foolfillment: the blog

I got my degree result today - a 2:1. Can’t complain about that can I?

Fingers crossed I’ll find out which school I’ve been placed in for next year in the post tomorrow too!

As I’ve completed my final year project at last I’ve decided to make it available here as PDF file. Perhaps this is foolish!

Feel free to have a look, but bear in mind this is my first piece of research.

Collaborative Wikis for University Students (PDF 1039kb)
Abstract: Wikis are opening up exciting opportunities for collaborative learning. This study looks at a group of university students using wikis as part of their group-based design course to see if there are any benefits. What is found is the importance of treating wikis as a new technology and creating new tasks instead of using them as a modern alternative to more traditional learning methods. Also striking is the sense of ownership that the students felt over their own work, and the importance that face to face communication plays in developing understanding despite having access to wikis.

My last lecture was today, afterwards I went and had my dissertation printed and bound (nevermind that somehow I managed to get the wrong file printed and will have to go back and get it done again…), on Friday I’ll hand it in and then no doubt go to The Primary for a quick celebratory sherbet with more than a couple of others in my year.

A couple of weeks after that I have a wee test - I love exams on my course, most of the work is done throughout the year so when it comes to an exam they usually aren’t anything to worry about. They can usually be treated as a nice little trip to the Hunter Halls where you can marvel at the intricate stonework for an hour or so.

A couple of weeks after that the GTCS will post out a letter saying where I will be teaching next year, and I also have an oral exam and a presentation to give to the class - both on my dissertation.

First of all though I’m going spend tomorrow installing Feisty Fawn on an ageing desktop computer. (Wish me luck Robert!)

I have to admit to being a bit fed up with uni at the moment. Having finished up at school a little over a week ago on a high moving on to a timetable with a gaping hole where I am supposed to do my own learning and research has been a horrible transition. I’m very aware that there is a lot of work to be done at the moment but I cope much better with work if there are short tasks with immediate consequencies rather than one big, open task that doesn’t need to be completed until about 7 months from now.
However I’ve had a chat with my superviser who pointed out very subtly and gently what I already was acutely aware of - I need to do some reading, and soon.
So, this week is going to be spent looking up Entwistle, Biggs, Dweck, Perry, Behaviourist and constructivist learning, and trying not to look at too many blogs - although East Lothian’s Extreme Learning projects are ridiculously related to what I’m looking at that I have to keep an eye on them.

Part of the school placement system on my course is that we produce a number of full lesson plans for for lessons we have taken.

I don’t feel submitting these plans has much benefit on it’s own - writing up lessons plans like these ones is bit of a false thing, what is being tested is not the ability to come up with a good idea for a lesson and carry it out well but rather analyse every detail about the pupils and their needs. You would never find a practising teacher spending their time filling out a 1000 word plan under sections headed ‘Previous Knowledge of Pupils’ or ‘Plans for Differentiation’ for each and every lesson they take. It’s not that they aren’t bothering, it’s just that it isn’t worthwhile writing it up and adapting it after each time you see a class.

I’ll submit all the lesson plans in the form they are asked for but I think far more important is a piece of reflection written after having taken the lesson looking at how it went and how I could improve. A piece like this isn’t asked for but I think it is far more beneficial than most of the other content so I’m going to add it in at the end of each plan anyway.

[tags]lesson plans, teaching, reflection[/tags]

My final year project has been going round in my head a lot recently and I had a meeting with my supreviser today and I’m quite excited with what may happen. Rather than re-writing everything I’ve just writtewn though here’s a link to my wikispaces page where I’m developing my thoughts. foolfillment.wikispaces.com Please feel free to add a comment to the discussion page, I’d really appreciate any comments or ideas you may have, or resources you have maybe seen that may be valuable to me.

I really should be making plans for my final year project at the moment, but I’m working most days and when I’m not I can’t seem to get started. What am I trying to find out? How am I going to do that? What reading do I need to start with? And importantly for now: when am I going to find time?!

Having previously considered blogs, I’m now turing towards wikis - blogs could be harder to manage, in terms of time and in creating a suitable project for them - and how they can as a means of learning. I need to find time to read USING WIKIS IN SCHOOLS by Lyndsay Grant.

More ponderings to come no doubt.

So I’ve been putting some thought into what I need to do for my project next year. I really ought to start now but time is running out, I have however been writing up some things on a wikipace, I’ll keep it a secret for now but I’ll come back here to ask opinions sometime probably, from all those educators out there.

I’m not sure at the moment what it is I’m looking to find out, but the general aim of it is going to be based around wikis. It ouwld be nice to be able to use them while out in school next placement but to get the project all into place in time for that is unlikely, so I think what’ll happen is one of the courses at uni will nbe tweaked so that they have to use a wiki. It may yet turn out to include some blogs along the way like I had intended.

I went to the pub last night. In a year’s time I’ll be about to graduate, as will Morven. We’ll know where I’m going to be teaching for the next year, Morven will be be looking for a job in the same area. Andy and Kat, who we were at the pub with will have vastly different prospects, but equally undefined. Andy will have another 4 - at least - years of uni, while Kat will be somewhere - Lossimouth? - far away from Glasgow in the RAF. Sobering prospects.

Anyway, today I wrestled with an essay that’s due on Friday, I just couldn’t get it out and I’m dtill not happy with it but I don’t know if I’m able to get it any better without doing a complete rewrite which I don’t have time for. On the other side of things though, Inventor is doing all the hard work for me at the moment regards design. If only I’d been introduced to it earlier I could have had all this done much sooner. This week we should be ready to put our files into the rapid prototyper and set it loose on a big part of our final grade. Neil and Krysia got their’s done last Friday which was pretty exciting, it’ll be good to see how it looks tomorrow.

Aside from working today I’ve managed to distract myself with a number of little projects revolving around flickr, in particular I liked this silly little idea while I was busy not typing up my most profound thoughts about formative assessment, and before I even got started today I went for a walk in search of something interesting to photograph, I’m not sure how interesting they are, but it was a reasonable little walk.

flickr, uni work, future

This is the first example of what I’ve been using Inventor for. I’m still a little unsure how to use all of the studio effects so this isn;t as fancy as it might look.