Unit 3 - ED 568c

PBL 1 Reflection

I really enjoyed the Problem Based Learning model. Setting up a wiki was easy enough, but to truly understand its capabilities, it was best to experiment with a real purpose for the wiki. This is just what we did when we set up the wiki for global collaboration between a US school and a Shanghai school. The problem, being how we would incorporate this technology and to what extent, was a great thinking piece for best practice in how to utilize a wiki. To that end I feel that the positive and negative aspects to this project are one and the same. Learning about wikis through the use of a wiki was definitely a positive, in that it was a hands on learning experience. That said, it could also be viewed as a negative. Perhaps there is more that we could have done with our wiki and we didn’t know how to do it. I often find new tools within applications I am already familiar with, such as Microsoft Word. So perhaps, we are just constantly learning when it comes to technology, its capabilities, and applications.

One challenge that presented itself during this project was the online collaboration for a group. Working with a partner was extremely helpful to have another perspective and feedback for different ideas on how to do the project. At the same time, it was difficult to coordinate a time to work on the assignment together or split the work up appropriately. I feel that we put forth a positive collaborative project and worked well together given the online circumstances.

I continue to feel that technology for technology’s sake is not the way to go and integration is key to education. I think that many educators are still resistant to technology integration within the curriculum, but change is a process that takes time.