Final reflection

There are a lot of lessons I have learnt throughout participating in this design challenge that I can take and embed in my own classroom to educate students about technology. I found that design challenges are a great way to educate students about technology. It can incorporate multiple resources such as blogs, wikis, online concept mapping, screen shotting, embedding, linking etc. all of which are important resources that students need to learn about in the school system, therefore it is obvious that technology needs to be a subject that students are able to learn about. Incorporating these resources in a design challenge allows me to teach students a wide variety of tools in one unit.

When participating in the challenge I was provided with various templates that assisted me with my tasks, something that I would also provide to my students to assist them. It helped me learn and understand not just the tasks asked of me but of the technology I was required to use as well. Throughout my participation I have learnt so much about technology that I have always wondered about and would love to be able to educate young children on it and there is no better way then through a design challenge, allowing them to get creative whilst being educational. This challenge has made me realise that technology is a very creative course and allows students to be more free, independent and unique unlike other courses. It allows them a new more fun way of learning opposed to other course they undertake.

I also found that working in groups for the challenge allows ideas and creativity to flow more freely. It also allows students to interact more and better there social skills whilst learning from peers and adapting new ideas. Personally I found working in a group to be a very effective way to learn and more relaxed in that it is easier to relate to your peers then your teacher. There are positives and negatives of working within a group such as having to wait for others or everyone's schedules and time constraints are different, you can bounce ideas off of each other, help each other out, critique each other, provide feedback and ideas to assist one another etc.

Another very important lesson students are required to learn about in every subject is cultural awareness and sustainability, technology design challenges require students to anticipate any future implications of their design and therefore make any necessary changes for any foreseen implications e.g. implications to the environment. They also require students to contemplate cultural differences and sustainability when working in the initial stages of the design cycle, when articulating their design.

In conclusion all of the above are vital lessons I would utilise to educate students about technology through the use of a technology design challenge.