When project-based learning is infused with technology, it may look and feel like a 21st-century idea, but it's built on a venerable foundation.
When the project approach takes hold in the classroom, students gain opportunities to engage in real-world problem solving too. Instead of learning about nutrition in the abstract, students act as consultants to develop a healthier school cafeteria menu. Rather than learning about the past from a textbook, students become historians as they make a documentary about an event that changed their community.
Especially when it's infused with technology, project-based learning may look and feel like a 21st-century idea.
Against this theoretical background, problem-based learning emerged more than half a century ago as a practical teaching strategy in medicine, engineering, economics, and other disciplines. With this approach, students are challenged to solve problems or do simulations that mimic real life. Although problems are defined in advance by the instructor, they tend to be complex, even messy, and cannot be solved by one "right" or easy-to-find answer.
In K-12 education, project-based learning has evolved as a method of instruction that addresses core content through rigorous, relevant, hands-on learning. Projects tend to be more open-ended than problem-based learning, giving students more choice when it comes to demonstrating what they know.
Students use technology tools much as professionals do -- to communicate, collaborate, conduct research, analyze, create, and publish their own work for authentic audiences. Instead of writing book reports, for instance, students in a literature project might produce audio reviews of books, post them on a blog, and invite responses from a partner class in another city or country.
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