EDTC 6332 Practicum

Reflections Two

 

On my last Reflection page, I spoke about feeling overwhelmed and made the suggestion to other students to not procrastinate. I feel as if I'm not following my own advice. After I received my approved project proposal rubric and grade, I asked my mentor to explain feedback comments. Our busy lives (school, work, home, etc.) have not permit for us to meet or even schedule time to review and discuss. Nonetheless, I did discuss feedback comments with Mr. Raul Ibarra, Lead Teacher at Ignite Public Schools. He provided encouragement and I felt somewhat better.

In order for me to continue to move forward with this heavy capstone project I have accomplished the following:

·         Created project workspace via My PBworks Wiki: http://juanitau3.pbworks.com/w/page/52714186/FrontPage

·         Developed actual solution via Word document by following Dick and Carey model
·         Titled project: Igniting Teachers to Blog
·         Included all major model components
·         Documented all the details in the production process

As for my short-term (work) objectives, I plan to achieve them by organizing my workload by timeline management. Every time I look at the calendar there is something due interrupting me from moving forward with my capstone project. For example, writing six reflection papers and four essay question exams. Yes, it sounds as if I'm complaining or venting, but this is exactly how I feel. Nevertheless, I mark my calendar to keep up with those "interruptions" by organizing and prioritizing all assignments that need to be worked on and submitted.

At first impression the sample projects provided in Blackboard Project section look very intimidating. After reviewing all four, I decided to go with Carla McLain's Wiki example. The reason I selected Carla's example is because her project is well thought out, informative, user friendly, easy to read, and easy to navigate throughout the links. However, I did notice that some pages had different fonts, size points and some tables were not closed or completed. Given a second chance to correct such minor details would bring my capstone project via Wiki to the next level of professionalism and perfection. My advice to my classmates is to understand that those seemingly small details make the difference between a professional product and one that is not. I think those details count because as instructional designers, we want to turn in a well completed professional project to our higher ups. As project managers, we want project to be completed in a professional manner where it can be utilize at work site. On the other hand, I can only speak for myself; my capstone project will be utilized in real life academic school setting. My clients (teachers) are looking forward to seeing the final project and learn.