Technology-infused project-based learning (PBL) holds promise because it can be designed to engage students in real-world issues using modern tools to solve problems. As a lever for school improvement, however, PBL can seem unwieldy and is often inconsistently applied. In Florida, Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) undertook a tech-infused project-based learning initiative, the Global Learning Initiative through Digital Education for Students (GLIDES), in 77 schools across all grades over several years.
Key to our success was our systemic approach to PBL implementation. GLIDES incorporated continuous professional learning opportunities through face-to-face workshops, coaching, mentoring, and modeling in the classroom. Here's how we brought everyone to the table in meaningful ways.
Admins Get Hands-On
BCPS developed a two-day workshop for school administrators and teacher leaders to experience the tech-infused PBL process from teacher and student perspectives. On day one of this training, school administrators participated as students. They engaged in project-based learning activities by exploring the essential question, developing hypotheses, conducting research, creating a presentation, and presenting to the class. On day two, administrators had to develop their own lesson plans that incorporated PBL activities into the curriculum.
Administrators also learned about the roles and responsibilities of other staff supporting PBL, including school media specialists and the technology support personnel who maintain classroom technology. School principals who attended PBL training reported that it helped them understand the technology and curriculum requirements and the support their teachers needed to integrate tech-infused PBL.
A Road Map for Lesson and Unit Planning
Teachers also attended a two-day workshop in which they explored the role of technology, curriculum planning, and lesson-plan development in the implementation model. The district’s robust, adaptable, and tech-infused PBL implementation model guides teachers through a project lasting six to eight weeks, with five steps: Plan, Gather, Build, Publish, and Present. The district also provides a detailed chart to plan what teachers and students have to accomplish each week of the project, with rubrics and other accompanying documents. This model was designed for subject-specific or interdisciplinary activities and provides a road map with milestones, helpful instructional strategies, and technology integration ideas (Department of Instructional Technology, 2008).
In tech-infused PBL, technology is embedded in all curricula. Teachers and students use technology for research, planning, digital content production, and presenting the final product to a live audience and online. The biggest challenge for BCPS teachers was to figure out how to incorporate tech-infused project-based learning activities and still meet the requirements of preparing students for state-mandated testing. The workshop provided strategies and lesson-planning activities that focused on seamless integration of technology into daily instructional practices.
Teachers new to the PBL process often need help with curriculum and technology integration ideas. Through an online portal, BCPS published peer-reviewed PBL lessons that provided tech-infused lesson ideas. These interdisciplinary lessons provided not only curriculum and technology resources aligned to standards, but also step-by-step lesson instructions and classroom assessment strategies (Broward County Public Schools, 2008).
Don't Leave Out Support Staff
District trainers followed up workshops with a series of classroom visits to support and coach teachers implementing this new PBL model. Because media specialists support teachers' curriculum needs and help teachers to promote media literacy skills and digital citizenship, they attended PBL training with teachers. Media specialists acquired skills and strategies to help students and teachers with research for their projects, writing scripts for the podcasts and other multimedia presentations, publishing students' projects, and managing technology resources.
"Micro-techs," or support staff who maintain technology infrastructure in schools and devices for the implementation (e.g., laptop carts, digital cameras, document cameras, interactive whiteboards, software) attended their own PBL professional development. Their training focused on imaging laptops to ensure that all devices have uniform setup, managing applications and how to support teachers and students who use them, implementing strategies to help teachers and students with shared network storage to save their work, and scheduling of technology hardware resources to ensure that all teachers and students have adequate access to equipment.
Systemwide Success
In the end, all these strings wove together to help students demonstrate the evidence of their learning: their project presentations in front of live audiences and archived on school and district websites. "Junior journalists" in grades 2–4 investigated the Florida environment and Everglades ecosystem. Middle school students shared information on renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and new energy-efficient technologies using multiple print and digital formats. Five subject-area teachers in a high school collaborated on a unit about the influence of the Renaissance on today's society.
BCPS students participating in GLIDES demonstrated an increase in their rate of improvement in mathematics and reading on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) during the year of their GLIDES experience, compared to a random sample of BCPS students. Although the effect size was small, results were statistically significant. Because GLIDES projects typically last six to eight weeks, evidence of student growth is notable considering the relatively short time of exposure to PBL activities in the classroom (Younkin, 2009).
Broward County's experience demonstrates that when implemented intentionally, technology-infused PBL has a transformational effect on the learning environment, teaching practices, and student engagement (Lapping, 2013). Through a systemic approach to professional development that clearly defines roles and responsibilities for teachers, administrators, media specialists, and tech support personnel, Broward County was able to harness the promise of integrating PBL and technology to raise student achievement.