4 key takeaways
The first thing that I learned from this experience is that when doing such projects, it is important to have the support of the teacher. I learned that if I as a teacher decide to allow people to do projects such as this in my classroom I have to have clear guidelines set for them before they enter my classroom including what times will be best for them to come in, as well as what I expect of them if they are going to come into my classroom and try to do activities with my students. Being that we didn’t really have any of these things initially it was very difficult for us to pick a starting point as to what we wanted to get accomplished during our time in the classroom with the students.
I learned that technological integration can be done either correctly or it can go very wrong, therefore not teaching anyone anything. At first we had one idea; then we did change it up after the teachers at PK met however it did end up working out. I realize that this project could have been much more meaningful to the students but at the same time I believe that we did allow them to learn something from what we did in our project. Once we get the wiki situation figured out they will be able to utilize the tool and it will be an even more meaningful tool for them. I have seen several times throughout this project that the integration of certain technologies even in our own project could have gone wrong. Without the proper usage of the videos which we created with the students it would have been pointless to do so.
When working with kids especially on a project as we did in this particular class, it is important to be sure that the students understand exactly what is expected of them beforehand. We were able to compose a brief “presentation” for the students which explained what we would be doing in the classroom with them as well as what part they would play in our project as well. Without establishing these expectations and maintaining them throughout the time we were in the classroom I am sure that we wouldn’t have gotten as much done as we were able to within a week’s time. We initially asked the students the questions which we were going to have them answer in our video interviews, and we made sure that they all understood what was being asked of them. Each day that week before we interviewed the students on the video we also re-asked them the questions beforehand where as to make sure that they had an answer.
The fourth thing that I learned from this particular project which won’t necessarily benefit me but other who might take this particular course in the future is that the teacher who is in charge makes a huge difference in how the projects turn out. We were able to have a great, supportive teacher to help us out with this particular project. At first we realize that we had a big job ahead of us; however halfway through it was looking as though that job was not going to happen. With the help of our professor our group was able to have the necessary meetings with the right people and we were able to make something happen. However it would not have been possible without our professor (Thanks J ) helping us out and getting us up and moving once again.
4 suggested improvements
The first thing that needs to be established when (if) this project is done again by other students would be to make sure to have teacher involvement. In my group, we seemed to have that involvement at first, however it slowly slipped away as time progressed. We ended up working everything out, but it took a great deal of e-mailing back and forth amongst myself, my professor and our cooperating teacher. Teacher involvement is a must throughout the process.
One other thing which I learned throughout this process was that a set plan (to an extent) needs to be established from day 1. We started our project with one idea of what we wanted to do and it sounded good at first to our group and our teacher that we were working with. However after we started working all of the fourth and fifth grade teachers at P.K. decided that they wanted to change everything which was a great downfall. From there we had to change everything which was a bit disheartening at first but we ended up being successful regardless of the downfalls we faced.
The third thing that I learned throughout this project was that when working with technology especially in the schools it is important that all participants make sure that the tools they want to utilize are viewable in the schools. For one thing, when we went to show the students our idea for the wiki, we planned to show them videos of students working within their communities as examples of what we hoped to see them do before the end of the assignment. The computer speakers were the only source of sound for quite some time, until we found an additional set of speakers to hook up which were still not very loud. This was problematic not in that the websites didn’t work but in that the students had a very hard time hearing the videos. Secondly, our group created a wiki to house the student’s videos and comments and such which we had planned on them adding to later in the year once they finish the unit they are currently working on. Now we are currently in the middle of figuring out another wiki where all the students have their own log in names rather than having one simple log in that all the students can use.
It is important that within the groups that jobs are set; however it is also very important that if those original jobs or roles do not work out that they are reevaluated at various points throughout the class. My group members and I each set out with a role which we would take on while working on this project. But unfortunately the project did not develop as much as we would have hoped, and myself and one other individual ended up doing a large majority of the work. Now I must say that it was not because the other two group members were slacking necessarily it was just because their roles were not really as integral at the parts of the project which were able to complete. Where our group “failed” was that we did not necessarily reevaluate the roles of each of the members to be sure that we were all doing an equal amount of work.
