The collaborative process in studying externally

This process of peer review and discussion has been quite a trial. I was unable to access the group wiki for some time, in the beginning, as a member went into hospital. I did all that I could to access it, but I had to wait until I was invited by that specific member or get a join code from them.

I have not found the wiki space to be very helpful in modifying my own ideas, because the comments to me have not been critical enough, in my opinion. I cannot work with 'good' although, I do appreciate it. At this point, I have had only one comment on my work, which I could not use to better my plan or design. I cannot respond to feedback in any other way than what I am doing now.

I did at one point, send some documents via email to a wiki group member whilst I was awaiting being able to access the wiki. This, unfortunately, did not assist much.

So the ideal of this process is enlightening and focused, but in my reality, it has not been as it should be. There has been a personal situation where I also lost access to the internet all together. All of these things combined, form my experience.

These were challenges, and my lesson was to make it work for me. I have enjoyed visiting other peoples blog pages to see how they have reflected and communicated their tasks. So in a way, I have made attempts to alleviate the lack of collaboration on my wiki page. I also tended to favour my blog a little, doing things on here that should have gone over to the wiki.

Through the completion of my own design I have learned that the design cycle is a non linear process, and that you can begin, ideally by investigating, but can repeat the create and evaluate process many times over. I have noticed, after documenting in visually, that my main focus in on the evaluation, making sure that students think critically about their work, how to improve it, and why. Justification is a big part of the thinking process.

I have realised too, that students must be given explicit teaching in materials and their properties. This knowledge benefits them, so that they can give deeper justification for their choices in their own designs. I think children will use materials his based on aesthetics, as well as suitability. My design leads itself naturally to researching materials that are light weight and ones that have insulating properties. Different design contexts will require different research emphasis, and this is something that I have realised.

Students need to be let in on the criteria from the beginning. This is part of a shift in visible learning that we are seeing in education, as well as clarifying their own plans.

I have learned that 'fancy' software does not necessarily win over drawing or other ways of planning a design! I spent too long trying to use software tools to establish my design and communicate it. This was ineffective. With younger children, planning with real materials, then bringing them back to a drawn design, is the way to go. I would model this process explicitly to show what I am looking for. Labelling will be an important information literacy element.

It was interesting to consider the life cycles of material and how this affects the environment and our choices. This being communicated to children is very important.