Week 5. Creating rubrics and PBL

The most challenging task this week for me was creating the rubric. Not because it was indeed a difficult task to accomplish but because I took to it as if it was such.

Actually it was a simple task. Using rubistar - a tool for creating rubrics designed for teachers, was as simple as that. There are ready made templates and you can add if you want but there is a lot of work done for you which you can simply use.

I've started out by doing it the old way: writing categories and  evaluation criteria which took a lot of time. Then by accident I put in a category suggested in the scroll down list and observed that the criteria came with it. And that was simple! There... after 3 days of typing I created a rubric in only 5 min. Technology and sharing is indeed a marvelous mixture. 

Project Based Learning is not a new thing to me in its old-fashioned form.

We started using project based learning at our school as a new method only 6 years ago. It has proved to be very efficient although we used little or no technology. 

What was new for me to discover this week was how we, the teacher can create projects for students to accomplish online, or how the students can use the technology to make a project. 

I have once again understood that since projects are those bridges that connect the knowledge we teach with the outside world and technology is the tool that is most widely used nowadays then it should be that "car" that brings the knowledge faster across the bridge. And we, the teachers can't but use it to facilitate the learning process and make it not only useful but fun.