Reflecting on our #ZAedu Twitter chat - 'IBL, CBL, PBL - What's the big DEAL?'

I have to say, I love Twitter chats! Just a reminder of what a Twitter chat is all about - it is a public Twitter conversation which takes place via a unique hashtag such as #ZAedu, in our case, once a month. This hashtag allows one to follow the discussion and participate in it. Twitter chats are usually recurring (ours is on the last Wednesday night of every month)  and on specific topics to regularly connect people with these interests i.e. education topics. By the way, #ZAedu also has a Facebook community. Click here to join: http://bit.ly/2PeKtKO

Tonight's Twitter chat topic
So, tonight we held our monthly #ZAedu Twitter chat. It took place from 8-9pm and was hosted by @BronwynWrites from St Stithians and @chezwi from Penryn Preparatory School. The topic was very interesting. 'IBL, CBL, PBL - What's the big DEAL?' As we got started with the chat I had to do a Google search. I know that PBL stands for project-based learning as I have done several PBL projects in the past, but the other two acronyms were not familiar... at first! As it turned out, the discussion was about Inquiry-based, Project-based, and Challenge-based learning - looking at how we can use these in the classroom.

Introductions

What I like about these chats is getting to know teachers from around the country. We had to introduce ourselves using a piece of stationery that typifies our teaching.

We had all sorts of different stationery items referred to. I loved @LadyWesner's...

Mine was Google Keep (oops, just noticed a spelling error!).

Question 1: What do you know about IBL, CBL and PBL?
We usually do these chats by breaking down the main topic into bite-size relevant questions.

That's the great thing about Twitter chats. I wasn't sure about these acronyms to start with. Others were polling knowledge in the chat, and in between, I was searching for answers online. Comments varied from person to person. For example":

• A1: I know that these are types of teaching that put the learning into the hands of the Ss and switch the T to more of a facilitator role. They rely on student engagement and exploration, as opposed to students just listening and writing."
• PBL is not the same as doing projects.

We had many different offerings showing what teachers understood by these terms. Several felt that PBL is the future of education.

• I found the book "A More Beautiful Question" helpful in reflecting on how we pose questions both for young learners and adult learners. 
• A2 #IBL Encourages students to ask better questions, and then go about figuring out the answers 
• A2: I think the lines between P and IBL are quite blurry. I haven't dipped into CBL so will reserve "judgement", I like the idea though?

Question 2: What differences are there between IBL, PBL and CBL?

Here are some of the comments:

• They are very similar but also very different. The jargon and anagrams around this tend to confuse people, myself included! I think they are all looking for a way to engage the student in a meaningful and practical way. They also let teachers feel and be more creative. 
• A2: I came up with this analogy #PBL is playing in a sandpit, #IBL is playing at the beach and #CBL is being tasked with a real life challenge while playing at the beach. 
• A2: #ibl is the act of doing, #pbl is the act of exploring and play, and #cbl is completely a challenge whilst doing and engaging? 
• A2 #IBL is about #Knowledge #CBL is about Challenges and #PBL is about #Skills. 
• Here is an image showing an explanation of Inquiry-based learning created by @trev_mackenzie:

• @BIEpbl offered a great diagram summarising PBL.

• My thoughts after a while:

Question 3: Have you used PBL, CBL or IBL? Please share examples
Teachers came up with many great ideas on what they had done. @LadyWesner suggested letting her know details about these so that they could be displayed on a platform where everyone could see them and be inspired.

Question 4: Any resources to share:
Quite a number of links were shared throughout the session.

Links shared in tonight's Twitter chat: 

• Get Rocket notebooks: https://getrocketbook.co.za/ 
• What the heck is inquiry-based learning?: https://edut.to/2PjCc8l 
• Challenge-based learning: https://cbl.digitalpromise.org/ 
• Types of IBL from @trev_mackennzie: http://bit.ly/2Pg0r7y 
• Edutopia has some great resources on Project-based learning https://www.edutopia.org/project-based-learning …
• Life hacks for your project assessment map: http://bit.ly/2PiNSrR
• Assessment that matters: https://amzn.to/2PcvZuI
• Hacking Project Based Learning: 10 Easy Steps to PBL and Inquiry in the Classroom (Hack Learning Series) (Volume 9) https://amzn.to/2Pl8Uq3
• Four Inquiry Qualities At The Heart of Student-Centered Teaching: http://bit.ly/2on4bIY 

Question 5: Do you have any questions or anything else you'd like to share about IBL, CBL, or PBL? 
This was the closing question. I think we were all left with thoughts and ideas to ponder and introduce into our teaching.

• A5: I think that if you are thinking right now "oh, but my curriculum", you need to stop, take a breath, and realise that your Ss being in involved in real world #learning is so much more important than #tests and #curriculum
• A5: How do we persuade our colleagues that the curriculum won't suffer when using these strategies? And the parents? and the students?
• A5. For many teachers deviating from the 'norm' is scary and they do not want to go that route. Just start small. It starts with a small spark that turns into a raging fire for learning. #ZAedu Try one project. Perhaps even start with subjects that are already joined (Social Sci)
• @MeldrumKim provided an important take  away for tonight's discussion: 

• The amazing @LadyWesner who is the co-founder of the Twitter chat, made an exciting announcement for a future event - a PUBPD:

What a novel idea! See http://bit.ly/2PitJlI for details.

Conclusion
This was a great chat. I left with a much better understanding of these terms and some implementation ideas have arisen in my mind!

The good news is - @adyWesner used www.wakelet.com to summarise tonight's chat. She says: "Did you miss tonight's incredible #ZAedu chat about project-based, inquiry-based and challenge-based learning? Need some time to digest the awesome ideas and resources shared? Well, here's a summary for you to browse at your leisure: http://wke.lt/w/s/8K5WA @MsMorrisTeach" Awesome! I was wondering about which tool can be used for summarising Twitter chats now that Storify is discontinued.

The next #ZAedu.Twitter chat will take place on Wednesday 26th September 2018.  Why not join us!