Technology Applications to Support Teachers’ Design and Facilitation of, and Students’ Participation in PBL

Technology-based tools and processes are central to student and teacher success in problem-based learning (PBL). This chapter reviews learning theories that inform PBL alongside strategies to design technology applications to overcome challenges teachers face designing and facilitating PBL units and students face participating in PBL units. Such strategies depart from traditional instructional design most notably in the requirement to consider tasks and processes holistically rather than in a reductionist manner. This chapter describes the importance of the theoretical foundations of PBL in the expansion of PBL to other subject matters and education levels, and then discusses three such theoretical foundations, and the implications of each for the design technologies to support PBL teachers and PBL students.