Project-Based Project

Why Is Project-Based Learning Important?

The many merits of using project-based learning in the classroom.

PBL Helps Students Develop Skills for Living in a Knowledge-Based, Highly Technological Society

The old-school model of passively learning facts and reciting them out of context is no longer sufficient to prepare students to survive in today's world. Solving highly complex problems requires that students have both fundamental skills (reading, writing, and math) and 21st century skills (teamwork, problem solving, research gathering, time management, information synthesizing, utilizing high tech tools). With this combination of skills, students become directors and managers of their learning process, guided and mentored by a skilled teacher.
These 21st century skills include

• personal and social responsibility
• planning, critical thinking, reasoning, and creativity
• strong communication skills, both for interpersonal and presentation needs
• cross-cultural understanding
• visualizing and decision making
• knowing how and when to use technology and choosing the most appropriate tool for the task

PBL and Technology Use Bring a New Relevance to the Learning at Hand

By bringing real-life context and technology to the curriculum through a PBL approach, students are encouraged to become independent workers, critical thinkers, and lifelong learners. Teachers can communicate with administrators, exchange ideas with other teachers and subject-area experts, and communicate with parents, all the while breaking down invisible barriers such as isolation of the classroom, fear of embarking on an unfamiliar process, and lack of assurances of success.
PBL is not just a way of learning; it's a way of working together. If students learn to take responsibility for their own learning, they will form the basis for the way they will work with others in their adult lives.

PBL Lends Itself to Authentic Assessment

Authentic assessment and evaluation allow us to systematically document a child's progress and development. PBL encourages this by doing the following:

• It lets the teacher have multiple assessment opportunities.
• It allows a child to demonstrate his or her capabilities while working independently.
• It shows the child's ability to apply desired skills such as doing research.
• It develops the child's ability to work with his or her peers, building teamwork and group skills.
• It allows the teacher to learn more about the child as a person.
• It helps the teacher communicate in progressive and meaningful ways with the child or a group of children on a range of issues.

PBL Promotes Lifelong Learning

Lee Shulman, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, has observed, "Teaching has been an activity undertaken behind closed doors between moderately consenting participants." PBL promotes lifelong learning because

• PBL and the use of technology enable students, teachers, and administrators to reach out beyond the school building.
• Students become engaged builders of a new knowledge base and become active, lifelong learners.
• PBL teaches children to take control of their learning, the first step as lifelong learners.

In that pursuit of new knowledge, technology allows students access to research and experts, from such sources as first-person accounts to movies of the Civil War found on the Library of Congress's American Memory collection to online chats with NASA astronauts.

PBL Accommodates Students with Varying Learning Styles and Differences

It is known that children have various learning styles. They build their knowledge on varying backgrounds and experiences. It is also recognized that children have a broader range of capabilities than they have been permitted to show in regular classrooms with the traditional text-based focus. When children are interested in what they are doing and are able to use their areas of strength, they achieve at a higher level.

Research Supports PBL

A growing body of research supports the use of PBL. Schools where PBL is practiced find a decline in absenteeism, an increase in cooperative learning skills, and improvement in student achievement. When technology is used to promote critical thinking and communication, these benefits are enhanced.




Resource-based Projects
        In these projects, the teacher steps out of the traditional role of being a content expert and information provider, and instead lets the students find their own facts and information. Only when necessary for the active learning process does the teacher step in to supply data or information. The general flow of events in resource-based projects are:

• The teacher determines the topic for the examination of the class.
• The teacher presents the problem to the class.
• The students find information on the problem/questions.
• Students organize their information in response to the problem/questions.

TRADITIONAL & RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING MODELS

Traditional learning model	Resource-based learning model
Teacher is expert and information provider	Teacher is a guide and facilitator
Textbook is key source of information	Sources are varied (print, video, Internet, etc.)
Focus on facts information is packaged in neat parcels	Focus on learning inquiry/quest/discovery
The product is the be-all and end-all of learning	Emphasis on process
Assessment is quantitative	Assessment is quantitative and qualitative

RESOURCE-BASED LEARNING: WHAT IS IT?

What is the connection with Resource-Based Learning? This educational approach is often referred to as the "manifestation" of information literacy, or one of the best ways to ensure the development of information literacy.

The following definition of resource-based learning (from the APEF Foundation document for Language Arts) was accepted and used by the Committee...

Resource-based learning actively involves students, teachers and teacher-librarians in the effective use of a wide range of print, non print and human resources. Resource-based learning fosters the development of individual students by accommodating their varied interests, experiences, learning styles, needs and ability levels. Students who use a wide range of resources in various mediums for learning have the opportunity to approach a theme, issue or topic of study in ways which allow for a range of learning styles and access to the theme or topic via cognitive or affective appeals. More

Resource-based learning is student-centered. 

Students are actively involved and more accountable for their own learning. Classroom teachers and their partners in education need to do much more than simply ensure access or provide the wide range of appropriate learning resources; they must ensure that the students' learning environment is properly structured, so that learning will occur. Skills for accessing, evaluating, using, and applying information are carefully targeted, ensuring that students meet the outcomes for information literacy identified in the approved curriculum and instructional programs. Learning is facilitated by teachers who understand their critical role, always promoting student involvement and interaction, and assessing learning in ways that ensure that more than simple content (or the "right answer") is learned. With this increased emphasis on the development of skills and strategies, (and on critical thinking, problem-solving, communication and creativity,) our students will be better prepared to become lifelong learners, capable of independent and informed decision-making.

Resource-Based Learning and Teacher-Librarians

Resource-based learning has been, and continues to be, a pervasive approach for teacher- librarians. This was evident in the P.E.I. Department of Education's School Library Policy (Circular 92-03):

... In today's rapidly changing society, students must have the opportunity to develop the ability to retrieve, assess, and apply information. As we equip students with these skills we will help ensure that learning does not end with the completion of formal education, but continues throughout life. These goals can best be achieved through resource-based teaching/learning, that is, a library program fully integrated with the school's instructional program with teacher-librarians and teachers using a cooperative program planning approach.

Resource-Based Learning in the Atlantic Core Curriculum

Resource-based learning is student-centered. Students are actively involved and more accountable for their own learning.

Since resource-based learning, and ultimately, the development of information literacy, has become such an important component in the Atlantic core curriculum for the public education system, the responsibility for implementing this approach is shared by all educators. Teacher-librarians who are experienced in resource-based learning will provide support and offer to collaborate with classroom and subject area teachers who may be less familiar with the approach. Many of the outcomes for student learning are aimed at the development of information literacy. These will be best achieved when a resource-based learning approach is planned and implemented in a collaborative manner throughout the curriculum at all grade levels, across the school and formal educational experience of all students. Information literacy outcomes are not effectively developed in isolation, integration with the school's curriculum is essential.

(N.B. View more about resource-based learning at this excellent Queens University website.)

Information Literacy is clearly articulated in these Essential Graduation Learnings for Atlantic Canada:

• Problem-solving
• Communication
• Technological Competence

The P.E.I. Department of Education has also promoted another similar definition of Resource-Based Learning, from the province of Saskatchewan since the publication of the teachers' resource, Where Did You Find That? ( by Alixe Hambleton, 1992, Saskatchewan School Library Association and The Saskatchewan Professional Development Unit.) This resource is available in all P.E.I. public school libraries:

Resource-Based Learning is a planned educational program that actively involves students in the effective use of a wide range of appropriate print, nonprint, and human resources.

Many of the outcomes for student learning are aimed at the development of information literacy. These will be best achieved when a resource-based learning approach is planned and implemented in a collaborative manner throughout the curriculum at all grade levels, across the school and formal educational experience of all students.

Regardless of the grade level or the subjects being taught, teachers know that the language arts are important, that students use these three strands for language acquisition and communicating information and ideas across the curriculum (and throughout life):

• Speaking and Listening (S&L)
• Reading and Viewing (R&V)
• Writing and Other Ways of Representing (W&R)

The Language Arts Curriculum for Atlantic Canada uses these three strands as a framework for the ten General Outcomes for student learning, using the language arts processes.

In order to achieve the outcomes for learning identified in our regional curricula, it is clear that students need to have opportunities for exposure to and practice with ideas and concepts (knowledge,) skills and attitudes, in many contexts and for diverse learning needs, not just in language arts or English subject classes.

These five General Curriculum Outcomes (GCO's) in particular, illustrate this new focus on the development of information literacy, and we need to remember that they are equally important in science, mathematics, social studies, as well as other subjects/curriculum areas:

GCO B

communicate information and ideas effectively and clearly, and to respond personally and effectively (S/L)

GCO D

select, read. and view with understanding a range of literature, information, media, visual, and audio texts (R/V)

GCO E

interpret, select, and combine information using a variety of strategies, resources, and technologies (R/V)

GCO G

respond critically to a range of texts, applying their understanding of language, form, and genre (R/V)

GCO I

create texts collaboratively and independently, using a variety of forms for a range of audiences and purposes (W/R)

Building Information Literacy contains student learning outcomes for information literacy that emanate from all ten of the general learning outcomes in the Atlantic Provinces Education Foundation (APEF) Language Arts Curriculum.

It should be noted that Building Information Literacy contains student learning outcomes for information literacy that emanate from all ten of the general learning outcomes in the Atlantic Language Arts Curriculum (APEF). As the Committee "de-constructed" these documents and re-ordered and re-constructed the many specific learning outcomes from all three language arts strand into the stages or phases of the Information Process, it became clear that the development of information literacy requires student-centered, inquiry-based learning activities that ensure these outcomes will be achieved. This was a challenging, constructivist learning process for everyone involved!

What Does Resource-Based Learning Look Like?

There are endless ways to implement a resource-based learning approach in the classroom or in the school library or in other educational contexts. When classroom teachers and teacher-librarians collaborate to plan, implement, and assess resource-based learning activities, they may decide to use one of many possible methods, including the following:

Resource-based Learning Centres or Stations:

Pre-selected learning resources are assembled in one or more location, with clear directions for students to follow (re. skills, strategies, content, concepts.)

Students access the centre(s) at times predetermined by teachers, individually or in small groups, and their learning is usually assessed through the use of teacher observations, answer keys, and/or product and process evaluation and reflective strategies. When teachers include a more "open-ended" approach, and higher order thinking skills are involved in the use, application and synthesis of information, students' learning may be very creative, individualized and satisfying. Cooperative learning is a key feature in this approach. When properly structured, it is rarely chaotic and very popular with students. They may complete an entire activity at a single learning centre or a number of centres or stations may be involved in the activity.

Learning stations are an excellent way to orient students to the school library early in the school year or they may also be a good way to "launch" a topic or theme.

This is a good approach when limited resources are available; it is possible to make optimal use of a few excellent resources when students work in pairs or in small groups. They may complete many stations over a period of several periods or days, or they may spend more time on just one or two stations or centres, depending on the objectives of the teachers involved. Some people plan for one station for each pair of students (i.e. 19 or 20 stations for 37 students,) including one or two extras so that there is always a "free" station available when a team of students is ready.

Learning stations are an excellent way to orient students to the school library early in the school year or they may also be a good way to "launch" a topic or theme. Students will have opportunities to access and interact with multiple resources in a variety of formats and they should be encouraged to examine resource, including their organization and some of the content.

This will be a definite advantage if a "project" or some other type of in-depth information processing activity is to follow. What better way to pick a topic for research or to gain some "prior knowledge" of a subject, or to develop a thesis question or begin a search for information sources?

Projects, Papers, and Other Information Processing/Authentic Research Assignments:

Students have much to gain when they experience a consistent approach, beginning in the primary grades and continuing throughout their school years.

Doing "research" may not be new, but its importance in today's classrooms is unquestioned. There is a renewed emphasis on inquiry or problem-based learning activities. A lot has been learned about properly structuring this type of resource-based learning for success, and students and their teachers will only make optimal use of this approach when time is taken to plan and implement truly "authentic" and meaningful projects. We may turn to the work of Kulthau, Eisenberg, Pitts, and others, proving that a research (or information) process or framework is essential. Students have much to gain when they experience a consistent approach, beginning in the primary grades and continuing throughout their school years.

World Wide Web-Based Projects:

More teacher-librarians are discovering that the Internet can be a useful tool for resource-based learning. Online software and special sites like Filamentality, are being used by these educators to create online projects for their students.

The WebQuest is becoming a favoured approach, moving resource-based learning into the electronic learning environment. WebQuests needn't exclude information in other formats, in fact the best WebQuests are those that "scaffold" or structure students' learning to ensure they access, evaluate, and use appropriate information, regardless of the format or source! The following overview of this approach was developed by former P.E.I. Education's Information Technology Facilitator, Michelle (McQuaid) Dodds: More

Whether you are using an email connection with other learners or implementing a fully developed WebQuest with your students, it is important to remember that "doing an Internet project" should never be the sole purpose for students, the Internet should be an interactive and exciting tool they use for individual or collaborative inquiry and problem-solving, and for creating knowledgeable and creative products; sharing their own learning with others.

"Doing an Internet project" should never be the sole purpose ... the Internet should be an interactive and exciting tool they use for individual or collaborative inquiry and problem-solving.

Three elementary schools in Prince Edward Island have been involved in another Web-based project during the 1997-98 and 1998-99 school years. The Islands Project has focused grade five students' information literacy skills on learning what it means to "be an islander." As a part of their social studies program they began with studying their own local "island communities," using a vast array of primary and secondary resources in all formats (print, non-print, electronic, community people and organizations.) These resource-based learning activities were integrated with their school library programs and different approaches were taken by the schools and their teacher-librarians. Two schools used learning stations as a way of organizing the information processing component. Students became "experts" about one of the topics in their class studies and shared their learning with others in their classrooms and in their school communities. The third school utilized a "scrapbook" approach with their in-depth study of local communities organized in the pages of the individually created collections.

All three schools were supported in publishing their students' work to the World Wide Web; two schools (Parkside and L.M. Montgomery) used Zebu Web-based software, the third school, Vernon River, completed their 1999 project using HTML programming to publish their project. Students at Vernon River in the first year of the project (1998) created and published Islands Project using Zebu.

Throughout this project there was an emphasis on interaction in the learning environment; students were expected to communicate with others in their own cooperative working groups as well as those in the other two partnering schools. They also communicated using E-mail (or discussion boxes within Zebu) with students in other North Atlantic "island places" such as Newfoundland, the Isle of Skye, and Iceland.

Simple CreationsStudents can also be assigned to create their software materials to supplement the need for relevant and effective materials. of course, there are available software materials such as Creative Writer (by Microsoft) on writing, Kid Work Deluxe (by Davidson) on drawing and painting, and Media Weave (by Humanities software) on multimedia.

In developing software, creativity as an outcome should not be equated with ingenuity or high intelligence. Creating is more consonant with planning, making assembling, designing, or building.

Creativity is said to combine three kind of skills/abilities:

• Analyzing - distinguishing similarities and differences/seeing the project as a problem to be solved
• Synthesizing - making spontaneous connections among ideas, thus generating interesting or new ideas
• Promoting - selling of new ideas to allow the public to test the ideas themselves

To develop creativity, the following five key task may be recommended:

1. Define the task - clarify the goal of the completed project to the student
2. Brainstorm - the students themselves will be allowed to generate their own ideas on the project. Rather than shoot down ideas, the teacher encourages idea exchange.
3. Judge the ideas  - the students themselves make an appraisal for or against any idea. Only when students are completely off track should the teacher intervene
4. Act - the students do their work with the teacher a facilitator
5. Adopt flexibility - the students should be allowed to shift gears and not follow an action path rigidly.

Guided Hypermedia Projects

The production of self-made multimedia projects can be approached in two different ways:

1. As an instructive tool, such as in the production by students of a power-point presentation of a selected topic.
2. As a communication tool, such as when students do a multimedia presentation
   (with text, graphs, photos, audio narration, interviews, video clips, etc. to simulate a television news show).

Hypermedia is a computer-based information retrieval system that enables a user to gain or provide access to texts, audio and video recordings, photographs and computer graphics related to a particular subject. Hypermedia is a term created by Ted Nelson. Hypermedia is used as a logical extension of the term hypertext in which graphics, audio, video, plain text and hyperlinks intertwine to create a generally non-linear medium of information. This contrasts with the broader term multimedia, which may be used to describe non-interactive linear presentations as well as hypermedia. It is also related to the field of Electronic literature. The term was first used in a 1965 article by Ted Nelson.
The World Wide Web is a classic example of hypermedia, whereas a non-interactive cinema presentation is an example of standard multimedia due to the absence of hyperlinks.

Hypermedia as it Applies to Educational Settings

• How Can Hypermedia Be Used in Schools?

Hypermedia can be defined as a non-sequential format that uses hypertext and multimedia elements to present information to users. There are many potential and realized advantages to using hypermedia in educational settings. The advantages of hypermedia depend on the mode of use. Allowing students to author their own hypermedia results in a different set of advantages than simply allowing students to be the audience of hypermedia presentations. The use of hypermedia must be carefully guided by teachers and other educational professionals to ensure that students are learning and focusing on valuable curricular concepts. Hypermedia can be a great tool to help facilitate differentiation of instruction in the classroom, but there are some pitfalls as well.

• What is Hypermedia?

Hypermedia combines the concepts of hypertext and multimedia to allow rich interaction between the user and the material. Hypertext itself is basically the same as regular text except that it contains connections within the text to other documents (Hughes, 1994). The term multimedia has been around for a long time, long before the advent of personal computers. Today it is usually used to describe the integration of text, graphics, animation, sound, video and music in an interactive software environment (Turner and Handler, 1997).

• Students as Audience of Hypermedia

In the role of audience to hypermedia, students interact with hypermedia environments developed by others. Examples of this type of interaction would include reading articles in online encyclopedias, observing a PowerPoint presentation (with links and other multimedia elements) developed by a teacher, playing interactive adventure games, or looking at various interactive websites on the Internet. Lu (n.d.) would consider this as level 1, or read only hypermedia. As an audience to hypermedia, children often still manage to control how they navigate through the information, and one child is likely to navigate the material in a different order than another. Students will choose their paths based on their interests and objectives. While students are able to have some control in this role, they are still limited by the design decisions made by the software designer or their teacher (Turner and Handler, 1997).

• Students as Authors of Hypermedia

The second of these broad categories would include students as authors of their own hypermedia. In this role, students will develop hypermedia projects by conducting research on a topic, identifying relevant information, and then selecting what elements to include in a final product. Students will have to consider the layout of the text as well as what multimedia components to include in their product. Students must also determine how they will link information based on whom the intended audience will be. In addition, students will have to learn how to use software components, or perfect their knowledge of the software they are using, and then debug any problems they encounter (Turner & Handler, 1997). This second broad category of authoring hypermedia would correspond to Lu's (n.d.) level 2 (participatory) and level 3 (exploratory) hypermedia. Using hypermedia in this context will not only allow students to have control over how they learn, but will also force them to learn basic information and use higher level thinking skills in the process developing their final hypermedia product.

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Advantages of Hypermedia

Learning Styles Webpage

Advantages of using hypermedia in instruction are numerous. They include the fact that differentiation of instruction is often built into the application and allows the learner to adapt information to his own learning style. Students gain control of the order they access information as well as the number of times they engage a specific piece of information. Students will often have the option of simply reading the text (verbal learning style), or hearing the text read (aural learning style), or seeing a visual representation of the text reproduced (visual learning style), among other options. Teachers can use the above webpage to assess their own learning styles as well as those of their students.

Interactive Chemistry Website

Hypermedia is not limited by physical space. The costs of paper and color photographs are no longer an issue. There is tremendous potential to save time and money in the long run. In science classrooms there is tremendous potential to save money on laboratory materials as well. The above link is just one example of using the Internet as an alternative to a chemistry lab.

Disadvantages of Hypermedia

Requires Extra Teacher Planning Time

Disadvantages of using hypermedia in an educational setting include the fact that it takes a tremendous amount of time to initially develop hypermedia lessons. Teachers must get the appropriate training in using software and other hypermedia components, and be given adequate time to plan and incorporate hypermedia lessons into their curriculum. One method to help ameliorate the lack of planning time that plagues so many public school teachers is for those teachers to allow their students to author hypermedia products in conjunction with the curriculum. Then those teachers can use these hypermedia products with other students in that same class, as well as with future students in other classes. Teachers would still need proper training to successfully guide their students through these initial creations.

Student Focus Issues

Another potential disadvantage in using hypermedia involves students who already have trouble focusing on specific tasks. Those students who have trouble focusing on assignments in general may be overwhelmed by hypermedia lessons. They may lose focus entirely or they may learn a little bit about a lot about different things, but they might miss the central purpose of an assignment. Teachers would have to take extra time to re-focus students' attention on what is truly important in the context of the curriculum-based lesson. Therefore, the use of hypermedia must be carefully guided by teachers and other educational professionals to ensure that students are learning and focusing on valuable curricular concepts.

Issues with Literacy

Hypermedia is causing educators to redefine literacy. Educators have to be careful to teach students how to glean information from the Internet and other hypermedia environments. These environments can be very different, and often better, than simply reading from a textbook. Despite the advantages of presenting content in multiple formats including video and audio, hypermedia can also mask fundamental reading problems. Students with difficulty reading may be able to glean just as much information from certain hypermedia formats as students who can read well. However, in the long run, these reading-deficient students may not be identified as needing extra help in the area of reading, and then in turn suffer the consequences further down the road, when the ability to read text well becomes essential.

Issues with Internet Safety

Hypermedia lessons must be designed with the safety of the student in mind as well. While not all hypermedia lessons will involve the Internet, many will. Those that do should be carefully designed by the teacher to prevent students from straying to websites that contain inappropriate material. A well-designed hypermedia lesson could utilize all of the good things on the World Wide Web without burdening it with the pop-up advertisements and questionable material that seems to abound.

Conclusion

Hypermedia is a term that has been around for many years now, and its definition continues to undergo slight changes as time passes. As an educational tool, hypermedia offers many potential benefits for the teacher in the classroom as well as a few potential pitfalls. Perhaps the most pertinent advantage to 21st century teachers in the United States is the potential to create differentiated lesson plans that cater to a variety of learning styles and a multitude of English Language Learners. The software tools currently available already provide some content translated into Spanish and other foreign languages. As these tools are improved teachers will eagerly make use of the best applications.

Web-based Project


Benefits of using Web-based Project Management Software

• Mobility—With an intuitive dashboard, reporting and planner tools, web based project management software enables you to log in to your project work from anywhere in the world, thus offering a real-time view of your project.
• Easy and effective collaboration—Collaboration is an inherent component of project management. For sharing your project plans with your global partners, for delegating tasks to your offshore colleagues or for managing contractors across the country, a reliable platform for collaboration is a must. This is where our web-based project management software helps. Web project management software helps you save your work or project plan in one central location thus giving authorized members real-time access to business-critical project information. Teams can be given real-time alerts to adjust work activities to adapt with project changes or updates.
• Boost productivity—With collaboration via PM software, miscommunication is reduced, which thus paves the way to effective and quick team work and increased productivity. With web-based project management software, project managers can save time on routine operations such as collecting reports, updating plans, sending reminders to team and spend more time on more productive work. The project manager gets real-time view of each task and can evaluate and make necessary changes on the spot whenever required.
• Solid Analysis & Reporting— Web Project management software’s reporting structure gives you invoice ready data for projects. This enables you to swiftly review all time spent during a project, as well as what is due for invoicing and how much revenue is associated with each task, phase, etc.
• Flexible and salable—Web project management software unites the collaboration platform of SharePoint Server 2010 and deliberate implementation abilities to provide flexible work management results. Users get the benefit to manage scheduling, i.e. users can plan tasks with the information they have in hand or mechanically plan tasks to have project estimate dates and duration.
• Security— Security is the foremost issue that we take care of. All necessary steps to keep your data safe is taken by us. All the project management information of your is safely transferred via SSL.

The Power of Web-based Project Management

Spreadsheets can get out of control while commercial software does everything but manage your projects effectively.

A web-based, centralized project management system can help boost your productivity and make your operations more efficient. Managing time effectively within your company will help deliver projects on time, on budget and increase profits.
Many companies are looking for an alternative to spreadsheets and commercial software; especially when it comes to managing projects or jobs. The ability to keep a the pulse of each project is faster and easier with a web application. Converting your existing project management processes onto an online platform isn’t hard; in fact it’s quite easy. Once it’s up and running, all of your team members can access the necessary features of the application, such as entering expense line items, with any web-enabled device such as PC’s, Laptops, iPhones and iPads.
Web Applications have fostered the ability to centralize data so that your customers, suppliers, vendors, employees, and stakeholders can easily access and share important information, instantly, from anywhere in the world. Furthermore, centralized Web Applications have eliminated the hassle of painful software installations, upgrades, and expensive licensing costs associated with traditional software.
Not only is your data centralized with a web-based project management system, but it is accessible by anyone from anywhere with an internet connection and the correct log-in credentials.
In Summary, web-based project management can:

• Increase productivity and accessibility
• Manage projects/jobs easier
• Centralize your data (tasks, expenses, resources, financials, etc)
• Provide enhanced security through user roles
• Instantly generate valuable reports
• Allow your team to communicate with customers

1. Do the new learning theories mean we should stop memorization drill activities in class? Why?

• No, because memorization and drill activities in class can be use by the learners in real life. For, every learning process memorization and drill activities can't be avoided.

1. There are official truths or principles in such disciplines as ethics, chemistry, physics, history, etc. Do you think constructivism really want to abandon universal truths or principles? (Clue: Some beliefs result from faulty information, ancient or unscientific traditions. Primitive people believed the world was flat. Can you cite other example of untruthful beliefs?)

• No, because in constructivism the learners build a personal understanding, learning consists in what a person can actively assemble for himself and not what he can receive passively. So, it means that the learner will be able to construct new ideas and new  facts based on his experiments or base on the studies that he conducted.

1. Can personal discoveries contradict socially or culturally accepted principles or values? (Clue: revolutions are caused by those in power like despots unwilling to change their ways. What did Jose Rizal and other patriots discover about colonization of the Philippine Islands?)

• Yes, because personal discoveries can affect his principles or values about a lot of things. His personal discoveries can affect his attitudes towards certain things or ideas.