TechQuest Project Evaluation

My experience with this TechQuest project has given me the opportunity to think through how to use technology to solve a particular problem or need.  In doing so, I have been able to understand the importance of the planning step in order to be sure that technology is being used effectively so as to help solve the problem or need being addressed.  Without this step, I do not think that similar projects will be as successful. 

It would be interesting to see whether a project like this could be completed for a whole school.  Perhaps a committee would be given a problem of practice within their setting; it would then become the committee's job to see how technology could be effectively used to solve the problem.  This could be difficult in large schools, but could work in a setting such as mine. 

One thing I may do differently is create a project that will not take quite so long.  I am still excited about my project and seeing how students grow throughout the process, but I worry that my time frame will be too long.  It may be hard to keep excitement going for several months.

In regards to this specific project, one lesson I learned is not to be afraid to include additional technology that may make things run more smoothly.  For instance, writing survey questions should have been done using technology.  Despite having few resources, I think this could have made this process go more quickly had we chosen to use shared documents or wikis to compile our questions. 

Due to the nature of my classroom (multi-age, grades 6-8), I will not be able to repeat this particular project each year.  However, I could put this project in a three-year rotation so that it comes up once for each middle school student.  Similar projects could be completed during the remaining two years.  I do feel that it has been successful thus far and will, therefore, try to repeat it again in a few years.  Depending on how the remainder of the project unfolds, I may choose a different time frame try to shorten the length of time of the entire project.  Careful evaluation of this entire process will be necessary to determine how to do so, as it may be difficult to know what to cut.  All in all, I think the project is valuable for students and uses technology effectively.