THE PARTNERSHIP OF PROJECT - BASE LEARNING, WEBQUEST & RUBRICS IN THE ENHANCEMENT OF HOLISTIC TEACHING AND LEARNING

                   
                                         

THE PARTNERSHIP OF PROJECT BASE LEARNING ANG RUBRICS IN THE ENHANCEMENT OF TEACHING AND LEARNING

The 5^th week of this course has  explored  the use of technology in education as a tool to enhance teaching & learning.  With the introduction of Project Based Learning(PBL) , WebQuest and Rubrics, participants will learn & demonstrate independent learning.
 Topics in this course so far have are included numerous  aspects of technology in education, record management, introduction to technology uses across the curriculum & classroom, and  the maintenance of effective learning environments using technology in education.
The usage of the rubric  has  fulfilled the assessment questions of how, why, where, when etc. therefore there is an urgent need and Importance of Information Technology in Education

The need of IT in a developing country like the Gambia includes the following objectives:

• Education is a life long process therefore anytime anywhere access to it is the need
• Information explosion is an ever increasing phenomena therefore there is need to get access to this information
• Education should meet the needs of variety of learners and therefore IT is important in meeting this need
• It is a requirement of the society that the individuals should possess technological literacy
• We need to increase access and bring down the cost of education to meet the challenges of illiteracy and poverty-IT is the answer .

The importance of It has been demonstrated as a useful phenomenon in the lives of every learner and these are the benefits from PBL and Webquest:

• access to variety of learning resources
• immediacy to information
• anytime learning
• anywhere learning
• collaborative learning
• multimedia approach to education
• authentic and up to date information
• access to online libraries
• teaching of different subjects made interesting
• educational data storage
• distance education
• access to the source of information
• multiple communication channels-e-mail, chat, forum, blogs, delicious etc.
• better accesses to children with disabilities
• reduces time on many routine tasks

The pace of change brought about by new technologies has had a significant effect on the way people live, work, and play worldwide. New and emerging technologies challenge the traditional process of teaching and learning, and the way education is managed.

 Information technology, while an important area of study in its own right, is having a major impact across all curriculum areas.

Easy worldwide communication provides instant access to a vast array of data, challenging assimilation and assessment skills. Rapid communication, plus increased access to IT in the home, at work, and in educational establishments, could mean that learning becomes a truly lifelong activity—an activity in which the pace of technological change forces constant evaluation of the learning process itself.

Friends, as educators and learners, lets live for the sake of Project base Learning. It has come to assist us reserve our energy.

With PBL ,Rubric and WebQuest, every learner is a tutor and every tutor a learner!!!