Greetings MiraCostans:
At our TED talk style flex extravaganza ScholarScapes: MiraCosta Profs Share Big Ideas, Sociology Professor Sean Davis offered an introduction to Problem Based Learning in a talk he titled Learning By Doing.
Sean Davis: Learning by Doing
Beginning with a great story from his own childhood educational experience and contrasting that with the experiences of his daughter, Sean then walks us through the basics of project based learning by describing a project he piloted with the students in his Gender Studies class.
Project Based Learning In Action
All that is very cool. And I think you will find Sean’s presentation informative and inspirational. But what is even cooler (Oh come on! Could anything be cooler than Sean’s presentation?) is that you can see Sean’s work with project based learning live, this Friday, November 17 during our LGBT-ED Talks! event on campus. Drop by to see / hear / experience some wonderful talks and activities and watch project based learning in action.
Explore More!
To learn more about project based learning (and earn flex credit for doing so), you can do any one of the following (or all of the following, or some mixture of the following, or some new, heretofore unimagined riff on the following):
- watch a TED talk version of Sean’s talk here (it features only his presentation) or watch the full length version (which includes the Q and A) here.
- visit our PDP Canvas site, click on our Project Joy page, and check out the project based learning discussion we have set up. Once there, you can watch Sean’s presentation, check out a few very helpful web sites that further explain PBL pedagogy, and actually join an asynchronous discussion with Sean and other interested colleagues.
- check out our Joyful Teaching blog post about Sean’s talk and contribute to the comments section at the end of the post
- and/or drop by the LGBT-ED Talks! event on Friday November 17, from 4-7 PM and watch project based learning in action for yourself.
Your Turn to Share
Please Tell Us About Your PBL Experience
If you have a project based learning experience (as a faculty member or a student), please share it with all of us by commenting on this post below or joining our project based learning discussion in our PDP Canvas site and sharing your thoughts about your experience there.
Create a Flex Week Activity for Your Colleagues
I hope that seeing Sean’s work will spark some of your own creativity and encourage you to share your teaching and learning techniques and approaches (or simply jump start a conversation about teaching and learning) with your colleagues by creating / initiating / facilitating a flex activity.
If that idea intrigues you, check out the Call for Flex Proposals and start sharing.
Many thanks to our colleague, Sean Davis, for being so generous with his time, pedagogical insights, and creativity!
I have to go now and design some kind of cool project for next semester’s humanities class. It will be new for me, but I know a colleague I can go to if I have any questions…
Prepostero
PDP Coordinator
PS. I am almost as excited about having worked “heretofore” into a Joyful Tidings message as I am about project based learning.
PPS. Yes, that PS. was really just a shameless attempt to work in one last cool project based learning web link.
PPPS. Aaaaaahhhhh! I did it again. Ok. That is it. I mean it this time. No more links in this email / blog post, not even this interesting first look at project based learning in online settings.
PPPPS. “But isn’t our nationally recognized service learning program a great example of project based learning?” you ask. Yes, yes, of course. You can find lots of pedagogically inspiring conversations about the link between service learning and project based learning, but when will this email / blog post end? If we do not stop talking about this, we will end up completing our entire flex “obligation” right here!