Experiencing Group

First off, I would like to say how much I dislike group projects.  It is not a bad thing, that is if all members of your group are willing to participate.  However, in my group that was not the case.  There were three of us that did the work and one that didn't do much of anything.  Group projects in my opinion, are a terrible way to do a project.  I understand that it helps you get used to working with different varieties of people but I am not a fan of slackers.  You would think that when the grade is not only for you but other people you might put in a little bit of effort. The thing is not everyone is the same.  Apparently some people would prefer to sit back and take the easy way out.  The project that we created about inclusion from the help of three people was fantastic.  I think that we discussed what needed to be discussed.

For this project we were not allowed to use PowerPoint.  I loved that we had to reach out and try something new.  Our group used Prezi for our presentation.  I loved using Prezi.  It was not complicated and very easy to figure out on our own.  The Prezi is definitely something I will suggest to people to use.  Prezi, to me, is a lot easier to use then PowerPoint.  I plan on using Prezi when creating presentations later in life.  There were other devices used while we worked on our project.  We were able to communicate through text messaging, Google docs and email.  Seeing as how there were three different ways to communicate, one would think it would be done with ease.  But that was not the case.  The paper was written in Microsoft Word and then transferred onto Google docs.  Although I thought of Google docs to be a very efficient way of communicating, I would not use it on a regular basis.  I did not like that there was no notification of things being posted and if there was I never received them.

All in all, I enjoyed using new applications to communicate and create.  That was a great experience.  However, the lack of assistance in creating a project made me not like this project.  I would much rather be able to create a project on my own because I KNOW that I can rely on myself to do the work that is needed to be done.  I wish this was the case with all people but sadly it is not.

PowerPoint (ungh)

Recently in my technology class, we were to compose PowerPoint presentations that were made to teach a lesson. Prior to creating the project we read an article called "Beyond PowerPoint".  The article showed many different things that you could do with PowerPoint.  This article was very intriguing for me.  I didn't realize that you could do so many things with PowerPoint. Beyond PowerPoint article 
For the project we had to look up standards for any age group and subject.  When we had picked our standard, we made a presentation based on the standard for our "students".  I created a PowerPoint for Kindergarten students.  The lesson was on writing sentences.  Throughout the PowerPoint I had photos that they got to choose.  At the end of the PowerPoint, I had a slide that had the students create their own sentences.  This lesson would be after their winter break.  I made sure that the lesson was later in the year to ensure that the students would be able to complete the activity. Here is my PowerPoint

 I learned that I will probably never use PowerPoint in my lessons.  It is not a very useful tool for young children.  That is however my own opinion.  When we had finished the project, we were to present to a group of our peers.  I loved presenting to a small group.  Not only did the presentations not take forever to go through, but talking to a few people and getting feedback at the time is wonderful.  The two people in my group did a wonderful job with their presentations! I loved how they really put hard work into the projects.  Although, I somewhat enjoyed this project I would never want to do one again.  The project did make me realize how PowerPoint is not a very good tool for the classroom.