Reading Reflection #5

1. Discussion on the items that should be considered before starting a project with students:

Some of the items that should be considered before starting a project include the following: What materials will you need? Will your project involve the use of technologies that are new to you or your students? Will you need to expand your students' access to technology? Will your students need access to experts to answer the questions that are apt to come up during the project? Who else can help with your project? How will you divide responsibilities? Some of the things you can do before the project starts is to plan a project calendar for the students to let them know what needs to be done, teach your students to be effective time managers, and to let students know of deadlines along the way. All in all, you need to plan for assessments, deadlines, teamwork, and resources.These are all things to consider before starting a project with your students.

2. Discussion on teachers' and students' management needs:

Teachers' project management needs: 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, and systems for managing work products.
Students' project-management needs: 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 of seeking assistance, ways to get and use feedback on their work through self reflection, team input, and teacher advice, and ways to work iteratively and to see how parts add up to the whole when the project is complete.

3. Discuss some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project:

Some of the technology applications that should be considered for use in a project include a wiki, a blog, Drupal, Textpattern, personalized web pages, use a web based desktop application, and much more. These tools can help students collaborate and can allow the student to learn about new changes when they arise.

4. Discussion on how concepts in this chapter relate to your project:

The biggest thing that this chapter touched base on that relates to our project is the preparation aspect. In order to start our project it will take a lot of preparation and organizing before we just jump into things. In order to be successful with our fundraiser, we have to be sure we are well organized and prepared for anything.