the paper
quote add its core project-based
learning is based on the idea that
real-life problems capture student
interest provoke critical thinking and
develop skills as they engage in and
complete complex undertakings that
typically result in a realistic product
event or presentation to an audience
this article offers a starting point for
music teachers who might be interested
in using project-based learning as a
teaching strategy and also interested in
building student competency and bringing
it to life student engagement in the
music curriculum to help music educators
enact project-based learning in their
classroom and ensembles we outline a
process for Designing and facilitating
projects provide vignettes that to
situates theory and practice and discuss
projects in relation to curriculum
standards assessment and teacher
evaluation end quote as always you can
find a link to this article in the show
notes as well as many other podcast
episodes this is episode 194 if so
there's over actually 117 hours I
believe of podcast episodes that you can
explore to learn how to teach computer
science in your schools or in your
context in the first couple of pages of
this article the authors Define what
project-based learning is so here's a
quote from page 40 quote at its core
project-based learning is built on the
idea that real-life problems capture
student interest and provoke critical
thinking and develop skills as they
engage in and complete complex tasks
that typically result in a realist
product event or representation to an
audience scholar John W Thomas describes
project-based learning as one Central to
the curriculum two organized around
driving questions that lead students to
encounter Central Concepts or principles
of discipline three focus on a
constructive investigation that involves
inquiry and knowledge building four
student driven in that students are
responsible for making choices and for
Designing and managing the work and five
authentic by posing problems that occur
in the real world and that people care
about End quotes from page 40 and now
the rest of the article is going to
unpack some of what was stated in that
particular quote before we dive much
deeper into this I do want to see that
there are three different vignettes that
kind of outline what project-based
learning looks like in elementary middle
and in high school contexts again even
though this is describing music
education it's very easy to look at this
and go oh that's what project-based
learning might look like in a computer
science class or social social studies
or whatever so the authors describe many
different theories that kind of like
inform the projects that are being
discussed in the vignette as well as
kind of like outline what it actually
looks like from like a day-to-day
standpoint so I'd highly recommend
taking a look at the different vignettes
but I'm not going to describe them in
today's podcast episode because I want
to tease you enough to be able to walk
away going oh that was really
interesting I want to learn more about
this article and read it while still
getting some practical tips that you can
actually use for your class in figure
one on page 43 the authors talk about a
Continuum for teaching and learning
options that relate to projects and
project-based learning this is something
I've talked about in other presentations
that I've done at different conferences
like csta and iste and whatnot how there
is a Continuum of projects in
project-based learning from what I
described as more of a closed version of
projects to a more open-ended version of
projects the authors talk about how you
might engage in activities tasks or
strategies that involves like a single
Focus an integrated Focus or maybe even
a unit if you want to learn more about
that you can read some of the examples
in that figure but when it comes to
projects they describe projects as
potential actually being thematic or
Blended or open-ended so an example in
computer science education that might
relate to like a thematic project could
be the theme of like algorithmic bias
and then having a variety of different
projects that could be explored on the
topic of algorithmic bias while the
authors describe these projects as
tending to lean more towards like the
closed end of the Continuum where
students have less Choice it is still
possible to have some student choice and
creativity within these types of
projects so for example in an interview
with Katie Henry which is titled
microbit rhizomatic learning and CS for
healing with Katie Henry this is from
episode number seven so nearly 200
episodes ago Katie poses a question when
is blank a problem in your life and you
can use that with standards with
concepts with practices with whatever so
for example you could pose a question
when is algorithmic bias a problem in
your life while providing some guidance
on the topic or the theme students get
to kind of choose what direction they
head into and they might head in
directions that you might have thought
of or planned in advance of the actual
project and in episode number 75
rhizomatic learning with Catherine
bornhurst John Stapleton and Katie rate
we kind of talk about what that could
look like in a classroom where you take
this rhizomatic approach to learning or
projects there's another episode which
is episode 150 which is type of
fostering intersectional identities
through rhizomatic learning which talks
about what this looks like from more of
a curriculum development standpoint or a
lesson planning standpoint so check out
those episodes if you're interested in
it okay so in computer science education
a closed project might be like I want
you to create a game with two players
and it has at least one variable and
it's going to be a basketball game okay
that would be more of a close to a
different type of project if you go to
the opposite end of the curriculum you
might ask questions like okay how could
you use variables in your project or how
are variables a problem in your life and
then students who have the option to
choose like okay I'm going to make a
Choose Your Own Adventure project that
has different variables in the project
or I'm going to use it to simulate an
environment and simulate physics or I'm
going to use variables to create like a
game or whatever now somewhere in the
middle you could have something that is
a little bit more open but a little bit
more guidance in terms of providing some
constraints but not enough to make it so
that every single project is then going
to look the exact same way so for
example when I was in high school I took
a C plus plus class was the very first
computer science class that I ever took
and we had projects like creating a
calculator everybody's calculator had
the exact same functionality as
everybody else's because it was a very
closed type of project it took multiple
weeks for us to be able to like add in
all the different functions and
abilities that the teacher wanted us to
have in that particular project but
everybody created the exact same thing
if you move towards the middle I want
you to create a calculator but you get
to choose what types of functions you
use so everybody's going to create some
kind of a mathematical Computing device
but it's going to have different
abilities so somebody might relate it to
like mortgages or to doing measurements
on a project or just like General
addition subtraction Etc there are many
different things that calculators could
be used for that students could choose
along that Continuum and then if you go
even further along the Continuum to an
open-ended it might not be that
everybody's creating a calculator but
people are exploring how to do
mathematic equations formulas Etc
through computer science but the end
result might not look like a calculator
might look like something else like
physics in a video game or something so
that's kind of the Continuum of
different projects where you can go from
like a fixed to flexible or an open or
you might think of it as like closed
flexible and open now the authors
provide a framework for Designing and
preparing for different projects so
there are six different steps that you
can go through so here are the steps
quote one choosing a worthy topic two
finding a real life context three
creating generative questions four
developing critical thinking and
cultivating dispositions 5. deciding the
scope and sixth designing the experience
End quotes from page 41 and the authors
unpack each one of those in the
following pages so let's start off with
number one which was worthy topics the
topics can originate from teachers from
curricula from standards from students
from the community Etc so it could be
like current events that are going on
related to computer science it could be
a professional topic that people in the
field are discussing or that is relevant
to the community that you work in or
even to individual students that you
work with so both teachers and students
can draw inspiration from like academic
works from newspapers from blog from
Tick Tock from wherever and again going
back to the ideas that are discussed in
the rhizomatic podcast episodes that I
mentioned you don't necessarily have to
come up with just one topic I would
recommend starting with just one topic
if you are new to project-based learning
and then eventually you can get to like
choose from these three options and then
eventually hey students there's 30 of
you in this class let's come up with 30
unique projects that are interesting to
each one of you and then you as the
teacher will facilitate 30 projects
simultaneously that's on the far end of
the progressive Continuum that might
take some practice and that's something
that I did in my class so students had
several programming languages they could
choose from and they could work on any
project that was of interest to them for
any length of time could be for a couple
of days or could literally be for a
couple of years on one single project up
to the students you don't have to start
there you can just start with what's
outlined in this article which is how to
create a single project so the authors
mentioned that whatever topic you pick
should spark some wonderment it should
encourage them to imagine and think
about like computer science and new and
different ways you should have long
lasting value and it should also meet
the curriculum requirements if you have
to worry about that and on page 42 the
authors mentioned something from a book
that I read a while back so here's a
quote from that so it's talking about
how student experiences should quote be
assessed as to their generativity the
extent to which experiences generate
additional experiences by creating a
need to know vibrancy the extent to
which experiences are both Minds on and
Hands-On and residue the extent to which
experiences provide a positive and
affirming sense of achievement end quote
so generativity generating some kind of
a need to know so this is talked about a
lot in scholarship on like video games
and how video games create a need to
know in that in order to progress
through an area through a level or
whatever you have to learn a specific
skill and so if we take that idea and
related to education and like Computer
Science Education creating some kind of
a topic or coming up with some kind of a
topic that makes it so that students
need to know a particular thing in order
to be able to progress in that project
for example if you want students to be
able to create the game they're gonna
need to know player controls you don't
necessarily have to outline that at the
beginning but if it's going to be some
kind of an interactive game then
students are in some way going to think
about interactivity through some kind of
a player control whether it's
point-and-click or keyboard or mouse or
whatever when it comes to vibrancy
students need to be able to engage in
both the minds on and the Hands-On so it
has to have those two paired together
there is a tendency when we're talking
about like theoretical applications of
computer science or whatever or maybe
even some of the ethical implications of
computer science it's a lot of talking
and not necessarily a lot of doing so we
might talk about some of the problems
with algorithmic bias but we're not
necessarily trying to rewrite algorithms
to fix that bias depending on the age
group and the topic you might not have
that opportunity to actually have
students write their own like deep
learning AI system or something like
that that's probably not going to happen
but maybe and that's not necessarily a
bad thing you don't have to actually
like create something from scratch or
remix something Etc in order to have it
be Hands-On one things you could do if
we go with like the topic of the
algorithmic bias is to have students try
and break it to figure out where is this
algorithm working as it is designed and
where are the biases coming out of this
so if we look at like facial recognition
and whatnot you could like give
different data from different faces and
then try and find okay where does it
actually recognize the correct person so
give a correctly identified face that it
recognizes and where is it actually like
not working so as a lot of Scholars talk
about facial recognition technology does
not necessarily work well with darker
complexion because the data that was
provided was with people who had lighter
complexion so it's runoff of data set
that was a certain type of face or
certain color or darkness of the skin so
it doesn't necessarily work well for the
skin types that were not used in the
original data set that is a way of
engaging in Hands-On while also doing
the minds on with like ethical
discussions around Computer Science
Education and then with the residue when
students walk away from this are they
going to walk away feeling like they
accomplished something do they better
understand some of the ethical impacts
of algorithmic bias and better
understand and how to address it and to
look out for it and go oh this is
working really well in this context but
it has a clear bias against this other
context that kind of residue can have
this like long lasting impact that
ideally we want to have in class we
don't just want something to go in one
year and out the other year I'm thinking
of my like social studies curricula in
particular when I was a student memorize
all these dates and facts and names of
historical people and then completely
forgot about why they went into battle
to begin with and have certainly
forgotten all the names and dates and
facts Etc because those experiences
social studies did not have that residue
okay so that was the worthy topics now
the next thing that the authors
recommend focusing on is a real life
context computer science is one of those
things that can relate to so many
different impacts of teaching learning
life outside of the classroom Etc like
if students are using their phones just
like even talking about okay well how is
it that you are able to communicate from
one phone to another that's a whole like
deep dive that you could go into that is
relevant to students or it could be how
is it that you are able to watch your
favorite live streamer when you go home
and you're on on your computer or how is
it that you're able to engage in this
online learning platform when we have
like a at home learning day like a
remote learning day you could talk about
packets and packet loss and like how the
internet works and all sorts of other
interesting things related to networking
and Computing you could talk about the
algorithms that allow that to happen in
different programming languages like
there's so many different avenues that
you could go down that relate to that
topic and that are relevant to real life
context whatever Direction you end up
going down that aligns with that worthy
topic that you chose you're going to end
up finding some different communities of
practice allow and Wenger the authors
mentioned that this quote helps students
see themselves as potential participants
and contributors to different musical
practices End quotes from page 43. so if
we again take this away from musical
practices and think about the computer
science practices if you start having it
so that students can think about how
they're able to communicate like with
different social media people if you
help students realize how they are able
to communicate using different devices
like use that as a topic that allows
them to see how some people can
communicating with different media in
the last few months as an example I have
switched over 100 into content creation
on my own before you had to like go to
work at an organization and and create
some lesson plans that were then
distributed through physical copies in
like the form of test textbooks Etc and
then it's like shifted over into okay
well now I have these online lessons and
whatnot and now what I'm doing is
actually creating content 100 on my own
for my own website for my own YouTube
channel Etc all this to say that there
are many ways that people can
participate and contribute within a
particular domain so if you're exploring
a worthy topic or whatever there is so
much more availability and access which
is like simple devices like a cell phone
for people to be able to learn about
share communicate Etc and explore these
different domains and topics this is
very different than when I was in school
a lot of what I was learning in school
was like contained within that classroom
we did not necessarily communicate and
collaborate with people outside
especially not with experts unless they
were brought in physically in person and
we were able to ask some questions for
like a day or something like that most
of whatever was learning was confined
within that particular classroom and had
very little connection outside of that
nowadays that is very different so
students are able to see themselves as
both participants and contributors
within a space I mean there are
teenagers who are making like atom
colliders and whatnot in their garages
those individuals can certainly
communicate with people at like CERN and
whatnot to kind of like learn from them
and talk about what they are learning
from that particular process
Etc it doesn't necessarily need to be
something as complicated to that but
could just be something as simple as
like software development like students
who are creating an app in like a high
school web development class or an app
class or whatever they could go into
different forums online spaces
Etc and communicate and collaborate and
even contribute to those different
spaces which is why it's important to
think of the real life context but it's
also important to go with the next step
which is on questions here's a quote
from page 43 that kind of talks about
well what are generative questions quote
there are questions that are open-ended
not easily solved and have the capacity
to generate multiple Pathways for
student learning generative questions
also called driving or essential
questions encourage students to think
deeply to think across subject matters
they create a need to know and provide a
relevant and meaningful context for
learning consider how students is
engagement changes when provided with
questions that help them see connections
between computer science as a discipline
and their own lives consider on the
other hand a question that is primarily
factual such as who is the original
creator of the video game Minecraft
while important for ascertaining a
specific response its capacity to
generate sustained inquiry provoke
thought and gender Lively discussion or
analyze computer science in time in
place is limited end quote now I modify
that to make it about computer science
but the same idea stands because it was
obviously originally talking about music
so the authors recommend like creating
one or two generative questions that can
help guide students these are very broad
open-ended questions it's not something
as closed as like what is a variable or
a little bit more open like when might
you use a variable but kind of like what
Katie was talking about in episode 7
like when are variables a problem in
your life they're much broader there are
several different episodes that specific
quickly talk about different questions
that you can ask and some podcast
episodes is unpack like these different
types so I'll link to those in the show
notes at jaredoleery.com if you want to
get some more ideas of like the open
guided and closed questions that could
be used while you're facilitating a
class as well as while you are designing
a project now the next thing to consider
after you've developed some generative
questions is to think about the critical
thinking and dispositions that students
will likely engage with when doing this
particular project that you're designing
there are some like considerations that
they provide on page 44. I'm going to
modify this again slightly to make it
about computer science quote explore a
computer science issue or develop a
skill for multiple perspectives learn
how to ask pertinent questions or make
informed decisions determine how parts
and holes are related or compare
contrast and predict identify blank
spots in their computer science skills
or be playful and engage in wonderments
gather and synthesize relevant
information into Solutions or articulate
findings from research combine Knowledge
and Skills across disciplines or play a
role in local or glow Global needs end
quote all of these are potential
directions that you could head into with
different dispositions or ways of
thinking critically about computer
science many of the podcast episodes
have had some examples where people have
talked about like different projects
that they've worked on that could align
with and diverge from these different
dispositions and that I have listed
right here the next thing that the
authors recommend is to consider the
scope so here's some questions from page
project-based learning how comfortable
am I with it how can I work with the
existing school schedule end quote those
are three really important things to
consider like I had students who would
come into the classroom and who had been
doing project-based learning for a long
time so this was very easy for them to
be able to jump into other students who
are brand new to it needed some more
guidance some more hand-holding because
they were unsure what this looked like
they're used to the activities based or
task-based things that they had to do in
their other classes and when they came
into here and have this like large
project that took several weeks or
months to work on they might be like I
don't know what this is I haven't
experienced this before now to be
completely candid most of my
instructional experience chance was
related to activity-based stuff as a
student and so when I started teaching I
was used to that as well the curriculum
that I was mandated to teach in the
first district that I was in everything
was just a a series of lessons that were
designed for a single day aside from
some kind of a connecting theme for
units like Hey we're going to do this
month on Rhythm or this month on folk
dancing or whatever there wasn't really
much connection from one lesson to the
next and there certainly wasn't one
thing that we focused on over the course
of a month or semester so it wasn't
until I did my residency that I really
kind of saw what project-based learning
looked like because I was a TA for a
class with one of the authors on this
paper I learned so much just from
watching somebody else facilitate a
project and then I went oh this is what
learning can look like it was honestly a
profound experience and so I ta'd that
class multiple times so I could see how
the professor changed things over time
how to modify for newer different topics
Etc so when I started doing
project-based learning with coding I had
already had a couple of years of
experience with this and saw what it
could look like and continue to learn
from different people like well what is
rhizomatic learning how does that relate
to project-based learning so that leads
more into okay what if students had
three projects they could choose from
instead of just one or what if it was 30
projects that they could come up with
instead of just like picking from three
it was a very gradual thing for me I
didn't just jump into project-based
learning right away so if you're
listening to this and going I don't know
this sounds intimidating I totally get
that I was there which is why it's
important to think about how comfortable
are you with this where along that
Continuum of openness do you want to
head into do you want to start with a
single project are you okay just jumping
in the deep end and going straight
rhizomatic learning where there's 30
projects going on simultaneously
potentially with multiple programming
languages in your class there's no right
or wrong way of doing it but if you are
brand new to it I'd probably start off
with just a single project that everyone
does with the full understanding that it
might not be interesting to everybody in
your class which is again why eventually
led to the interest-based project-based
learning through rhizomatic learning and
then the last one is just a very
realistic thing in terms of like
existing school schedules like if you
are required by admin to have students
turn in a portfolio of completed works
not just in process works then this
could have a constraint on things in
terms of okay well how often do I see
students is it for a quarter is it for a
semester is it for an entire year when
are those like portfolios due at the end
somewhere in the middle are there
progresses that you have to do
throughout because I didn't have to do
that I just had to assign a grade like
and that grade was basically are you in
here working on something and if you are
cool you get an A if you weren't well
then hey we got to talk about why you
aren't creating something that you're
interested in so because of that some
students would spend a couple days or a
couple weeks or a couple months or
literally a couple years doing the same
project that allowed for that
exploration of interest at a pace that
worked well for the students who were in
those classes but you might not have
that ability because you have a stricter
schedule or different admin or whatever
so considering the scope when you're
doing this is an important step to do
and then finally you get to the very
last step that the authors mentioned
which is actually designing the
experience notice you don't start with a
design you start with all this thinking
and then you get to it when I did
curriculum development by the time I
left that organization I created well
over 100 lesson plans for a scratch
shooting or scratch Etc I created a ton
of content and still have a bunch more
that I could create based off of an
outline where I wrote out like 300
projects I didn't just start with just
like throwing out those ideas and
whatnot I started thinking through so
many different things before I actually
ever created a single lesson plan
literally months thinking through okay
how would this look for like a
short-term unit what would this look
long term over the course of several
years Etc how could we guide students
who are brand new in kindergarten and
all the way through like nine years
later when they graduate in eighth grade
what could we do in terms of those
experiences you might not have to do
that if you only work with a single
grade Etc so your front loading of this
might be easier than what mine was for
the curriculum development but it takes
a lot of time you can't just jump into
project-based learning the next day if
like you just learned about it today you
actually have to think about it prepare
for it Etc the actual facilitating
process was the easiest thing to do
because I was just walking around and
answering questions or helping pair
students with somebody who had a
question and somebody that I know could
answer that question
Etc that was super easy to do so if
somebody came into the classroom they'd
be like wow Jared like it's like
students are really engaged but Jared's
not doing a ton just walking around
helping students one-on-one it looks
like I'm not doing much but I did a lot
of preparation to get to the point where
our students were able to do that so not
only does it take a lot of preparation
and whatnot and a lot of thinking to be
able to design these projects but the
actual facilitating side of things for
myself was like the easiest thing to do
once students got used to what
rhizomatic project-based learning looked
like they thrived in that particular
space it didn't mean that there weren't
any challenges trying to set this up
which the authors do talk about on page
with different standards or different
curricula how do you bridge that gap
between like the in school and at home
experiences that students have what
about like the the schedule constraints
or lack of devices or high-speed
internet or administrators who might not
value this approach all of these are
very relevant things to consider but I'm
my experience it's well worth trying to
figure out and promise all those
different challenges here's a quote from
page 45 quote project-based learning
empowers Educators to design their own
curriculum and even co-generate projects
with students in place of implementing
pre-existing or corporate produced
curriculum Educators might also consider
the types of pedagogy that are most
resonant with project-based learning by
embracing student-centeredness and
facilitating learning collaborative
interaction and inquiry to help Learners
develop disciplinary expertise this may
feel different from instructional
strategies that are more
teacher-centered and emphasize direct
instruction task completion and content
acquisition end quote now this is
something that we talk about in episode
identities through rhizomatic learning
if you are going to take this rhizomatic
learning approach it allows you to
design hyper local and individually
relevant projects with and for students
as opposed to taking this curriculum out
of the box and saying here are students
in my class I'm sure this is relevant to
you and the people in that rural
community several hundred miles away and
in the urban community on the other side
of the world etc etc as somebody who has
designed curricular resources used by
hundreds of thousands of students
literally around the world I know how
difficult of a task it is to scale at
that level which is why I constantly
encourage teachers hey if you're going
to use these projects you need to modify
them to make it more relevant to the
students you're working with while I
have created a project that I think is
interesting to students and that
students have said that it's interesting
to them it might not be relevant to each
individual or Community or group of
people within the classes that you work
with so if you're going to start with
some kind of like a boxed curriculum
that is Project based make sure you
modify it to make it more relevant and
individualized for the students that you
work with in the next section the
authors talk about assessment and
teacher evaluation if you're interested
in that you can check out that
particular section of the paper but I'll
link to multiple assessment episodes
that specifically talk about different
types of assessment that you can use
with project-based learning for example
episode 100 164 which is titled
assessment considerations colon a simple
heuristic now I want to end this little
discussion on project-based learning
with two quotes from page 46. quote when
making pedagogical decisions we might
consider the degree to which the
approaches we use one support the
flexibility required for independent
Computing thought and engagement two
promote students's inquiry curiosity and
investment in their own education three
help students develop understanding and
skills in Computing and four afford
evidence of students growth and learning
end quote page 46 and again I modified
that quote to make it more about
Computing computer science rather than
music and here are some questions that
some Educators might consider that kind
of close out this article quote where
might projects complement or modify
current teaching approaches in my
classes what aspects of my curriculum
might be addressed through project-based
learning what types of generative
questions might my students be
interested in and lead in engaging
Computing projects who might I
collaborate with to help with designing
and facilitating projects end quote and
again I modify that to make it about
Computing rather than music but speaking
of questions I'd like to end these
unpacking scholarship episodes by kind
of raise some of the lingering questions
and thoughts that I have while reading
through this so the first question that
I have is where along the project
Continuum do your projects tend to lie
so if you've engaged in project-based
learning are they more of like that
fixed or closed project are they more
flexible are they open are they thematic
do you tend to engage with one project
at a time multiple projects or do
students get to create their own
projects why is it that you have leaned
more towards one or the other if you've
been engaging with project-based
learning for a significant period of
time but you've only engaged in one
project at a time what might it look
like if you did two or three or five
options that students could pick from as
you go through more years and years of
creating different projects it's going
to be easier than having to very first
day come up with like three projects
designing them all at the same time you
could just pull from the prior years and
go here are three projects from prior
years pick one of those three that look
interesting to you that makes it
certainly easier for you to be able to
gradually increase the number of
projects that students can pick from
while also understanding that might not
be ideal for the current students you're
working with well maybe five years from
now it's going to look great you're
going to have full interest driven
rhizomatic learning experiences Etc
you'll need to understand that it's
going to take some time for you as a
facilitator to get to that point where
you are comfortable doing that and for
students to even be ready for that
having designed professional development
experiences and whatnot that taught this
you can do that over the course of a
year or two so this doesn't necessarily
need to be a five-year process like I
mentioned it could just literally be
over the course of a year for the very
first semester let's start everybody
working on the same thing for the next
semester you have two options for the
third semester you have four options for
the fourth semester maybe you have a
rhizomatic approach where people are
able to kind of pick whatever is
interesting to them and it's very
realistic Educators to get comfortable
with that process over the course of a
one or two year process the next
question that I have is how do projects
afford certain types of Engagement While
constraining others again thinking back
to the question that Katie Henry posed
is like when our variables a problem in
your life that affords more types of
Engagement than simply asking like how
can you create a game that that allows
you to keep score or has physics or
whatever still engages with variables
but it's in a much more narrow or
constrained approach than a more open
one where it's like how are variables a
problem in your life every single
project you engage with is going to have
some kind of an affordance and some kind
of a constraint that's just something we
have to understand and live with just
like the idea that there's always going
to be a null curriculum you can't teach
everything in any kind of narrow topic
and just like you can't experience
everything when you are engaging in some
kind of a project while some projects
might afford or enable or encourage more
options for students to engage with than
others they're still going to be
constrained in some way so it's
important to think through that and
whether or not you're okay with that or
if you could make some slight
modifications to make it so that instead
of it being constraint in one area it's
actually in an affordance with a simple
modification the next question that I
have is how my project-based learning
differ in constructivist versus
constructionist pedagogies so for
computer science Educators like
constructionists like Mitch Resnick
Seymour papert kaphai peppler Etc like
these are all people who are well known
for constructionist approach churches
I've unpacked many of their papers as
well as interviewed Mitch Resnick in
episode 106 which is titled lifelong
kindergarten with Mitch Resnick so if
you haven't listened to that I highly
recommend it but constructionist
approaches typically focus on learning
through creating something whether it's
like an app or a device or whatever
while constructivist is more social
you're learning through communication
collaboration
Etc not necessarily having to build
something so Project based learning is
used in both different types of
pedagogical approaches and how might
that work in computer science classes
like again going back to the ethics
discussions maybe you're going to lean
more towards constructivist approaches
when talking about algorithmic bias Etc
because you're not able to have students
construct their own large language model
or their own facial recognition
technology or whatever or maybe you do
have some options to actually construct
that or maybe it's somewhere in the
middle maybe it's not actually building
something from scratch but is instead
just kind of like remixing it or
something like that so considering how
my students demonstrate their
understanding explore their own
interests or Express themselves outside
of just active creation while I prefer
students to engage in Hands-On learning
Hands-On learning is not just limited to
the actual physical creation of
something or some kind of an app or
whatever it's just a gentle challenge to
say constructionism is great but also
constructivism is great in other ways
and the last question that I have that's
kind of been lingering on my mind is how
comfortable are you with facilitating
multiple projects simultaneously if
you're unsure of your comfort level with
that again start small eventually over
the course of that semester Branch out
to students picking from two projects
the next semester maybe trying with
three projects in the next year go with
more this could be in the same language
or it could be hey pick from one of
these two projects in two separate
languages Etc my classes had multiple
programming languages it had JavaScript
with Khan Academy it had Ruby with Sonic
Pi it had scratch which was block based
and then it had Swift with xcode so they
could create apps or engage in Swift
playgrounds there was a range of
different platforms and languages that
students could use to create different
things I didn't start there especially
because I don't have a background in
computer science and computer science
education I started with one language in
one platform and then gradually added
more and more each semester that went on
if you want support in figuring out how
to facilitate multiple projects
simultaneously multiple languages Etc
check out the rhizomatic learning
episodes that are linked in the show
notes and then also check out the
Affinity space podcast that I talk about
kind of talks about the characteristics
that I use that's like helped me to be
able to facilitate these kinds of
classes so this is from episode number
affinity space characteristics in
computer science education it's based
off of a chapter I wrote for music
educators but I talk about how it
relates to Computer Science Education
this is a 194th episode of the cska
podcast there's a ton of content in
these podcast episodes whether it's
these episodes where unpack scholarship
or some of the newer professional
development episodes that I've done or
one of the like 75 plus interviews that
I've done with some awesome people in
the field if you enjoyed this content
that I create the only thing that I ask
is that you share it with other people
it could be hey person I know you and I
think you'd like this particular episode
or it could be hey and everybody on my
social media feed here's something that
I think is interesting that I want to
share with you my goal is to create high
quality free computer science drumming
and gaming resources for people which is
why I have it all neatly organized my
website so if any of that resonates with
you just consider sharing with somebody
else as that would mean a lot to me so
thank you stay tuned next week for
another episode until then I hope you're
all staying safe and are having a
wonderful week
Article
Tobias, E. S., Campbell, M. R., & Greco, P. (2015). Bringing Curriculum to Life: Enacting Project-Based Learning in Music Programs. Music Educators Journal, 102(2), 39–47.
Abstract
“At its core, project-based learning is based on the idea that real-life problems capture student interest, provoke critical thinking, and develop skills as they engage in and complete complex undertakings that typically result in a realistic product, event, or presentation to an audience. This article offers a starting point for music teachers who might be interested in using project-based learning as a teaching strategy and also interested in “building” student competency and “bringing to life” student engagement in the music curriculum. To help music educators enact project-based learning in their classes and ensembles, we outline a process for designing and facilitating projects, provide vignettes that situate theory in practice, and discuss projects in relation to curriculum, standards, assessment, and teacher evaluation.”
Author Keywords
Assessment, curriculum, pedagogy, project-based learning, standards
My One Sentence Summary
This article explores how educators could incorporate project-based learning in their classroom.
Some Of My Lingering Questions/Thoughts
Where along the project continuum do your projects tend to lie?
How do projects afford certain types of engagement while constraining others?
How might project-based learning differ in constructivist versus constructionist pedagogies?
How comfortable are you with facilitating multiple projects simultaneously?
Resources/Links Relevant to This Episode
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