15-5 fourteen

LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL! Wow, we've almost made it... I can almost taste the feeling of accomplishment! The past few weeks have been intense but I am extremely proud of our team and our final product. It was great to see that tensions didn't elevate beyond control as they sometimes can in the zero hour.

Even though many hours and days were spent together in succession, most of us were always very focused and the work progressed! We could always count on Dr. Choi to keep us company in the building too :)

This past week was spent polishing loose ends and completing the remaining documentation. We also spent some time sorting through the presentation so that Carrie felt that she could give the dynamic explanation that the project deserves. While the client has of course seen our finished project, we are eager for him to experience this project in our home environment on Thursday!

I'd be glad to tell you what I will be doing in the upcoming week but it would have nothing to do with studio since we are FINISHED! While this course is obviously not the Grammys, I would like to acknowledge those around me for their part in this journey that we took. i would like to thank my team for their patience, persistence, and impeccable talents. I especially want to send a hats off to Carrie and Greg for their leadership and support. I truly learned many lessons this semester.

Service

This semester, my service hours have been fulfilled (or attempted) in ways that are not what I usually expect from the studio experience.

I've emailed back and forth with my assigned mentee various times throughout the semester. Since I was ill during the group mentoring session, I found other ways to contribute (even though I was told that "good faith effort" was sufficient). To feel that I really did fulfill the spirit of the service hours, I gave extra desk crits that I have not documented formally on my blog and even was an alpha tester for the other 6210 team.

Desk crit- Yang

Given to: Shengyun Yang

I very much like that you took advantage of the freedom of 6190 to do something that interested you. The concept is a really good one and it is encouraging to hear that your family was interested also!

As discussed in person, my suggestions are to include a "key" or "legend" for the maps&photos page and reorganize your menu. As to the "legend" concept, it would be helpful to either have text that explained what a red circle versus a pink dot indicated or have an illustration like the "legend" I've suggested.

I also think that it would be advantageous to put the "hot spots" page as a subcategory of the maps&photos page since it is simply another way to organize your information (and not new information- at least from what I gather).

On each of your main link pages (home, introduction, maps&photos, etc) I would suggest putting the title of the section on each page in the white browser area. All of us can forget sometimes where we are within a website!

Great work!

Desk crit- Choi

Given to: Jea Choi

Fabulous use of color for your target audience. I enjoyed that your navigation was emphasized so clearly.

I am still confused about what "sequence 1" and "sequence 2" mean in the top right corner of the lessons page. I would like to also suggest that you include the description of each section that you provided in the rollover on the page when the user comes to it. It would not be advantageous to the user to have to go back to that first page for that.

Great work thus far!

Desk crit/Alpha testing

Given to: Genesis Learning Solutions

I very much enjoyed the screens with colorful illustrations as I went through. The examples about Joe Camper were also effective :)

There are some major bugs though going on with the site. In every unit the navigation buttons were not working properly. In most units when I hit next at some point it would load to a blank page??? In other units I would get to a point in the site where, when I hit next, the same page would just come up again. This is very confusing to the end user who is unaware when your information is complete. I kept wondering if there was more that I was missing because of the malfunctioning navigation buttons. In one unit, after I took the self test, the site took me back to the beginning of the same unit... you all might want to check on that.

You might be aware also that there are points where it says "click ____" or "see illustration" and there are no links inserted.

In unit 5 some of the objectives at the top straddle the decorative line that you have there. My suggestion would be to just make this consistently spaced for every unit.

The navigation buttons at the bottom of the entire site are also confusing. I don't understand their purpose and when I am supposed to utilize them. It seems that you might want more cues for those lovely buttons.

I wish you guys the best as we finish everything up!

15-5 thirteen

I think this project has become our full-time jobs this week. I guess this is not surprising since we are getting close to the end of the semester. Even though it is stressful to be on such a deadline, it is quite amazing when I realize that the group put in about 50 hours as a whole just on Sunday! Those hours were spent programming, video editing, and creating rubrics (among a multitude of smaller tasks). The end is in sight but it can't get here soon enough!

This past week, I would describe my role as "catch all". Since Lindsay, Audra, and Carrie all set up camp on one goal each, I would create higher quality videos than our originals and find pictures and other elements that they would eventually need to import. Even though there were already enough hands on the project, I did get the opportunity to work a little Flash this week, (which was fun to learn more about)!

This week, I will go to Clarke Middle School to beta test with Audra. We have our assessments ready and our subject matter expert will be there to help. Of course, I will also lend a hand in any other way that I can as things arise.

15-5 twelve

Is it Wednesday again already? Why do the weeks go by so fast when there is so much to be done? The past week has been full of a lot of team collaboration on details with still much individual work. Audra has produced a quite impressive storyboard and flowchart this week. It is with the client being approved. Amy has been out of town and sick but is still working on some drawings that we need. I've mainly worked on video editing and the presentation for dress rehearsal. I've been so busy that I'm not sure I've even caught what Lindsay is working on but she is always working hard. Carrie has diligently (and maybe feverishly) working on putting the components of the project into Flash and onto the web.

I'm not really sure what all is in store for us this coming week. That does not mean that there won't be a TON of work to do, but rather at this point it will be difficult to pinpoint large tasks beforehand. I do know that Audra and I will be going to a school to do some evaluation work on Thursday though. Personally, I will try to spend some time giving more desk crits and writing up my service hours. Just a little bit longer... then I can say I survived the entire studio experience!

15-5 eleven

At this point it is difficult to find things to write about in the 15-5. This past week I've reworked some documentation that we have turned into our client again for approval. Now I am focused on some video editing for the module. We want the "dock talk" to be longer and also need to adjust the volume on some of the clips so that the background noise isn't so distracting.

The group as a whole continues to divide and conquer. Carrie, Audra, and now I think Lindsay too are all developing while Amy and I work on video and documentation. The work seems to be coming together but the dress rehearsal date still looms.

In the upcoming days before the dress rehearsal, I will continue to work diligently on all tasks that I'm currently involved in. I will also have the opportunity to consult with 6190/6200 members. I am also setting a goal for myself of giving 2 more desk crits this week! Wow, so much to do... I really should get back to work!

15-5 ten

This week was a week of working ahead. Since I was going out of town to present at a conference, I did some front end work so that I didn't leave my team high and dry. My primary task this week was to finish scripting the goal involving the dichotomous key. I added suggestions for video throughout also. I also created a rough sketch of a "certificate of completion" for our whale tour guide trainees when they complete the module.

The group as a whole is developing, developing, developing! The module is beginning to take form. The activities are being created by Audra and Carrie, while Amy is working on some video. Lindsay and I worked on the content once again this week and will likely continue working on documentation in the upcoming weeks while supporting the flash activities when possible.

This coming week will likely be full of work on the evaluation plan for me but I will get formal word from my group this weekend when we meet.

Desk Crit- Ali Burrous

Hi Ali,

I hope you don’t mind that I went ahead and offered a desk crit without asking first! It seems that you are progressing nicely with your project. You already have a lot of information for your documentation completed. The abstract and learner profile sections are good because of their thoroughness. As I kept reading, I did end up wondering what domain of mathematics the students would be learning about within problem solving. Will the students already have mastered the mathematical calculations/algorithms necessary to apply to the problem solving situations? If so, I think that you should include this as a prerequisite skill in your task analysis. I only mention this because usually math instruction focuses on some sort of specific topic. You could elaborate on that more to help paint a picture for the outsiders reading your documents.

If you already know what video you will be using to introduce good techniques in problem solving, I would go ahead and name it in your ‘rationale for technology’ section. I am going to suggest that students focus on the problem solving aspect of their thinking. One thing that you might want to make clear in your own mind is how much of this is on students understanding technology, how much of it is about math, and how much is about problem solving. Of course there are elements of all 3 intermingled but I think it would behoove you to define which is the main goal and which are contexts and supports for that main goal! I think your good work will unfold more naturally from there.

I am also concerned about your objectives. While the ones that you have listed are indeed important, they do not seem to be objectives for your project. For example, students aren’t using technology to solve math problems. They are using problem solving to solve math problems, with technology as a means to demonstrate their understanding. I also did not notice anywhere that students would have to translate among representations. You might have a plan for all of this, but I’m just including it here so that you know what the inquiring minds in instructional technology still want to know about. There are a few others but you get the idea…

Overall, your documentation is great. Keep working with the objectives, lesson summary, and their alignment to each other! I can’t wait to see your implementation results. I’m sure this sort of thing will really appeal to students and teachers alike! Great job so far!

If you’d like better clarification or to chat more about any of this, please feel free to ask me! :)

15-5 nine

It seems like it has been a while since I've written one of these... wait, it has! I don't know where to begin with what has transpired in 2 weeks. I'm pretty sure my recount will even leave many things out.

Warp speed has indeed begun. With our client and subject matter expert on board with our new concept, we are definitely in the thick of development. We began with divvying the video footage and pulling those clips that are usable. Each team member took 7 tapes to sift through and then Amy took the lead at organizing and gathering the clips that were found. Lindsay and I have been scripting the material for some of the lessons, after working with the team as a whole on the first few. Carrie and Audra have begun working in flash on some activities. We have also begun utilizing our consultants some (since time is ticking away on that resource). So far we have delegated work developing the template for our videos and some work organizing the videos we do have.

In the coming week, I hope to finish scripting and begin working on editing video footage. I will also give some desk crits to 6190 and 6200 members.

15-5 eight

The weeks are zooming by at this point. This past week had a bit of a bombshell effect to it. As our client expressed worry about providing effective instruction, we went back to the drawing board. It seems that we have risen to the challenge though seeing as the client is very pleased with the concept we proposed. It is a very exciting suggestion that we will execute since it really attempts to encompass situated learning. This week has mostly been full of meetings and communication. Most every member has been doing some sort of preparation work for the upcoming weeks of work.

This week I have spent my time talking with Mr. Braxley in OIT about video and logging the footage that we received from the client. In the upcoming week, I will try to watch 7 DV tapes worth of footage and drag usable pieces into iMovie or Final Cut.

Documentation continues to be refined and signed (but as more of a secondary task). As a group we seem to already be gearing for warp speed in the near future. Since the project is very video intensive (and Flash intensive) we are eager to dive in so that we can create a good final product.

15-5 seven

This week, it feels like we hit a home run... We have 5 official, cleared documents now! It does indeed feel gratifying. This week has been another week of moving forward. Although, this week it feels like we are pushing many small loads up a hill instead of one gigantic one. Everything (Hardware/Software specification, Treatment Rationale and screen design, evaluation plan, and Thursday's presentation) is slowly but surely being nudged closer to the finish line.

There has been a bit of question lately as to where some tasks end and other begin (at least by job description titles). Sometimes it seems very difficult to decide, when you should get input and when you should individually work. This was a question that I had earlier in the week when I was designing. What do I need to do and hand off to Audra, the programmer? Through my personal deliberation of the week and after asking my team questions, I now understand that there are not clearly defined lines that everyone else is privy to while I am out of the loop! What a relief to find out!

Since I am temporarily finished collaborating with Lindsay on the Treatment Rationale and have already provided feedback on the newest drafts that other team members have created, I will focus my attention this week on more elaborate storyboarding. I hope that we will have more fruitful discussions (much like last week's) on the specific module attributes.

15-5 six

This week studio unfortunately ended up to be a somewhat painful experience. Our communication as a team needed some revamping since everyone's schedules are so different. I thought it was a great action on Carrie's part to make this situation a deliberate item on our agenda on Thursday. It was easily refined by designating that everyone use the wiki discussion page instead of email and by setting a second meeting day for the week as a mini-deadline to keep things flowing better. This past week we made corrections on most of our documents and turned them back in. The timeline was also newly turned in this week for feedback.

This week I did slight revisions on the task analysis and then focused all of my energy on designing. After toiling and producing a general concept, I realized that this part of the project didn't feel right without more of a collaborative element with the team. Of course it was beneficial that I had a prototype to begin a discussion with, but I was very excited by the excellent input others offered.

In the next week, I will continue to flesh out the design that we have started. I will try to solidify some navigation buttons and a banner. We will also need to decide on things such as font and color scheme (as Lindsay and I collaborate on the treatment rationale document).

15-5 five

The notion of stride that Dr. Clinton talked about the second week of class is definitely beginning to sink in (at least for me). Our group has hit a stride this week in how we work and interact with each other. Despite sickness, surgery, and daily life we have revised versions of the needs assessment and scope document, as well as,created a fresh new time line. New work that looks forward was also divvied by our project manager.

Personally, I did my share in the revising stage and even reformatted some documents aesthetically this week. Since that was towards the beginning of the week though, the end of the week was dedicated to beginning the design phase. I have proudly come up with some tentative screen shots that I know will probably need refinement. However, I am not worried about this because I know the team will be very helpful with their feedback. I am still very excited by the concepts that I came up with for these designs and look forward to sharing with the rest of Imaginative Designs on Thursday.

In the upcoming weeks I feel as if I will naturally get busier and busier since the design phase will come into full throttle. I don't anticipate my time to be eaten because of the requests of my teammates though, but more because it is so easy to get sucked into playing with the technology. I will surely have to monitor this!

15-5 four

I definitely have felt the surge of the semester this week. As a team we are communicating and passing documents feverishly. We have completed our task analysis and scope document, gotten a sign off from the client, and now await feedback/approval from the instructor. We have simultaneously begun work on the task analysis, objectives, and timeline. These documents do not seem less difficult in nature (as we erroneously set our selves ups to believe). All in all the week has been a positive one since we've gotten great feedback from the client(s) as per our work thus far.

Individually I focused most of my time this week to the needs assessment. After hitting somewhat of a wall at our last face to face meeting, I was glad to be able to contribute to the team by redirected the document. I also had the opportunity to proofread and provide feedback on the scope document that was headed by Audra.

In other news this week, I had a chance to begin some of my service hours. I made initial contact with my mentee and have since received a question about design through email. It is a relief that this classmate feels comfortable enough to ask questions.

This week I plan to be more proactive about posting my hours to our wiki. While I do think about this task, I seem to forget to actually do the logging. As far as content, I will continue to make correction and stabilize the task analysis document that I took the first crack at this past week. I have been working closely with Lindsay (who is in charge of the first run at the objectives) and Carrie (for feedback and direction) in doing this.

Is it design time yet? :)

15-5 three

This week our team has feverishly worked on the needs assessment. After deliberation on the scope and intent of the project, we realized a few key points. The evidence of the project was not concrete in our minds before our last meeting and after meeting we realized the need to communicate further with the client. We are in the process of correcting our initially flawed thinking and create a better draft of the needs assessment. We hope that this will be accomplished by the initial deadline (but we may need more time???).

This week I have continued to update my knowledge of the content and intent of the project. I've also worked on editing the needs assessment and begun a draft of the task analysis. In the upcoming week, I hope to distribute a draft of the task analysis to the team for revision while simultaneously providing info to team members about their drafts. I look forward to getting back to design after all of this beginning work is clarified!

15-5 two

Things are really rolling now. Especially now after having our first official meeting, I am very excited about this team project. This week we arrived at a name for our team (Imaginative Designs) and divvied out some tasks for the week. We now have a wiki-space that we plan to use for keeping a running total of hours worked on our various tasks and for sharing/commenting on eachothers' documents. The group has a good start with the processes of hiring 6200 consultants. We already have 4 consultants. The biggest dilemma with this is that we still have not secured a Flash developer. While our project may not end up being Flash intensive, as of now, we do plan on incorporating some form of a Flash creation.

Personally, this week, I worked on a team logo. After a few drafts, I am quite proud of the result (see below). I feel as if I'm on track to reaching my goal of improving my technical skills. I feel as though I have improved already (and it is just week 3). The rest of my time was spent interacting with other members on some of their tasks and familiarizing myself with how the wiki functions. In the next week, I will read more of the literature that the client gave us and give feedback to Lindsay, who is avidly working on the needs assessment.

15-5 one

The semester has begun!

Things feel as if they are off to a great and productive start. After forming a team and obtaining a client (Mr. Schell and company), we divided up roles for the semester. I volunteered to be the graphic designer and lead video editor. Since I am taking a course in video editing, I really hope to use what I'm learning immediately.

On monday, the team met with the client to begin planning. We learned of the scope of the project and about our intended audience for the final product. We will be creating 3 lessons on whale morphology for students in 6 through 12th grade. The lessons will be supported by activities that are still to be designed and developed at a later date (obviously).

Thus far, I have read the studio handbook and posted my first 15-5 (again... obviously!). To do this I had to acquaint myself with blogger, which I am eager to use more for documenting in future endeavors. I also began a search for pictures and graphics to use in our design. This is a very time consuming but enjoyable process for me. In the upcoming week, I look forward to solidifying a team name and beginning to read the material that Dr. Schell has provided for us.