Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a comprehensive student-centered pedagogical approach to learning involving a dynamic classroom methodology.

PBL activates student engagement – and engaged students acquire more in-depth knowledge because they are actively exploring real-world challenges and investigating authentic problems.

A hallmark of a PBL lesson is making student work public and what better way to meet that goal than through the utilization of technology.

After the presentation of the driving question, students often have to organize their thoughts. This can be done successfully through prewriting. During prewriting, the use of graphic organizers in a software version can help students color code their prewriting while organizing their thoughts around the driving question.

The further use of a color-coded graphic organizer may be helpful to visually keep track of ideas — ideas to keep, ideas to discard, and ideas to investigate further while they examine a variety of primary and secondary sources to aid in the development of their opinions. Sites such as Mind42, MindMap, and WiseMapping are excellent tools to help the student keep track of brainstorming ideas and theories in a graphic organizer format.

As the students continue to work through the PBL process they will undoubtedly be required to produce a written document. During the drafting and revision stages of the writing process, Microsoft Word and Google Read & Write offer familiar and user-friendly options for most students. These products offer students an effortless method to change the text by deleting, adding, and moving paragraphs to improve quality.  Word processing software further offers students a simpler option to incorporate feedback, add transitional information, and correct mechanics.  Lastly, electronic dictionaries and thesaurus should not be discounted as they offer additional options for students to edit the revisions for spelling corrections and enhancement of vocabulary choices.

If using Google Read & Write, this software offers the students an additional feature – text-to-speech. This program has an automatic speaking and grammar check embedded in the program which provides immediate feedback to the student, thereby, improving writing during this stage of development.

The ubiquitous nature of technology allows students to make their work public by sharing work along numerous multi-media platforms.  First, collaborative tools such as Google Docs allow the students to share work at various stages of the project with both the teacher and peers, in order to gain feedback. This, in turn, allows the timely integration of feedback before the final publication. Second, an online writing portfolio can offer students, peers, and teachers access to works in progress in order to offer suggestions, feedback, ask questions, and talk about portfolio items; all enhancing the final student work product. Lastly, any number of media can provide for student presentation of the final PBL project. Software programs such as Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, Canva, and Keynote (for MAC) — just to name a few.

Teachers can benefit through the use of technology, not only to provide quick feedback but also to assist students if they begin to stray from the topic, challenge students to reach further in their work, as well as anchor learning targets. Utilizing technology in the classroom can be fun and provide avenues of creativity not found in traditional projects —for both students and teachers.