Exam – Question One

Question One

a)      http://mashton-ed2203.pbwiki.com/

b)      Five key issues that I struggled with in developing this project included:

a.      Involving the parents in an appropriate way                                                              

i.      As this project was to include both students and their parents, it was important for the parents to be involved in a constructive and meaningful way. In the end, I decided to allow parents to input their prior knowledge and experience into the project and also play an important role in the creation of the video – the main part of the project.

b.      Ensuring that all students can be involved                                                              

 i.      It was important in the project to develop a way of involving all students. This is a key element derived from Dreikurs’ theory of people, especially children, feeling the need to belong. If all students are involved in some way, they will feel a sense of achievement. All activities involved in the project allow for all students to be involved and experience Web 2.0 while learning about Digital Media.

c.       Making the project appropriate to the students’ lives                                                              

i.      It is important to make the project relevant to students’ lives so that they can bring their understanding and prior knowledge into the project. This also allows for sharing ideas and teaching one another.d.       

Creating a range of activities that would meet the outcomes and make use of technology                                                              

 i.      A problem I found when developing the project was how to meet the outcomes and make use of various Web 2.0 technologies. Meeting each aspect individually was okay; however, bringing these together and keeping a balance was essential. I thought that initially, my project would have been to much based around using Web 2.0 rather than learning about Digital Media.

e.      Making the project engaging to all                                                              

 i.      It is essential that the projects teachers develop are engaging to all students, but particularly group projects as a common problem is one student completing all the work by themselves, or only half of the group is working and the others feeling as though they can simply sit back and watch. All of the activities involved in the project that I developed ensured that every student and parent had to play some role, especially when it came to creating the video and discussing digital media.

c)      The collaborative nature of this group project is important because it allows for a variety of key points, including:

a.      Giving students a sense of place                                                              

 i.      It is through blogs, wikis and other Web 2.0 tools that students are given a sense of place. Students can develop their blog or wiki to suit them and this can help to better express their ideas, as opposed to simply writing an essay.

b.      Making students feel as though they belong

                                                               i.      Web 2.0 helps to give students a sense of belonging, which is related to Dreikurs’ key human driver. Students can feel part of a group by the extensive forms of communication and sharing available through Web 2.0. Web 2.0 may also help students to communicate better if they are not as good with face to face communication, particularly in groups. Emails, using Wikis, blogs and Google Docs may be a more appropriate and effective means of communication for these people.

c.       Allows for a focus on the actual activity, rather than the actual result                                                              

 i.      Another important aspect that Dreikurs highlighted was that students should be engaged with the actual activity, rather than the final result that they achieve at the end. Activities developed around this idea will allow for students to better enjoy an activity and gain significantly more from it, than an activity they are simply doing to gain marks.