Reflection

Todays task was to research a topic in small groups, which then could be turned into an individual poster.

For the first half of the lesson all students were given a number and each number gave us which group we would be in. The group I was placed in was given Artificial Intelligence to research.

Within the group discussion began about what artificial intelligence was and how it is used within society and education. Once the research into this topic began it became apparent that the other group members and I was not collaborating, it felt as though I was individually researching this topic (although that might just be my personality trait as it has been pointed out in past group tasks that I do not engage with the group but rather get stuck in and research information independently, this may be something I need to work on in the future) as there was not much discussion between myself and other group members during the research process. Once we had found out information we did share what we had found.

After the research had been completed, we had to individually produce a poster of the information we found. This part of the lesson was engaging, and I did complete a poster relating to the research topic; artificial intelligence.

Reflecting upon the lack of communication and collaboration I have within a group task; I need to work on this and not just go off on my own researching topics which should be dine as a group, I need to engage in more conversation with group members and discuss the information I find as I find it that way other group members may be able to engage with myself and aid in gaining more information and/or knowledge on a particular topic/subject.

Todays session consisted of a WordPress demonstration.

This demonstration showed us how to set up a WordPress account, how we can use this to record our reflections on a weekly basis and how it would become our blog to be used for our assessment at the end of term.

The initial set up of WordPress was not too difficult, learning how to use it is a little mind boggling; there are a number of tabs that lead to many different areas of the site, there’s editing tools and many more menu tabs that I have no idea of, although I am sure after a few uses I will become familiar with the site (fingers crossed).

This site will become my blog as there is no other site I have interacted with or looked at before. It seems a legitimate reason to use WordPress as it has been demonstrated within today’s session, if I was to investigate other blog sites I think I may become confused; best to stick to what has been shown.

So… setting up WordPress, we created an account which was pretty straight forward, it had a basic set up guideline, enter a few personal details and away we went. Trying to make this page my own proved a little problematic as I was new to the sight and did not fully understand how it worked. I managed to edit a few things on the sight and somewhat make some changes to incorporate myself into the page. By the end of the session I was happy with what progress I had made with the help from the tutor.

Today Mark introduced the class to HTML coding, this is the coding behind website creation.

I found the lesson slightly confusing, as there is a lot of coding needed to even create the smallest change to a website.

The aim of the lesson was to create our own website using HTML coding on a software application called Dreamweaver. I found the software difficult to use, but with guidance from Mark we managed to input the necessary codes needed to start to create our own website. Inputting the codes seemed to take some time, after spending time inputting some codes I expected to see bigger changes to the website I had created, but my expectation was much higher than the reality.

Mark showed us how to look at the source codes to websites. There is a lot of work that is needed to produce and create a website, it is extremely time consuming (not something I would have the patience to commit to).

I left this lesson feeling overwhelmed and confused, the content of this lesson left me feeling like I had not understood a single thing we had just learnt. It was a lot to take in, possibly after a few lessons on coding I could begin to comprehend the complexity of the workings, but I do not think I will ever use or need to use coding I the future.

The first half of the lesson was a fast pace instructive lesson, Mark started the lesson by stating he had a task he wanted the class to complete. he gave his instructions on what was to be done very quickly, I had a note book and pen out before he started his instruction, I attempted to make notes quickly on the task at hand; this was hard to process the instructions and see what he was doing on the screen, this caused a misunderstanding of what to do which made me feel frustrated, confused and annoyed. Once the instructions were given the whole class attempted the task set, but with minimum aid and help from the tutor this proved difficult. At one point during this task I was that frustrated that I did not know what I was supposed to be doing I felt like giving up on the task, it became apparent that the whole class was in a similar situation and majority if not the whole class could not make head or tail of what was expected. After some time, the tutor then repeated his instructions again and again, and even aided most of the class, so the task could be completed. Once the whole class had completed the task set on Adobe illustrator we got to produce what we had designed, this being a keyring with our names on, so after all the confusion and frustration of initially attempting the task, the end result was somewhat of a reward.

I found this part of the lesson to be a drastic style of teaching, which I was unfamiliar and uncomfortable with. Personally, I found that this style of teaching method did not work for my style of learning and it would appear it also did not work for the rest of the class. I felt the individual needs and learning styles of individuals was not met or considered when this lesson was planned. The tutor had one task he wanted to be completed and that was that, although I know the aim of this teaching style was to enlighten students on the different teaching styles that are taught throughout the education system, it was still somewhat frustrating. Tutors need to use a variety of teaching styles in all lessons as to attempt to meet the classes individual learning styles, although this can be very difficult for the tutor to actually achieve as students learn at different paces and depending on their level of prior knowledge of the topic; the tutor may need to start at a basic level.

For the second half of the lesson Mark gave every students a handout, with a step by step guide of instructions and diagrams of the next task he wanted completing. Initially I began to read the handout and proceed with the steps indicated on the handout, shortly after starting this task independently Mark asked me to stop and return to the very firat step as I had gone too far ahead, and the rest of the class was not at the same point I was. Mark indicated that he would go through each step and every student would be at the same point of the exercise at the same time. This was a very slow pace lesson and mark ensured every student had completed one step before continuing to the next step; this resulted in the feeling of being held back and unable to proceed independently. Some of the steps of the task were repeated over and over due to some students not being able to comprehend the complexity of the steps.

During this part of the lesson I found I disregarded the handout as it was pointless reading at my own pace due to being unable to proceed until entire class was at the same point. I lost interest in this task as it was extremely slow pace; due to lack of interest I found myself day dreaming and writing notes for this reflection instead of fully engaging during the lesson.

M.L.A.M = Make Like A Mirror

During the course of the Kahoot quiz on logo recognition, I found that I did not know majority of the logos displayed. While taking part in the quiz I did not feel uncomfortable about selecting the incorrect answer.

During the course of the quiz some students became competitive with their answers and appearing on the score board, this was an entertaining situation and made the process a little more engaging.

The tutor’s style of teaching appeared to be effective, all students appeared to participate and showed signs of enjoyment whilst part taking.

When using the Kahoot app to create my own quiz, I felt confident and could navigate the application quite easily. Choosing a topic to create the quiz on was easy, as I chose a subject I was familiar with. attempting to create question with the option of multiple answers was slightly tricky but manageable.