General Course Experience (question a)
The part that I enjoyed the most about this course was how it was so different from every other course I have ever taken in high school. Usually, students are subjected to the same routine of quiz, test, quiz, test exam. Here, we got to learn new skills and show them off by helping people instead of writing tests. I think this is actually a better way of showcasing our knowledge, because we are actually applying what we learned. As well, we usually got to pick what part of a project we were going to do. This gave me the feeling that this course was treating us as adults, giving us choice and responsibility.
The part I enjoyed least about this course was the net book setup at the beginning. Although it was interesting at first, in my opinion it lasted too long. I feel like maybe the groups could have rotated, so that the net book people did not have to be stuck on that one job the whole time. This was probably why some of the net books remained uncompleted: the group members simply lost interest in their task.
Areas for Improvement (question c)
If I could give advice to future IDC students, it would be this: Don't take this course for granted. Yes, this may be different than other courses, and there may be no tests, quizzes or exams, but that doesn't mean there will not be a lot of work. The worst thing someone can do i go into this course thinking it will be a free ride to an A. With some hard work you can get good marks in this class, but the key word here is work. The projects that are given in this course still require a decent amount of work, so future IDC students should be prepared for this, and come into this course as work-ready as any other course.
Technology in Education (question b)
I would tell this teacher that the time and energy that they would invest in using new technology would be more than paid off by how attentive the students will be after the introduction of this technology. The fact of the matter is that students today are caring less and less about books and print media. Instead, introducing technology into the classroom will mean a more enticing learning environment for students. One of the number one reasons that students do not pay attention in class is because they are simply not interested in what they are learning. Technology can help hook these kids on the material by offering a more hands-on way to learn the course material. It would definitely be worth introducing technology into the classroom because it would help the kids learn. In fact, some teachers might even see the class average go up after an introduction of technology because of how more involved the students will be in the course material. By introducing new technology into the learning environment, the learning experience for the students would definitively improve.
Bonus Question
Although I was never given the opportunity to be a group leader, I feel like, no matter what group I was in for a given project, I was always giving suggestions and providing positive criticism to make the project turn out better. For example, in the Staples video, I was constantly making improvements to the video. If there was something that I thought could be better, I would say so, because I wanted the overall product to be as high-quality as possible. The school video was no exception. I came up with the idea of stop motion, and I was one of the ones to help orchestrate the stop motion intro. Maybe I could have done more as a group leader, but for the positions I was given, I feel like I contributed above and beyond the requirements.
