Hello all,
Please find my A3 creation here.
Happy to discuss your thoughts on it here.
Devon
A3 – Big Projects: Mobile and Decentralized Groups
7 responses to “A3 – Big Projects: Mobile and Decentralized Groups”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Hello Devon,
I enjoyed reading your OER and thought it was quite insightful about the nature of where technology is moving. I personally advocate for this decentralized system, but also see so many issues regarding the workings of a system that is truly inclusive and ensures the wellbeing of all contributors. This reminds of the OpenHumans project I came across with, in which researchers and contributors were able to provide often voluntarily share their medical data in an open digital fashion for any user to use. The veracity and robustness of such data is the issue, I have, when it comes to these open resources. Just like Wikipedia being questioned by the higher education academic community as an unreliable source, how do you predict something like a theoretical “Big Projects” app maintain credibility to be able to tackle big projects for big issues? What can the successes and lessons of the rise of Wikipedia, WeChat, and GoFundMe, teach us? How can these sources of collectively built wisdom ensure ethics are upheld as we continue to move towards this trend of decentralized technology?
Hi Devon,
Excellent idea! Thank you so much for sharing your “Big Projects” concepts; you’ve done a great job at encompassing all the ways this project could be helpful. I would quickly like to build upon your mention of the application’s ability to search for projects based on location. I could see with the app’s ability to track location, that getting invested people–I’m envisioning community members–could be one of the best uses for the application. I find in my project creation that getting someone professional or at least someone competent in a subject area can be a bit challenging; I’m often left to sending an email to see if any parents would be interested. Now, if that “email”–in the form of your Big Project concept–found its way out into a community, many more potential volunteers would be able to assist in class projects. I feel like there are so many people out there who would be willing to devote their time and expertise to assisting with a project, but simply have no idea that it is going on. This application could alert them that there is a project right around the corner which they would be great at assisting with. It could be like LinkedIn for volunteer school projects. With keeping in mind the aggressive privacy and safety issues that would arise, what do you think of this potential add-on?
Hi Kevin,
Thanks for the feedback. Glad to see you agree this could be a useful project.
The ability to attract local volunteers is exactly in keeping with the idea of this. Part of my idea of not making this an exclusively school-centered app was that it would be able to attract a wider variety of participants. A location based search for volunteers also sounds like a great addition – people could reach out to community contacts to help on a short or long term basis. Awesome suggestion.
Devon
Hi Devon,
I really enjoyed reading your A3 and your thoughts around possibilities that mobile technology could offer large applied student projects.
The funding aspect especially I thought was interesting.
Would you envision helping students launch a long term project that they would would have ownership over and continue on with?
Or would it make more sense to have something like this 523 course, in which it is an ongoing work in which we are building on previous cohorts, but the ‘project’ itself stays in the confines of the course?
I felt that your A3 brought in a lot of really interesting ideas for consideration without defining your vision into a box with a finished concept. My understanding of your vision with the OER was to get people thinking about about all these possibilities these mobile technologies could support for big projects. I really like where you went with this, and I think that is one of the points about 523 as a course is that we are trying to bring in ideas for the next cohort to build on. What do you think? Does my reading of your project align with what you were conveying?
By the way, I also notice with your projects that you are a true educator as you always sneak in really interesting facts and information, I always learn something reading your projects. The concept of the Karim line as defined by where the atmosphere gets so thin it can no longer sustain winged flight and therefore demarcates the beginning of space – blew my mind!
Thanks for this interesting take on how mobile technology can enable deeper learning.
Rich
Hi Rich,
Thanks for the feedback on the OER.
Your reading of my work is what I was trying to convey: possible threads and directions as opposed to a specific outcome. Glad you both got my intended meaning and agree.
As to your question of how I would see this being used with students, I would hope that it could be done in multiple ways. Some projects could be heavily directed by a teacher acting as a mentor/sponsor, while others could be mostly student driven with a teacher providing minimal oversight or reporting for curricular requirements. Ideally, I envision an environment where projects run by schools, students, independent organizations or individuals, would all have equal standing. If a student led environmental club could attract volunteers as legitimately as a local charity, then the potential benefits are immense.
Thanks for noticing my little drops of trivia along the way. These are often the kind of facts and ideas that get me excited, so the fact that sharing them has pedagogical benefits is nice bonus!
Devon
Hello Devon,
I agree I think this generation of students are very pessimistic of math and science, to an unreasonable degree. There are factors to this – math and science have been feeling the effects of Covid passes and skipping curriculum in order to meet reporting guidelines. At the same time, it is not entirely their fault. There seems to be traces of lack of self-efficacy when approaching assessments, a lack of studying strategies, practice/homework management, and this idea learned from social media that math is unimportant. I can tell it’s a confusing and frustrating time for students and teachers.
It’s almost like schools and education systems need to reset and rethink what math and science can look like for students by integrating AI into teaching. We need students to buy into this idea as mathematical skills are fundamental for their development in logic, sequencing, life experience, and communication.
Totally agree that the pessimism towards math and science are not without cause. I managed to enjoy the subjects as a student more in spite of my classes than because of them. Part of my reasoning for joining the MET program was the goal of seeing how technology can help redirect the teaching of those subjects in particular.