This group illustrates what project-based learning can look like, especially when digital tools help students break free from the confines of teacher-driven and classroom-bound instruction.<br>

To create a professional learning community, focus on learning rather than teaching, work collaboratively, and hold yourself accountable for results.

Big Idea #1: Ensuring That Students Learn

The professional learning community model flows from the assumption that the core mission of formal education is not simply to ensure that students are taught but to ensure that they learn. This simple shift—from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning—has profound implications for schools.

<h3>Big Idea #2: A Culture of Collaboration</h3> <p class="MainText">Educators who are building a professional learning community recognize that they must work together to achieve their collective purpose of learning for all. Therefore, they create structures to promote a collaborative culture.</p>

For meaningful collaboration to occur, a number of things must also <i>stop</i> happening. Schools must stop pretending that merely presenting teachers with state standards or district curriculum guides will guarantee that all students have access to a common curriculum.

Big Idea #3: A Focus on Results

Schools and teachers typically suffer from the DRIP syndrome—Data Rich/Information Poor. The results-oriented professional learning community not only welcomes data but also turns data into useful and relevant information for staff.

According to a <a href="http://www.consumerwebwatch.org/news/report3_credibilityresearch/stanfordPTL.pdf">2002 study</a>, the “appeal of the overall visual design of a site, including layout, typography, font size, and color schemes,” is the number one factor we use to evaluate a website’s credibility.

Researchers in Japan setup two ATMs, “identical in function, the number of buttons, and how they worked.” The only difference was that one machine’s buttons and screens were arranged more attractively than the other. In both Japan and Israel (where this study was repeated) researchers observed that subjects encountered fewer difficulties with the more attractive machine. The attractive machine actually <em>worked</em> better.

<font class="style10">"The teacher doesn't become the sole source of information, and -- really, in the Internet age -- shouldn't be," Brinling said. "The teacher becomes the person who facilitates learning."</font>

Utilize decision-making scenarios. Consider using them not just in a minor role—for example at the end of a section—but integrated into the main narrative of your learning design.

Determine the most important points you want to get across AND the most important situations in which these points are critical. Then, provide extra repetitions spaced over time on these key points and situations.