Final Reflection and Evaluation

[Dana El-Ghazal]

Learning about Collective Sharing and Generation of Knowledge was very interesting for me. It was a topic I have never came across, amongst all the others, and was curious on gaining more information about it. What was even more interesting was that I discovered and learned about these topics a long with the help of an incredible team member. How relevant? Collective Sharing and Generation of Knowledge is all about COLLABORATIVE work; you collect your knowledge and then you share it! Now this was demonstrated throughout the entire Horizon Project. As a team, we gained as much insight on our topic and shared them with each other on the wiki; this will then be shared with the rest of the world. We also entered in depth with our topic, and looked at areas it would impact such as: education, arts and politics.
As a whole, there weren’t many ethical issues that we faced during this project. I was very fortunate, because I did not face any issues where people did not want to be displayed on photos or videos. Everyone was fine with working with one another. Not to mention everyone was on their best behavior.
What was so wonderful about this project, during my research about my topic was that my learning continued to branch out. While I was heading in one direction, something new would come and I would learn about it. For example, the delicious website helped me bookmark as well as look for all the useful and relevant websites I needed. I am grateful that I created an account over there because there were many websites that I would lose track of, but by having a delicious account I was able to easily access them as well as track them. I know continue to use my delicious account everyday for all my other subjects.
It was my very first time for editing the wiki. That was a new experience; it felt great knowing that you are soon to be providing the world with information on a topic you have researched. This motivated me to work harder and make sure everything was as precise and accurate as it could be. Creating discussions on the wiki was a fast sufficient way to talk about our topic during the making of our page.
At the beginning, I was almost certain that everyone in my group were facing major difficulties, including myself. It was all knew and we were still not use to the idea of having to do this as it was something completely new and different than all the other projects we get involved in. Thinking about our video was also difficult, as we were trying to all come up with unique ideas. Though, as soon as the videos were out; in my opinion, my understanding of the topics (including the subtopics) became much clearer as I am a visual person. And so I believe that having the videos to create at the end is a must as I found it very helpful.
Another example of how I was able to branch out and gain more knowledge is that it was my very first time creating a video on Windows Movie Maker. I have never used the program and never intended to because I don’t really enjoy working with technical things. But, it allowed me to explore the software which I frankly found very interesting and includes a vast majority of special effects; some of which I have included in my video.
Having the Ning as our personal social network made things a lot easier. As a project manager, the best solution I found to contact everyone was on our teams page where all the names our listed, I hyperlinked their names to their ning profile. This would immediately take me to their profile and I was able to reach them. What made it a lot easier was that using the Ning was quite simple and was where many could come in and have a little ‘chat’ with their friends every now and then.
There were two highlights during this project. First and most important of all was that every individual student got the opportunity to communicate and collaborate with students from all over the world. I am proud of how my team worked together and everyone was so friendly to one another and this was all happening behind a computer screen! The second highlight was when we did out summits in the Elluminate room. Here, our class was able to share with one another all their accomplishments and were given the chance to speak out and speak their mind about their experience during the Horizon Project. I personally loved it because it was apparent to see how teachers were enormously impressed with what was done by the students and what was being said.
When I look back at the Horizon Project, I can say that it was successful. However, there may be minor limitations here and there. For example, it was hard to monitor who was lacking in their contribution and who was working really hard. I was a project manager, and trying to get my own work AS WELL AS monitoring that I found a bit of a challenge. There were 9 schools (including our own) who were involved in this project from all different parts of the world. However, the time difference might have slightly impacted communication between team members and so one way this could be improved is if schools with similar time zones worked together.

[Julie Lindsay]

Dana, I enjoyed reading your insightful reflection. You have highlighted a number of interesting points and shared your own discovery learning adventure. You did an excellent job as a project manager and your ability to adapt to online learning is fully evident. I am pleased you found the Elluminate experience worthwhile. It was another challenge for the whole class to take on, with very little practice once again, but I was very proud of what you all did.

[Carol VanHook]

Your reflection is outstanding. What a clear perception you have of the project, the subject, the process and of working as a team. You did an outstanding job as project manager. In studying the various videos by your group, I could see that teamwork support was evident. I am glad you learned so much and am glad you can use what you have learned in future educational endeavors!