Trail Mix: Maureen, Lorraine, Alicia, Lance, and Daniel |
Cool Geeks: Cathy, Nita, BriAnne, Dustin (missing: Jaci) |
Food for Thought: Jane, Raymond, Shinji, Melanie, Cheryl |
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Some of the reflective questions and participant answers are re-posted here from email responses in preparation for the presentation:
Why did you join up with ITF?
Lorraine: I joined ITF because I've never tried anything like it before. The fact
that only 6 high schools in the nation are participating was pretty
intimidating, not to mention the fact that a lot of the students were upper
classmen. I was wondering, "What am I doing here, and what could I do?" To
me, joining this project was just to prove to myself that I can do the
impossible. Oh yeah,the extra credit didn't hurt either
Cheryl: I joined ITF for three main reasons. One to help me better
understand the different technologies that were out there. Two, to get a
chance to let my mind create and think freely and three to work with a
variety of people and get a hands on experience. Also I was drawn in at
the first meeting when they were talking about all of these fascinating
things i had never heard of or dreamed of.
Maureen: I joined ITF mainly because I would be able to experience the newest
technology as its actually being created and modified. Where else in our
school day would I be able to use video-conferencing or learn about
tele-immersion. I wanted to be there for the beginnings of tech we'll
probably use everday in the future.I also knew that if I joined, I would get
the chance of meeting some very interesting, nice, and creative people.
Being able to work in small, tight groups seemed fun. It was a chance were
we could be creative and think "off the wall" and not be pulled back down.
Meeting the best of the techies out there was also appealing.
Nita: I joined the ITF because it just sounded different and interesting. I must
admit that after the first meeting I was kind of scared, scared that I will not
make it, that I will not meet the requirements. I am not really knowledgeable
in technology, and the was one of the reasons that made me think that I am not
suitable for ITF. But I saw it as a challenge, as an interesting challenge that
I wanted to overcome. Maybe just as another proof to myself that when I want to
do something I will succeed!
Jane: I joined ITF because it was an area of work that I was not at all experienced or even familiar with. It was a rush for me to think of what could possibly be instead of what has already been. It’s a world full of the unknown and ITF allows you to explore that. The overnighter was definitely a draining experience, but very beneficial. We got a taste of what we got ourselves into :) and created sample sites, learned about enduring knowledge, etc. We got to know each other better which led to the creation of the teams we have today.
“… organizing gifted people in ways that allow them both to achieve great things and to experience the joy and personal transformation that such accomplishment brings.”
Warren Bennis, Organizing Genius
Can you share a bit about your first in depth ITF experience-the overnighter?
Lorraine: The overnighter was really fun, and a great way to get to know everyone.
The learning atmosphere was different, we got to watch a movie! Ono food
the whole time. Everyone was tired but we were fueled with ---Mrs. Sueoka's
favorite word--"synergy" (is that how you spell it?)
Cheryl: At the overnighter it was a different experience. I got to meet
with an interesting group of people and quickly got to know them. The good
thing about the overnighter was that everyone was in such a spirited mood
that it made it easier to accomplish the activities that were given to us.
The best part of the overnighter.... besides the food was the
tele-conference. I never imagined that I would expereince technology this
far advanced. Although the audio connection was terrific just the thought
that we were communicating with a person and visually seeing them on a
screen was fantastic. The coaches were well prepared and lead us through
the night smoothly and kept us all on the balls of our feet with one
activity after another.
Maureen: The overnighter was challenging but a lot of fun. That's when I started
learning about the different tech going on. I barely knew anything about
tele-immersion before the video-conference with Dr. Sadagic. It was amazing
to see all these things that people are dreaming of and then going out to
make them happen. I got to know a lot of the other students participating in
ITF for the first time that night. When we grouped up to do our webpages or
video, we got a taste of how our real groups were going to be like. It was
almost like a mini version of our projects now. We sort of tested how
creative we could be and how we could stick to really tight deadlines. It
was also when found we all had something in common...our love for food :D.
"The aim of our project is…to create conditions, especially technological environments and strategic relationships, that will nurture the ability of students and educators to explore how advanced technologies and networking can be used in education."
ThinkQuest
How is this project different from other projects that you have experienced in school?
Lorraine: We were able to do the work on our own schedules through email, chat to
communicate, and meet each other face to face as well. I really like it
because it's not really a high pressure thing, but you're still motivated to
do the project. another cool thing was that we were students from different
grades. the seniors/juniors shared their wisdom
and the sophmores/freshmen learned, and shared some stuff too.
Cheryl: Well first of all this project requires so much time in such a
short period. You have to be really aware and knowledgeable about what's
going on. I feel that this type of learning atmosphere is much better
suited because it gives no time to slack off and it also keeps everyone
thinking and putting in their best effort. Also it allows students to
explore their thoughts and bring out the creativity within themselves.
Maureen: This project is different because we don't really have set boundaries.
We can (actually we have to) be as creative as possible but still be able to
get people interested in the technology. This project pulls in more skills
than most of the projects I've ever done. In traditional projects, its
basically a "re-tell" of the facts and not much creativity is actually
required. For straight forward topics, all you can do is add a little
personality or else you get all the data mixed up. Especially for our
project, we are mixing history with tech...which is something you probably
wouldn't get in a traditional class.
Nita: I like the collaboration in ITF. Everything depends on what we want; there
isn't actually anybody that would restrict our ideas. We can really leave
our imagination lead the way. In most of other projects there are much more
"rules" you have to follow. And I enjoy the teamwork.
Jane: ITF is very independent and is more of a work-study type of group. Usually groups are formed through friends or people you are used to working with but here we actually get to work with people of different areas of “expertise””. We are allowed to work with different types of people, different grade levels, and different personalities. I enjoy it because your ideas are welcomed as well as fused with a viewpoint that may never have been reached without the varying types of people. Also instead of having coaches feed us information and do the learning for us, we as a group are forced to plan and explore with the coaches simply overseeing and guiding us.
How is this learning community different from the regular classroom?
Maureen: ITF's learning community is different because its more relaxed but
focused. We only have one major project so we just concentrate on that. We
don't have to worry about info that we won't need. Its relaxed because we
are in a smaller group so we can be more of ourselves. We really get to know
everyone and the coaches can spend more time helping us. We can be much
more creative because we are introduced to all these programs.
Nita: the community is much different than the one in our classrooms. It kind of
resembles the learning community of the future. The students have the same role
in making decisions, often greater, than the coaches, and communication
isn't relayed only on the times when we meet, a lot of communication is
done through Internet.
Jane: ITF is geared more towards technology, an area where I definitely lack some knowledge in. It is a refreshing change of pace and allows me to learn about something totally new. Our education leading up to high school has basically been about setting a foundation of knowledge, learning about the past and what has already been learned. ITF is different because this project gears and shifts us into a view of the future. Never before have I felt I could be allowed to expand like this. The field of interest is limitless and it takes advantage of our free thought and wildest imaginations. Instead of learning what has already been done, we are dealing with what has never been done, and what we can hopefully become.
"Students working in small teams will be imagining and prototyping their own vision of future learning systems and applications, giving ideas on how they would teach subjects of their choice or new skills that help learning processes."
ITF Project Description
Tell us a little bit about your team proposals
- what are you hoping to teach others,
- how are you planning to use cutting edge technology to do it, and
- why do you think your teaching website and the innovation that you
are going to design will be successful?
Cheryl (Food for Thought): After many hours spent on collaborating and brainstorming FFT has
come to a final product and that is to teach math, music, and art as a
universal language. We hope to be able to teach others how these three
relate and how each of them are very important. To get as close as
possible with the short amount of time we plan on using flash, photoshop,
whiteboards, and other programs and things to get as close as possible to
what we imagine. ["Just enough to stimulate" (Ms. S) ] I feel that our
proposal will be a success because by just knowing what the basic three
are, it won't give you a full understanding and by showing how they relate
and are relevent in a growing society I think that our project will be
successful and help to teach others.
Maureen (TrailMix): Hopefully we'll teach others history like they've never seen before.
Instead of "JUST" text, we now have games and interaction so they can get
more involved with the cultures. They learn about how cultures experiemented
on their own so that they would understand the world surrounding them. And
how those observations are helping our societies today deal with our
environments...
We hope to use tele-immersion...or actually a stimulation of it...so
that the learner can experience the culture better. With tele-immersion,
they can feel as they are actually there in South America where the Mayans
lived or in Greece next to the temples that had been built.
I think that our website will be successful because it'll be easier for
learners our age to relate to. We're all growing up with computers now so
they'll feel interested in learning about cultures. We'll also hopefully
have put enough information to make it appeal to those who are very into the
certain culture. They could maybe use our website as a source.
Nita (Cool Geeks): my team, the cool geeks, met a couple of times. We started of with a
general idea, communications. And during our discussions we narrowed it into
media. Our main idea is to research how authentic is the media of today, and
how can it become more authentic in the future. We are planning to form some
kind of interactive web site, where the visitors would be able to give their
own opinion, and have a better understanding of why media isn't always
the complete truth, and how could we help for it to become more authentic. We
thought this concept would be important to be taught, as it has to do with
communication, and the media is becoming a part of our lives more and more. In
our web site we are hoping to use the technologies available as best as we can.
We would use Flash and Photoshop, and even if we cannot we would present our
idea of how VR or teleimmersion could be used to teach our idea in a better
way. For ex. Using VR a person could actually get a feeling of how it is to be
the one reporting the news, or something similar.
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