EdTech 542 - Week 3 and 4 - PBL and Project Idea

The landscape of education is changing. With so many school boards involved in school reform (re-design), teachers have been looking for ways to bring their classroom into the 21st century. Outcomes and competencies have become equally important to student learning. Collaboration, innovation, creativity, authentic projects, technology skills, trans-discipline teaching, inquiry and flexibility are some of the incredible changes happening today.

Although inquiry-based learning techniques such as Problem and Project-Based learning are not new, they are now, more than ever, in the forefront of teaching pedagogy. This type of learning fits perfectly with 21st century education and the skills associated with our students. I have been a part of Career and Technology Studies (CTS) for some time. Our department has worked hard to offer students inquiry-based learning although there is much to learn. Many or our teachers have used PBL but to a limited extent. This course and the BIE website will surely offer better, more organized projects. One advantage of PBL is the students enjoyment of this type of education. It seems as though the students feel as though they are a part of something larger than just learning in school. From the teacher’s standpoint, it brings about a teacher-student relationship that can be compared to athletes and their coaches.

The idea I have for my PBL project is to have the students in my Business Opportunities class create a business from startup to liquidation. In group of three or four, the students would have to come up with a business idea, make a business plan and then pitch the business idea to their classmates. The students would then vote on the best idea and then start the business. Once the idea is voted on, the students would chose the President of the company and the Vice Presidents of each area (Human Resources, IT, Marketing, Production, etc.). The students then would choose which area they feel they would benefit the business the most. The entire group would then come up with a mission and goals, sell shares to get the business finances going, get a bank account so as to write cheques when needed, develop and run the business and finally, at the end of the semester, liquidate the business and pay off the shareholders. Classtime would be the student’s work week. Every Friday a shareholders meeting would take place - led by the executive. As well, teaching would occur with mini lessons throughout the semester in a whole group or individual business area setting. Student reflections would be written weekly about the learning that occurred. The final presentation of the project would be a final shareholders report accompanied by a cheque to each shareholder.