In PBL my role as a teacher will change to that of a facilitator. I will still introduce material to students, but rather than simply spoon feed them all of the information, much of the learning experience will come down to students interacting with the material and their peers - a constructivist approach. This is in order to create products that will reflect the use of higher level thinking skills.
To facilitate effectively the teacher needs to make every step of the PBL clear and concise since the students will be doing the bulk of the project on their own. The teacher must also motivate the student from the very beginning to promote personal interest and ownership in the project. Teachers must also take into account differentiated learning so that students don't disengage from a project.
The students should be given the resources necessary for them to be successful. If the project involves a digital story, then students should be given the steps involved in creating a digital story. Tutorials are a good way to ensure students can acquire skills necessary for project completion.
To become an effective facilitator would be to step back from the front of the classroom a little bit. I have been the "sage on the stage" for much of my teaching career but recently, since I began my EdTech journey, I have started to motivate my students to learn on their own and draw their own conclusions about topics in history. I have found that this has made them better able to support their arguments over the course of the year. This is what I want my students to be able to do for the rest of their lives - think for themselves.
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