Michael A. O’Hagan
EDL 655 Reflection
Week 5 Reflection
This week our group met in two waves. We had to be flexible to accommodate our group members schedules, as two were fortunate enough to attend conferences. We had an open discussion about the feedback we received. To be honest, some of it seemed like the people who offered the feedback didn’t really look closely at our project, as their questions were answered within the video, and by exploring the example we posted. Other feedback included funding and maintaining the website, which we have discussed in the previous sections, the costs are negligible, as the website hosting is currently free (always the potential to change), and the design of the project is that is will build its own capacity.
I think we were successful in obtaining our objective and creating a project that fits the goals we set out to accomplish. My contributions to this week specifically were to work with my peers during our meetings, updating the website, and filling out the document. I also interviewed an “outsider” to gather input about our project from him. When we met together again, we reviewed the data from our interviews and modified our final project. We then chose to do our group reflection via vodcast, so we recorded that and it should be posted.
I like how the process of design thinking forces us to reflect on the previous sections work. If I were to implement this with the staff at my school, I would have them meet monthly to work on year long projects. If I asked staff to meet more than that, I wouldn’t find anyone willing to participate. I think the groups would experience what we have in our group, I know my group mates much better than I did in the beginning. We have melded into a good group, with a dynamic that has allowed us to be much more friendly and enjoy each other while working to accomplish our goals.
We used both asynchronous and synchronous communication. The asynchronous communication occurred via the app Voxer, which acts like a message storage walkie talkie. This allowed us to work with each other as we had time in our schedules. We had synchronous meetings scheduled, usually two per week. I think that the blend of the two communication methods works in a digital environment because the voxer was a stream of consciousness and quick communication method, while the google hangouts were true work sessions.
The idea of an individual endeavor can be combined with what we learned in EDL 680 last Summer. We can marry the 20 time project ideas with an individual endeavor and follow a Design Thinking model for producing the final product, I think the students will have an authentic learning experience. The way I imagine the process working is at some point in December I introduce the idea to the students. Then it will be a project they work on until school ends in May. Since the learning takes place in the process, the final outcome isn’t as important as the activities they undertake throughout the semester.
My first impression of Design Thinking was similar to, “Holey Moley Batman, what is this?” However, once we got started on our project, it became simpler to understand where the learning was occurring. Just like what I intend to do with my students, the learning occurred in the process, not in creating our final product. This is the essence of a 21st century education. You learn by doing, solving problems, and creating authentic products.
EDL 655 Reflection
Week 5 Reflection
This week our group met in two waves. We had to be flexible to accommodate our group members schedules, as two were fortunate enough to attend conferences. We had an open discussion about the feedback we received. To be honest, some of it seemed like the people who offered the feedback didn’t really look closely at our project, as their questions were answered within the video, and by exploring the example we posted. Other feedback included funding and maintaining the website, which we have discussed in the previous sections, the costs are negligible, as the website hosting is currently free (always the potential to change), and the design of the project is that is will build its own capacity.
I think we were successful in obtaining our objective and creating a project that fits the goals we set out to accomplish. My contributions to this week specifically were to work with my peers during our meetings, updating the website, and filling out the document. I also interviewed an “outsider” to gather input about our project from him. When we met together again, we reviewed the data from our interviews and modified our final project. We then chose to do our group reflection via vodcast, so we recorded that and it should be posted.
I like how the process of design thinking forces us to reflect on the previous sections work. If I were to implement this with the staff at my school, I would have them meet monthly to work on year long projects. If I asked staff to meet more than that, I wouldn’t find anyone willing to participate. I think the groups would experience what we have in our group, I know my group mates much better than I did in the beginning. We have melded into a good group, with a dynamic that has allowed us to be much more friendly and enjoy each other while working to accomplish our goals.
We used both asynchronous and synchronous communication. The asynchronous communication occurred via the app Voxer, which acts like a message storage walkie talkie. This allowed us to work with each other as we had time in our schedules. We had synchronous meetings scheduled, usually two per week. I think that the blend of the two communication methods works in a digital environment because the voxer was a stream of consciousness and quick communication method, while the google hangouts were true work sessions.
The idea of an individual endeavor can be combined with what we learned in EDL 680 last Summer. We can marry the 20 time project ideas with an individual endeavor and follow a Design Thinking model for producing the final product, I think the students will have an authentic learning experience. The way I imagine the process working is at some point in December I introduce the idea to the students. Then it will be a project they work on until school ends in May. Since the learning takes place in the process, the final outcome isn’t as important as the activities they undertake throughout the semester.
My first impression of Design Thinking was similar to, “Holey Moley Batman, what is this?” However, once we got started on our project, it became simpler to understand where the learning was occurring. Just like what I intend to do with my students, the learning occurred in the process, not in creating our final product. This is the essence of a 21st century education. You learn by doing, solving problems, and creating authentic products.