5 top ways technology benefits project-based learning in the age of AI
Five ways technology benefits project-based learning, what the research shows, and how AI and phone rules change the way schools design student projects.
Updated with current data and sources. Originally published March 28, 2019.
Technology benefits project-based learning in five ways: it speeds up access to information, makes collaboration easier, tightens formative feedback, connects students with experts, and puts their work in front of real audiences. Those five still hold, but AI now means a school has to design every project so the thinking stays with the student.
- Project-based learning (PBL)
- Students dig deep into a challenging, standards-based project that takes considerable time and cannot be answered with one quick search. You may also see PBL used for problem-based learning. In this post, PBL means project-based learning.
What does the research say about project-based learning?
The evidence is stronger than it was when I wrote this in 2019. In 2021, Lucas Education Research and university partners released four studies of project-based programs. All four favored the project-based classrooms.
- High school: a randomized USC-led study of AP U.S. Government and AP Environmental Science found the share of students earning a credit-qualifying score was 8 percentage points higher after teachers had a year with the program. The gain was estimated at 10 points after two years.
- Middle school: a Stanford program raised science achievement by 11 percentage points.
- Third grade: students in a Michigan State and University of Michigan program outperformed peers by 8 percentage points on a summative science assessment, and the results held for all subgroups of students.
- Second grade: students in low-income communities gained five to six months of learning in social studies.
Project-based learning gains in four Lucas-funded findings
Read these results with care. The studies were backed by Lucas Education Research, part of the George Lucas Educational Foundation, and they tested full programs, not single assignments. The AP and third-grade programs both included professional development for teachers. The lesson for a principal is that good PBL is designed and supported. It is not the same as assigning a poster.
The need is plain in what students say about school today.
41%
of K-12 students ages 14 to 19 do not agree that they learned anything interesting at school in the past week.
Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, 2026
49%
report that school does not allow them to do what they do best every day.
Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, 2026
What are the five ways technology benefits project-based learning?
1. Access to information
The key to a well-designed project is enough challenge, tied to standards-based content, that it takes considerable time. It should not be answerable in one Google search, and now it should not be answerable in one chatbot prompt either.
I still recommend preparing a list of approved websites to get students started, so they do not waste time down the rabbit hole. Host the list in a shared document or on a class site, which gives you a chance to vet each source and gives students one place to go. A QR code on the wall makes it easy to reach.
2. Collaboration
With tools like OneDrive and Google Drive, collaboration has never been easier. Students can work together at the same time on one document for brainstorming, taking notes, finding resources, and gathering answers.
Compiling the final project does not have to fall on one person either. Google Slides and similar tools let students build together, in the same room or across the country from each other.
3. Formative feedback
Reflection, critique, and revision are very important parts of the PBL process. PBLWorks names critique and revision and reflection among its seven essential project design elements. I suggest asking each group to create a shared folder with you and their teammates, so you can check in at any time, comment, ask guiding questions, and redirect. Google Classroom does this organizing for you.
Post your rubric in that folder from day one so expectations are clear. Have other groups give peer feedback with a copy of the rubric. Before the final submission, ask for a self-assessment, with detailed comments in each section. These last two steps, I think, are the most powerful.
4. Connecting with experts
Connecting with experts is something students can do much more easily with technology. Video calls on Google Meet or Microsoft Teams give students a face-to-face experience with people who are not nearby.
Sometimes the best expert is close. Send a few emails or make a few phone calls to people in your community, and ask them to connect with your students. A chatbot can answer a question. It cannot tell a student what the job is really like.
5. Sharing and publishing
Technology gives student work a broader audience. When students know that people other than their teacher will see their work, they are more likely to produce higher quality projects. PBLWorks lists a public product among its essential elements too.
Projects can be shared with parents, grandparents, friends, and the experts who helped along the way. Photos, green screen video, or a simple class site all work. Follow your school's rules on student photos and names before anything goes public.
| The five ways | What it looks like now | The AI rule to set |
|---|---|---|
| Access to information | A vetted source list in a shared document | Students verify AI answers against the list |
| Collaboration | Shared documents and slides on school accounts | Teams disclose where AI helped |
| Formative feedback | Rubric in a shared folder, with peer and self-assessment | AI may draft comments; the teacher decides |
| Connecting with experts | Scheduled video calls with an adult present | Questions come from students, not a chatbot |
| Sharing and publishing | A public product, with family permission where needed | Students present and answer questions live |
How does AI change a project?
AI is already part of the work. Pew Research Center found that 54% of U.S. teens have used chatbots for help with schoolwork, and one in ten say they do all or most of their schoolwork with that help. In the same survey, 59% of teens think using AI to cheat happens at least somewhat often at their school.
The risk is a project that looks finished while the learning never happened. A field experiment published in PNAS in 2025, with nearly a thousand high school math students in Turkey, tested this directly. Grades improved 48% while students had a standard GPT-4 tutor, but when it was taken away they performed worse than students who never had it, a 17% reduction in grades. A second tutor with safeguards largely avoided that harm. It is one study in one subject and one country, but the pattern should make any project designer stop and think.
If AI can finish the project, it was never a good project.Ernie Delgado, BeyondK12
Good project design answers this. As one Edutopia writer put it in 2025, AI tools should support content creation without automating the intended learning. In practice that means four things.
- Make the process the product. Grade the question, the notes, the drafts, and the revisions, not only the final slide.
- Make students check it. If AI wrote a summary, students test it against primary sources for accuracy, missing perspectives, and bias.
- Make use visible. Students disclose which tools helped and how.
- Make them explain it. Every project in our TechPlus AI curriculum ends with the student explaining their work, because that is the part AI cannot do for them.
How should a school plan a technology-rich project?
- Start with the standard and the question. Pick content you already teach and frame it as a meaningful problem. Test the question in a chatbot. If it gets a complete answer, make it harder or more local.
- Mark the AI line at each stage. Write down where AI is allowed, where it is not, and how students disclose it. Put it on the rubric.
- Plan around school devices. Check your phone policy first, then book the carts, labs, and accounts the project needs.
- Book the audience early. Line up the expert and the final presentation before the project begins. A real date gives students a reason to care.
- Build in the checkpoints. Set dates for peer feedback, self-assessment, and a teacher conference. This is where most of the learning happens.
Where to start this week
Pick one unit you already teach and run its main assignment through a chatbot. If AI can finish it, redesign that unit around a question your students actually care about. If your teachers want help doing this at scale, our professional development team works on exactly this kind of design.
To see how ready your school is for this shift, take the free AI Readiness Assessment. It takes five minutes and scores you across Policy, People, Curriculum, Guardrails, and Funding.
Related reading: 10 STEM lessons students remember (and how to run them) and Building a whole-school culture of responsible AI use and human decision making.
Questions school leaders ask
Does project-based learning improve test scores?
In four studies released by Lucas Education Research, students in project-based programs outperformed comparison students. A randomized USC-led study found the share earning a credit-qualifying AP score was 8 percentage points higher after teachers had a year with the program. Third graders outperformed peers by 8 percentage points on a summative science assessment. These programs included curriculum and teacher training, so the results do not apply to any project a teacher assigns.
What technology do students need for project-based learning?
Less than most schools think. A shared drive, a way to meet with an expert online, and a place to publish cover all five ways. School-issued devices are the safer plan now, because Education Week counts at least 40 states and Washington, D.C., that require districts to ban or restrict student cellphones.
Should students use AI in a project?
Yes, with rules set before the project starts. Decide which stages allow AI, require students to disclose it, and ask them to check what it says against real sources. A 2025 study in PNAS found that unguarded chatbot help during practice hurt later performance, while a version built to protect learning largely avoided that harm.
How do you assess a project when students may have used AI?
Assess the process as well as the product. Use checkpoints in a shared folder, a rubric that students apply to their own work, and a live explanation at the end. A student who did the thinking can explain it. That conversation is hard to fake.
Where can teachers find project-based learning resources?
PBLWorks, from the Buck Institute for Education, publishes a model with seven essential project design elements, along with project examples. Start with its Gold Standard PBL page, then pick one unit you already teach and redesign it.
Sources
- Lucas Education Research, research briefs on project-based learning (2021) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- University of Michigan, Project-based learning yields better student outcomes (2021) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Gallup and Walton Family Foundation, 2026 Voices of Gen Z release (August 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Pew Research Center, How teens use and view AI (February 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Bastani and others, Generative AI without guardrails can harm learning, PNAS (2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- PsyPost, Unrestricted generative AI harms high school math learning (2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Education Week, Which states ban or restrict cellphones in schools (updated October 2026) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- PBLWorks, Gold Standard PBL: essential project design elements (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- Edutopia, Using AI tools to support PBL (June 2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- THE Journal, Microsoft shutting down Skype (March 2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- TechRepublic, Google says farewell to Hangouts (June 2022) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
- TechRadar, Google is cutting off its shortened goo.gl links (2025) (opens in a new tab) (checked 2026-11-05)
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