Wicked Problem Project-Final

The problem I chose to address was the issue of group projects in the classroom.  Often times when students are asked to complete a group project one or two of the students get stuck doing most of the work.  This is not fair!  I think that group projects are a great way for students to learn, so I chose to use Wikispaces to help solve this problem.  Wikispaces allows groups to work together and for the teacher to track who has completed what part of the project.  Please listen to my screencasts to hear more about my project.  Here are the links: Part 1 and Part 2


1. What is the TP knowledge for the solution?  (i.e., how does the technology you have chosen support the teaching strategies and methods you have chosen?)
I chose to use Wikispaces as a place for my students to work as a group, so that I can clearly see who is contributing what to the project.  By using Wikispaces and giving due dates for specific parts of the project, I will be able to give feedback and allow groups to improve their project as they go.  Also, by having students use Wikispaces to create their project they will be more engaged.  This is because students enjoy working in groups and by allowing them to use a technology to do this it will increase their engagement even more.

2. What is the TC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically does this technology make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible?  Be sure to think about representation.)
Often times technology is just added on and does nothing to enhance the content of the lesson.  My goal is to use Wikispaces to enhance the content of my lesson on Michigan history.  By using Wikispaces to create the parts of their project my students will have the opportunity to work together and I will be able to see how they are working as a group.  They also will be able to give feedback to their peers and make adjustments to their project based on feedback they receive.  By using an Internet tool to create their project, students will be able to work at school and at home.  This will give students the time they need in order to create their part of the project.  The students will need to research the history of Michigan in order to create the questions for their project, which I will allow them to use textbooks and resources in the classroom as well as the Internet.  By using the Internet to research the information and then put it onto their group's Wikipage, students will get to learn the information in a new way.  After using the technology to plan the parts of the game in one spot, it will be easy to see how it will all come together in the final board game project.

3. What is the PC knowledge for the solution? (i.e., how specifically do your pedagogical choices make the content in your problem more intellectually accessible? Be sure to think about how the student will experience the content given these instructional strategies.
By having my students work in groups using Wikispaces, the content will be more accessible to them because they will learn from each other.  It also makes students take responsibility for their part of the project.  Often when students work in a group they do not contribute equal parts to the project.  So by telling students up front that I will be checking to see that they all have contributed equal parts, will help them to succeed.  This will get them used to working together as well as hold them responsible for their part.  By using these pedagogical strategies the content in my problem will be more intellectually accessible. 

Personal Learning Reflection CEP 812

I have learned so much from the CEP classes I have taken so far and cannot wait to learn more!  Looking back at my reflection from CEP 811 I have definitely been working toward my goal.  My goal was to learn more technologies I can use in my teaching to help enhance lessons and increase student achievement.  I have learned so many technologies in this course and the other course I am taking currently.  Here is a word cloud I have created to show the technologies I have learned so far.

In this course I have been able to try many new technologies I have never used before.  I have created a podcast to reflect on this more.  http://www.box.com/s/rb9dyq0o2tbmpzavobpg

Group Leadership Final Project

Our group chose to use Jing to present our final project.  We had tried using Adobe Connect previously when our group met, but felt that Jing was the best option for us for a few reasons.  First or all, when we used Adobe Connect we experienced an echo and felt that Jing came in much clearer.  Also, in order to use Adobe Connect we would have all had to meet and record together.  This is why we decided to use Jing.  We could each record our part individually at a time that worked for us.  We chose to have each of us record our part because we did not think is was fair to have one person do it all.  It would have probably flowed better if one person did the recording, but we also did not feel comfortable presenting the other parts of the presentation that were not our speciality.  So, since each of recorded our speciality I feel that our presentation was the clearest and informative as it could be.


I learned a lot during the process of creating our final product.  First of all, I learned a lot about how to create a Prezi.  I have never used Prezi before and after creating this project I feel that this is a tool I can use.  I am not completely comfortable using it yet, but I will continue to explore and learn more even though the project is over.  I also learned how important it is to communicate with your group members.  Our group communicated in a variety of ways, one of these ways was our initial meeting with Adobe Connect.  We also used Google Docs and email which worked well for our group.  I learned that through communication we were able to talk about things that were not as clear and figure things out together.


If I were to do a similar project again I would do a few things differently.  I would add more sound effects to the presentation because I feel this is something our project is lacking.  It was difficult to pick sound effects that would be appropriate for our presentation because there are so many out there to chose from.  I also would have added more to the storyboard we created in part 2 of the project because I feel this would have helped us with creating our final project.


I feel that my group worked well together to come up with a final project that we are proud of and excited to share.  Here it is:

Group Leadership Project

Part 1 How to get started with Prezi by Lisa Napierala
http://screencast.com/t/STGZvwBV

Part 2 How to move, rotate, scale and zoom by Steve Veldman http://screencast.com/t/C8PFKglY3Svt 

Part 3 How to use frames and create a path by Linnea Czerney 

http://screencast.com/t/GzKcHHAf 

Part 4 How to invite others to view by Amanda Kain  
http://screencast.com/t/8umJelEDrRr

Prezi:
http://prezi.com/hghw3c2dogey/copy-of-technology/