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Teachers instinctively know that projects are worthwhile, even if they do not understand every facet of a good project or have experience supporting project-based learning. For too many students, the term “project” means any activity that is not worksheet-based or takes longer than a 42-minute class period. I have seen too many instances of unimaginative assignments turned into projects just by giving students weeks for completion. That five paragraph essay about caribou is transformed into a project when students are given two months to obsess over it. The inevitable procrastination leads to increased stress and an imperceptible improvement in quality.
The protean nature of computers as constructive material with which you may explore powerful ideas and express yourself in a myriad of ways makes a wider range and depth of projects possible like never before. The Constructivist Consortium is committed to using computers in creative ways in which interdisciplinary projects demonstrate student competence and connect knowledge domains. Open-ended software supports learning diversity and allows multiple entry points into a sea of ideas. Seymour Papert once said, “If you can make things with computers, then you can make a lot more interesting things.” Making things is better than being passive, but making good things is better still! The Constructivist Consortium believes in Papert’s theory of constructionism; the idea that the best way to construct knowledge, or understanding, is through the construction of something shareable, outside of a student’s head. Those artifacts are commonly thought of as projects, even though the project development process is where the learning occurs. Such artifacts are evidence of learning. |
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Elements
of a Good Project
• Purpose and Relevance
• Time • Complexity • Intensity • Connected • Access • Shareable • Novelty |
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Elements of a Good Project
Purpose and Relevance. Is the project personally meaningful? Does the project prompt intrigue in the learner enough to have him or her invest time, effort, and creativity in the development of the project? |