December 11 project blog

Today, we reviewed the S.M.A.R.T. goals.  I realized that I had done a poor job of modeling and explaining what I was looking for, and I explained - I hope - more clearly.  I also worked one-on-one with groups to help them clarify their goals.

The insight I had was that goal-setting is very difficult, and takes practice and feedback.  In the future, I'll break this down into smaller chunks, so I can provide step-by-step feedback.

During the work time, I had some great discussions with groups.  For example, Albert, Jonathan & Raul helped me see that there are several ways to prioritize a project.  They are going to use Illustrator, which Jonathan already knows how to use.  So, they have options:

• Make the project as much about learning Illustrator as it is about creating a product.  In this set-up, Raul & Albert learn Illustrator, and Jonathan deepens his understanding by teaching.
• Focus on the product.  In this set-up, group members specialize:  Jonathan is the designer, and Albert & Raul have roles that relate to their expertise.

I'm looking forward to reading the students' blog posts to see what they have learned from this process.