Reading Reflection 5

1. Discussion on the items that should be considered before starting a project with students
Before starting a project with students you need to consider the following:

• What and Who You Will Need- What materials you'll need, you can also put out word about the upcoming project. If your project uses new technologies then think about the essential learning functions you need technology to deliver and select the appropriate tools. Having an expert come and talk to the students also helps and now videoconferencing and virtual field trips can help with this.
• Milestones and Deadlines- Time management is a skill that will support students throughout their education and beyond. A project calendar is helpful because it breaks up big tasks into smaller ones and it's a helpful tool to have in the future.
• Team Planning- How will student teams be organized? Remember students will be doing different things at different times so how will you ensure that all students are challenged? Team approaches require you to reset your expectations and experiment with different combinations.
• Plan for Assessment- With planning and practice, you can take advantage of assessment opportunities throughout the project. How will you know that it has been a successful learning journey? A complex project requires multiple assessment methods.

2. Discussion on teachers’ and students’ management needs.
Teachers need to include:

• Tools for communicating with students and others about the project
• Tools for making milestones and events visible and for notifying students when changes occur
• Methods for getting resources to students
• Systems for managing work products
• Structures that support a productive learning enviornment in which teams and individuals are engaged in a variety of learning tasks at the same time
• Assessment tools and strategies

Students need to include:

• Systems and tools that help them manage their time and flow of work
• Systems that help students manage materials and control work drafts
• Collaboration tools
• Methods for seeking assistance
• Ways to get and use feedback on their work, through self-reflection, team input, and teacher advice
• Ways to work interatively and to see how parts add up to the whole

3. Discuss some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project.
Two web-based applications are wikis and blogs. A wiki is collaborative and anyone can edit and read from anywhere. It can be syndicated so readers can learn about new content as it changes. It also maintains a version history so if something goes wrong, users can revert to an earlier version. A blog is a one-to-many delivery system with one author. The simplest way to begin using the Web to support projects may be to build a project wiki. Students can communicate with teachers and build more pages on their own as the project progresses.

4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your topic/project.
Our project is focused on using a blog as the center of our topic. This also focuses on our learning of project-based learning.