Final Reflection

I started off this subject a few weeks behind schedule and I felt a lot of pressure to catch up and find myself a group to work with. I was very close to dropping the subject when I received a call from Wendy Fasso. She helped me to relax as she walked me through the steps I missed. I had a very skeptical view on collaborative work from previous experiences, so I was very nervous to say the least. I knew that if I wanted to become a teacher that collaboration was a vital tool I needed to learn and that their insights could offer me a wealth of knowledge. Lazear (1999) agrees by stating, “…mingling with other insights and ideas, will lead a group to leaps in understanding that would not have been possible for an individual.” My fear of working with others was a barrier I needed to overcome. 

A few days later and Kelvin asked me to join their group.

Through this process, my opinions and thoughts have changed dramatically. Our group has been supportive of each other from the start and it was obvious that we all wanted to help each other succeed and get great results.  I found there were challenges along the way whilst working collaboratively but most of it was smooth sailing. The biggest challenge for me personally was trying to stay on top of peer feedback so that I was not letting other team members down. This was something that I saw all of us struggling with. The encouraging thing about our team was that we were all accepting of the fact that we had very different schedules, so we had to do the best that we could in the time we had available. This is something I would emphasise to my students in the classroom. Every student has a different way of learning and different schedules outside of school and we should work together to overcome these hurdles e.g. If a student was absent, take extra time to walk them through what they had missed.

When I was first exposed to the “Design Cycle’, I was not confident in the structure and I did not understand the importance of going through all of the steps. By completing my design in stages, I became aware of how vital each step was and how to use the process. The tools, formats and activities provided to us on Moodle assisted me to complete each stage confidently. To be able to see how everyone in my group was progressing on our wiki page was beneficial because I was able to use that as a guide to how I was tracking. In my classroom, I would use lots of visuals with my students and break down the process into stages so that they understood what was expected of them. I would also highlight what areas we were looking at in regards to the Australian Curriculum e.g. Futures thinking, environmental impacts, sustainability and safe disposal of wastes because this is of high importance through the design cycle.

Through the steps of completing my design challenge, I began to get a greater understanding of the subject and why technology is a crucial subject in the school system. I learnt so many tools through the first 5 weeks of the course that I would be able to use in the classroom e.g. twitter, mindmaps, wikipages and blogs. I struggled to set up some of these learning tools, but with the help of my peers and lecturers, I was able to stay on track and learn some invaluable skills. What I learnt very quickly was that technology is the way of the future and as teachers, it is best to embrace it and go on the journey with your students. On the journey so far, I have had lecturers and peers support me and I managed to complete tasks assigned to us.

Throughout the course about design technology, my mind has opened up to the endless possibilities that await us using technology. I will utilise the ‘Design Cycle’ tool and educate my students on how each design can help make a difference in creating sustainable futures.

Reference:

Lazear, D. (1999) Eight Ways of Knowing. Teaching for Multiple Intelligencies, Harker Brownlow Education, Cheltenham.