- Discussion on the items that should be considered before starting a project with students.
Before
starting a new project it is important to gather the resources you need.
Teachers should take a look at their inventory and see what supplies, tools,
and other materials are available at the school or offered by other support
groups. As well you have to think about what technology you plan to incorporate
into the project and if it is new to the students you need to plan how you will
teach them about it and where you can access this new technology. Teachers
should also keep in mind that in some projects students may be required to ask
the experts or interview people to gain information. Teachers need to inquire
about getting these experts to talk to the students before the project begins
and if you can’t get them to come to the class then see about using technology
to reach them. For these types of interactions it would be helpful to ask for
assistance from the technology specialists or the librarian so you need to
think about when you will set up these interactions. Another thing you should
take into consideration is if you are collaborating with a teaching team then
you need to plan who will do what taking into consideration everyone’s
strengths.
- Discussion on teachers’ and students’ management needs.
As
teachers we need to teach our students to become effective managers of their
own time. One thing to do is to plan a project calendar with milestones along
the way. Students are more aware of deadlines when they have a visual
representation. As well we can create a class website, project blog or group email
so that the parents are aware of the deadlines and milestones also. In addition
to being aware of deadlines students and teachers also need to agree on how the
teams will be organized and how they will plan out the activities. Overall in
teaching, effective project management involves minimizing risks while
maximizing opportunities. Teachers project management needs include tools for
communicating to the students about the project, tools for making deadlines
visible, ways to make resources available, system to manage work, ways to assess
the students, and a way to give them feedback. While the teacher needs to have
management techniques, the students do as well. Students need to have tools to
manage their time, collaboration tools, methods to seek assistance, and ways to
get feedback from their peers and teacher.
- Discuss some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project.
When
thinking about what technology should be incorporated into project based
learning consider selecting from web-based applications and servers to suit the
needs of the project. Teachers can link a set of tools together in a wikki, a
blog, or even a web based desktop application. Probably the simplest way to
begin using the web to support projects is to build a project wikki. From here
teachers are able to build a main project page with announcements and links to
build team pages for the students. Technology allows the students to
communicate with the teacher as well as with their peers. Overall the
technology should assist in the learning process so teachers should find tools
that will aid the students and are suitable for their abilities.
- Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
Our project is about food and culture in other areas
of the world. Since the students are not able to go to these parts of the world
and actually see what then culture is like and how the culture affects peoples
food choices they can use technology to learn new information. Before starting
this project with our students we would need to set up and find resources ahead
of time like sites they can visit, blogs where they can communicate with each
other, and ways to talk to experts or in this case people from these other
locations through emails or Skype. As the teacher I would need to manage how I
would group the students for the project and how I would show the students
through visuals the milestones and deadlines. All of this planning and use of
technology is presented in this chapter.
I liked your reading reflection, you had some really great points. I like the idea of how you will use the concepts of the chapter to relate to your project. It sounds like a lot of fun for the students.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the connections you made between the reading and your project, especially using Skype to simulate experiences in a culture that students can't get first-hand. I also liked that you mentioned wikkis as one of the easiest ways to incorporate technology.
ReplyDeleteAnother cool idea that you could have for sharing different worldly foods is to prepare them or to follow recipes to make your own foods. I really like your idea to use Skype, though. I think that students would have a lot of fun with that! Great reflection.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great you mentioned that teachers have a responsibility of teaching the students how to manage their time effectively. I personally think this is the most important management tool a teacher and the students need. Time management has always been a struggle for myself, and my goal as a teacher is to teach my students how to manage their time effectively so they become successful in thier own work.
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