"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." (Henry Brooks Adams)
In this article, I would like to share my experience with using agile methodology in my classroom, and how it has helped my students develop essential skills such as leadership, time management, problem-solving, and teamwork.
Agile is a project management and product development approach that prioritizes flexibility and collaboration. It was originally developed for software development, but has been adopted in various other fields, including education.
I wanted to encourage active learning, communication, and collaboration
Working as a teacher of computer science nowadays, also having experience as an IT project manager, I decided to incorporate this method in my lessons. My goal was to test its effectiveness and to gather information that would help me evaluate its usefulness and potential for future use. In the next paragraphs, I will outline the steps that I took to implement the agile methodology into the classroom and provide concrete examples of how I put each step into practice.
The first step in implementing the agile methodology is to select a unit to which this approach will be applied. I decided to choose the "Text Editors" unit in computer science classes for 8th grade students.
The Second step is defining the goals and objectives of the unit or project. This will help to create a clear vision and direction of what has to be done and what are the deadlines. My main objectives for this unit were: first, to teach students how to use text editors effectively, and second, to develop their digital processing skills in the areas of text, numeric, graphic, and information. As a final product would be a digital and physical magazine. Additionally, I wanted to encourage active learning, communication, and collaboration among the students.
The third step is forming teams and assigning specific roles to each team member based on their strengths and interests. Encourage students to take ownership of their roles and collaborate closely with one another so they feel invested in the success of the project. Each group is responsible for a specific aspect of the magazine creation process, such as research, writing, design, and layout. The groups then held regular stand-up meetings (they can be 5 minutes during break time before the lesson for example) to share progress, discuss challenges, and provide feedback to one another.
Next, the fourth step is to break down the project into smaller tasks that can be completed in short iterations. This will help students stay focused and make progress more quickly. Examples of tasks for groups were: to research for gathering information on the chosen topic of the magazine, including interesting facts, statistics, and other relevant information, to write and draft the content of the magazine, including articles, interviews, and other written pieces, to design by creating the visual components of the magazine, including layout, graphics, and other images. They were asked to develop a visual style guide for the magazine that defines the font, color, and overall aesthetic. The layout group were responsible for combining the written and visual content of the magazine into a cohesive and attractive layout. They created a template that was used for each page of the magazine and collaborated closely with all groups to ensure consistency and quality.
By prioritizing flexibility and collaboration, students develop essential skills
There are several tools that can be used in Agile Methodology to help with project management and collaboration such as kanban boards, scrum boards, burndown charts, project management software such as Trello, Jira, Asana etc. By utilizing Trello, my students were able to experience using authentic digital tools commonly employed in the IT industry, giving them a sense of practical application.
Through the implementation of this approach, all units were completed successfully and the magazine fulfilled all criteria. As a result, students acquired the ability to proficiently work with text editors, make appropriate choices in regard to fonts, colors, and sizes, as well as integrate graphic elements while giving special importance to design and aesthetics as well.
Incorporating agile methodology into my lessons has been a beneficial experience for both the students and me. By prioritizing flexibility and collaboration, students develop essential skills such as leadership, time management, problem-solving, and teamwork.
The steps taken to implement Agile Methodology, including selecting a unit, defining goals and objectives, forming teams, breaking down the project into smaller tasks, and utilizing project management and collaboration tools, have all contributed to the success of the project as well and has proven to be an effective approach for facilitating active learning and has the potential to be applied to a wide range of subjects and projects in the future.
Bibliography:
"Agile Estimating and Planning" by Mike Cohn (ISBN 978-0131479418)
"Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time" by Jeff Sutherland (ISBN 978-0385346450)
"User Stories Applied: For Agile Software Development" by Mike Cohn (ISBN 978-0321205681)
"Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Service, and Teaching" by Rebecca Pope-Ruark (ISBN 978-0226463013)
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