Final Project #16

FINALLY, the project is complete! The idea for this project came to me earlier this semester when Dr. Strange discussed, with his EDM310 class, the lack of blog posts that children involved in the World Blogging Challenge were publishing. By the end of this class discussion we concluded that the problem resided with the teachers rather than the students, and if teachers were the source of the problem then how could EDM310 address this problem? My proposal was that EDM310 students should create a video designed to motivate teachers to utilize more technology in their classroom, and before I knew it this proposal became the theme for my final project. So, without any further delay, I proudly present to you the Scholars United Final Project!

PART 1



PART 2

Collaboration (Project #13)

WOW, where would Scholars United be without collaboration? One of the hardest assignments for college students to accomplish is group assignments, and this is primarily because of the difficulty that each group has with collaboration. Dr. Strange asked his students to construct their projects in a different way than most professors would propose, and I am extremely appriciateive for his instruction. Dr. Strange was concerned with the quality of the projects that each group produced, but he was equally concerned with the collaborative tools that each group used to accomplish their projects. In a math class, for example, students are worried about finding the correct answer, but in actuality the process taken to determine the answer is what the professor is actually looking for. The most important aspect of any task is the process that was taken to achieve that task. In the same way Dr. Strange was absutely concerned with teaching his students the importance of the collaborative tools that will help them systematically achieve their goal.

GOOGLE, GOOGLE, and more GOOGLE

There were SO many different ways that Scholars United collaborated this semester, but the majority of our collaboration efforts revolved around Google. Online collaboration was an important aspect of our success in EDM310, and at times I even felt like we worked better when we communicated through technology than we did in person. The most important tool that we used to collaborate was Google Docs. Most people would not imagine a document to be a collaboration tool, but Google has created a remarkable new way for people to create and share documents. Because the advantages of Google Docs are so difficult to describe, watch this informative video which describes Google Docs in Plain English. We as a group created two documents for each of the assignments that we worked on, and the documents that were created were ABSOLUTELY our home base for collaboration.  All other collaborative tools centered around Google Docs.

Each member of Scholars United did occasionally communicate through text messages and phone calls, but the majority of our vocal communication was also done through Google. Through Google's social platform (Google+) users are offered a tool called Google Hangouts. Google Hangouts could be described as Skype on steroids, and it is basically a free video chatting tool that multiple people can chat on at once. There are so many ways to have Fun with Hangouts! We as a group did not use Google Hangouts as a means to accomplish boring school work, but rather we used it as a means to spark creativity through curiosity. We really enjoyed using Google Hangouts, and through having fun on Google Hangouts we were ultimately motivated to be creative with both of the projects that we produced.

Most of Scholars United's collaboration took place through Google. All online chats, video conversations, and email were done through Google, and for us Google triumphed all other technological communication! The video posted below is a short demenstration of how we used Google Hangouts and Google Docs simultaneously.

Blog Post 14 (Final Reflection/ Exam)