Project Retrospective – Making Useful Tool ETEC 511 2024W2

 

Team 1 is a group of young, vibrant, all girls team led by Elaine Lee. Our project is to design and create a resource-rich website for students from kindergarten to Grade 5, tailored specifically for parents in British Columbia to provide a parent’s guide to elementary maths mastery and committed to align with the BC New Curriculum.

 

We kicked off project on Feb 1, 2024 by initial brainstorming via Zoom meeting to discuss project topic, medium, target audience and arranged a session with Keri to discuss the initial thoughts and topics we have. To provide easy access for all members across time zone, geography, different availability, we use Google docs to share 1) Meeting Agenda 2) Group project proposal draft and amendment. We use Wix to create the website, and Genially to do the learning material, with printables including work sheets and YouTube resources attached for offline further discussion and practice for parents and kids.

 

We build the website from scratch. With five members onboarded, we did labour division in terms of design and execution and make sure each member try new tools as a self challenge.

 

My role includes

1) Module 3, repetitive patterns – course design, learning material design, draft and execution via Genially with background voice explanation, printable materials (worksheets).

2) Final presentation and demo: rationale and connection to IPs

3) APA reference for all the video content from Module 1 to Module 5

4) over 90% attendance rate for weekly discussion and provide constant feedback regarding content discussion.

 

This is a star team with good leader Elaine Lee who demonstrated strong leadership with clear logic, efficient execution skills, not-too-pushy leading style, clear timeline and proper paced. I got the chance to try Wix and Genially, the two useful tools that I never tried before and participated thought provoking discussions every week. Keri provided helpful guidelines to make sure we are on right track. We incorporated IPs discussions, and make sure our output is based on First Peoples Principle of Learning/EDIDA, usability and accessibility – key fundamental concepts that learned in ETEC 511.

 

Regardless of final score of our team project, the team work experience itself is fruitful and enjoyable. Team has formed a healthy , safe and non-judgmental discussion space which encourage team members to share their thoughts and opinions openly. We focus on continuous improvement, not blame, on any output from each member. During weekly Zoom online meeting, for members who cannot join, they were encouraged to read “meeting agenda” and catch up themselves. This gives everyone the flexibility while still sees close to full attendance of each member for the weekly meeting.

 

Due to time limit and limited technology knowledge background of team members, the website itself may look a bit simple and our numeracy content is only for Grade 1 for students in BC. The content could be more multi-layered, resourceful and dynamic if time allows.