In Term 3, we did an interdisciplinary unit for the two subjects IT and French. In this unit, we created a website using Macromedia Dreamweaver or the online website creating tool Wix, about Learning French. This website for learning French was targeted to year 7 students specifically. We would be assessed for IT on our website presentation, how aesthetically pleasing it looks and how you have used technology to help people learn French, also the different features you decide to use on your website. For French, we would be assessed on the actual content that will be put on the website, this includes grammar, punctuation, spelling, and whether the content that has been formed makes sense or not. I think the website that I have created will help year 7 students because, I have already learnt the same things and I am aware of what knowledge the year 7 students already obtain, so I can help them by teaching them new phrases and words of French they don't already know, in this way my website will be very useful and helpful.
What I enjoyed most during this interdisciplinary unit was creating the website using the online website designing tool WIX, as it was easy to add great features using less effort, and as an outcome great amount of work could be produced. I enjoyed the IT part of this interdisciplinary unit more than French, as I like IT a lot more as a subject, and I am more interested in programming softwares and creating new sites through different online tools. I find French a bit hard as a subject and don't entirely enjoy all lessons in class, but I really like the idea of working for two different subjects in one area. It was fun.
Some challenges I encountered during this task was the starting of building my website. I spent a lot of time trying to decide on the right theme for my website, this part was quite time consuming and frustrating, as I was unable to come to a conclusion quickly. Another problem I had encountered was with some features on WIX, that seem to be a little confusing at first, and I was unable to navigate myself through the designing tool. I sooner discovered a "Help" button which was very useful and helpful in building my site, as it guided/navigated me through the different features of the website designer very well.
If I had to improve my website, I would have liked to have more time to add more French information on phrases and other vocabularies, and added more quizzes and activities to do. I feel I could have improved on many content related aspects of my site, but I feel I have done my IT part very well, as I used many different features like: adding videos, audios, slideshows, pictures, hyperlinks, buttons, and a few others. So, I am happy with the way I have portrayed my IT skills through the different features I have used to show my greater understanding, although I could have done better for my French part, through better activities, exercises, phrases, quizzes, etc. Next time, I would have liked to work as a pair, so that I can equally divide the work between the two of us, this would have been time saving and much more work would have been produced as an outcome.
The benefits of interdisciplinary learning is that you get to experience and work with two completely different subjects in a fun learning environment. This teaches us new skills, and we develop better social understanding for each of the subjects. This is a good way to use the knowledge we already have of these two subjects for a project that combines the two. This also makes work load easier as you are working on two subjects at once. The limitations of interdisciplinary learning is that since it is working on two different subjects, it will be difficult to communicate with the teachers about the project. For example: If you have question about the project and you ask one subject teacher, and she directs you to ask the other. This can make it confusing and hard to complete the task if communication is not done well.
This is the first time I have done a interdisciplinary unit, and I found it very exciting. What I have benefited as a interdisciplinary learner is I have developed skills throughout the process of working on both of the subjects for this project; French and IT. It was a great way to combine different skills and see how everyone works on the two subjects combined. It tests our abilities and strengths for each subject.
This unit helped me understand that I am able to link subjects together and study. I really liked the idea of having a project being done for two subjects. Although, next time I would like to have an interdisciplinary unit with two different subjects to study on. I hope we will do this again next year!
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