Group Leadership Project

1. What tool did your group use to deliver the PD tutorial?  Why?

My group decided to use PowerPoint because we were all familiar with the program and most of us had it on our computers. We at first thought about using Google Docs but because we could not get the sound to work as easily as we wanted, we went back to PowerPoint.  After we submitted our part of the presentation to Michelle, she put it together with Camtasia.    

2. What did you learn during the development process of the final product?

The first thing I learned when doing this project was PowerPoint has a tool where you can record your presentation while adding audio.  I was able to see my notes as I clicked from one slide to the next.  I was even able to pause it so I could gather my thoughts and look at the next slide. Using the storyline and script taught me how valuable these two procedures could be when putting together a group project. This may seem obvious but I do not think I have ever done this before. Many times with a group project, we put it together first, then disassemble it and reconstruct it over again.  A lot of times this means redoing the entire project.  The last thing I learned was, you can do a group conference with skype.  It was very helpful to be able to talk our way through this project.  Overall, the way we went about putting together this project was a learning experience because it allowed for me to develop ideas for my own classroom.

3. What would you do differently if you had to develop a similar product again?

The first step I would have taken to change how we did this project would be to change the program we used to conference.  Skype was very helpful but we could only see each other’s faces and not each other’s screen.  I would have liked to have to put the rubric up when we first started brainstorming; this would have helped to keep everyone on the same topic of discussion. Another idea for change would be to have one person narrate the entire presentation.  This to me would have made if flow a little better.  A final modification I would have made, would be the program we used. We ended up using PowerPoint because three out of the four of us had it but because one person did not, they only had to research the topic and put together a rough draft.  My feeling is that there are many programs out there that would have allowed for us to share the workload more evenly.  While minor, these are a few changes I feel could have made the product better.