Assessment Task 1A

Throughout participating in a design challenge, my thoughts have changed with every step I undertook which can be seen throughout my blog postings. From the beginning of starting this process I had my reservations about the need for technology in the school system however after participating in this challenge and learning so much about a variety of technology I can visualise it in a classroom and how important and interesting it would be for students. Although I did encompass a few challenges along the way such as the peer feedback process, embedding and iframe codes and the design matrix but with assistance from my peers and lecturer I managed to complete all tasks and learn some invaluable skills along the way.

I found working in a group a rewarding experience that I would utilise in my classroom by getting students to work in groups of four to design a solution to the problem I have provided them, that children need to be eating more healthy and nutritious meals. I found that communicating online can lead to misinterpretations of communication and by working in an online capacity due to time constraints, these constraints have to be considered when communicating and assisting each other. This would also need to be discussed in my classroom, how to appropriately communicate in an online capacity. Another issue we had in our group was a member unfortunately having to leave the course however we were lucky to find a replacement and continue our work. Since my class will be working in groups, they are easily able to continue working on their design while members away. However to help the students that are away, the remainder of the group could look at posting minutes of the lesson they have partaken in or concept maps of ideas the group came up with etc. to a blog or wiki for the group to be able to access. To ensure students better understand how to embed their concept map, than what I did, I will discuss the issues I had with it and allow for it when educating the students. The issues that arose for me with embedding have previously been linked to one of my blog posts.  All of these issues would be reflected upon by the students throughout the steps of their design cycle.

When reading about the design cycle I could visualise how you would use each step to create a solution to a problem however by actually completing a design by using the design cycle I was able to fully understand the importance and full potential of the cycle, a benefit my students will be able to experience in my classroom. When discussing with my grade 5-6 class, the challenge set for them, I will speak about what specific components the design is required to incorporate, as speculated by the Australian Curriculum, which can be seen in my wiki page that states, to name a few: sustainability, futures thinking, local, regional and global communities, digital technologies, healthy food guide lines, nutrition, food handling guidelines, safety guidelines, environmental impacts, good hygiene practices and safe disposal of waste. As I have incorporated in my own design, Chicken Wraps.

A benefit of teaching the year 5-6 age bracket is that it can be very learner centred, they are old enough to work more independently and therefore be able to be more involved in the practical cooking lessons of the challenge. To ensure the final meals each group decide on are safe for them to be able to participate in, we will as a class, look at each groups design matrix and make the final decision for each groups design as a class. When creating my meal I realised some ingredients were more expensive than others and that I needed to think about how I would allow for this in my classroom which has been discussed in my blog posting “Week 4: Creating my design: Chicken Wraps”.  My risk assessment on my wiki page, discusses how the cooking lesson will take place.

Throughout learning about design technology I have clearly learned a lot of invaluable knowledge that I can utilise in my classroom to educate students about the design cycle and its vital role in the curriculum and school. Technology is an instrument all students will be using in one form or another therefore teachers need to be able to adequately advance their already expanding knowledge and teach them about the importance of it towards our future.