When I started my final vision project, I knew what I wanted to talk about. The first thing that came to mind was mobile devices. I figured that this is an issue that isn’t going to go away and needed to be addressed. I also wanted to talk about the current model for Pro-D and how we can improve upon it for the future to support teachers. Finally, as someone who used to play a lot of video games as a kid, I wanted to talk about how gamification could be used in education.
What I didn’t know was how I was going to present that information. I toyed with the idea of making a video, but after a couple of test shoots, the quality wasn’t up to the standards I was used to seeing. It was mostly me that was the problem. I couldn’t make myself look or sound interesting on camera. It was just awkward. So, I moved on. After getting nowhere for several hours, I decided to open my blog and just start typing. My typical process for the inquiry blogs was to do some research, formulate an idea of what I wanted to write, type it up, then add the media aspects last. I just took the same approach with the final vision project so that it at least looked like I was making progress. After a while, the content started to pile up and I thought it began looking too cluttered and disorganized. I decided to move my work over to a website. When you look at the website, each page is formatted very similarly to a blog post. However, I chose this format for a few reasons:
- It organized my ideas better and was easier to navigate. I felt this would create a better user experience for the browser.
- It is more aesthetically appealing and I found it allowed for more creativity in terms of design.
- I wanted to try something new. The video didn’t work out and I already had all of this content typed up, so moving it over to a website was a logical choice.
In the end, I felt that the website accomplished my goal of better organizing my key elements. Did it turn out to be the best website ever? No. Do my pages function a whole lot like individual blog posts? Yes. I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the best web designer. Hopefully I can do a better job of learning web design techniques and make my future websites more functional. But I am proud of the fact that I tried something new and was somewhat successful with it. It at least looks and functions like a website. It also looks better than my blog in my opinion.
I had the benefit of receiving some good constructive criticism for my project and it helped me to realize a few things. It helped me realize some of the flaws in my work. I clearly misunderstood a few portions of the rubric. More important than me actually misunderstanding is the reason why I misunderstood in the first place. I never asked any questions. I believed I had a good idea of what I was supposed to accomplish and I never asked to see if my interpretation of the project was correct. This is something I lecture my students all the time on.
Mr. Lee just finishes teaching and explaining a project.
Mr. Lee: Okay, does anyone have any questions.
Students: Silence
Mr. Lee: Nobody has any questions? You all know exactly what you have to do?
Students: Nod yes.
Mr. Lee: Well, I know that every time we do a project at least a few don’t follow everything that I asked for. So, please feel free to come to me if you are unsure about anything.
Students: Can you please stop talking now so we can get to work. We know what we are doing.
Mr. Lee marks projects. Several students misunderstood what they were supposed to do.
I am now guilty of not doing exactly what I ask my students to do all the time. At least I am aware of it now and can do something about it. I believe that the reflective process is good not just in education but in all aspects of life. It’s a positive way of questioning how you do things and whether there is a better way. It also helps to remind us about what we already know. I knew that I should be asking more questions, but I had just stopped doing it. Perhaps it was the nature of the online course and not having face to face interaction. I’m not sure. But now I am aware and that is a good thing so that I can adjust for the future.
