Project Update and Process

Hi readers,

Due to difficulties reaching our audience, our group has recently changed topics for the final project. We are now creating an online instruction with the purpose of improving SoE student’s academic public speaking. The content of our instruction will primarily include speech giving suggestions, such as why swaying should be avoided, but will also include general speech writing suggestions, such as why clarity is important in academic speeches.

In terms of the format of our instruction, we plan to create several videos instructing learners about different aspects of public speaking. These videos will then be uploaded to a private YouTube which will allow users to easily comment on videos and upload their own speeches. We believe learners will become more engaged with the lesson because of the interactive ability to comment and upload their own videos.

Because our time is so limited, I’ve been thinking a lot about the steps our team will employ in order to complete the project. As of now, we have nearly completed collecting interviews, writing the proposal, and performing a basic literature review. We decided the next step was for all members to contribute to a list of topic categories and sub-categories we would like to include. For example, “confidence improvement” is a category that we plan to address in our instruction. Next, we will determine a rough framework to guide what should be included in each category. This framework could include components such as “explaining why the topic is important,” “examples that demonstrate the concept,” “exercises to practice concept,” and “summary.” Finally, our group plans to assign specific categories for individual group members to write in order to share the work load. Having this rough timeline very much helps to organize our process.

-Scott

Job Aid Thoughts

For this week’s blog post, I decided to collect my thoughts regarding possible job aid topics. The first consideration is that the aid must be for a job that does not take place over a long time. Also, the activity should not be segmented so the person completing it can more easily and directly follow the aid. Finally, I wanted to discuss categories of job aids that I believed could be improved from how they are currently presented with the use of technology.

Topic 1: Recipes

I really liked Kipp’s blog comments concerning how cook book recipes have not changed from their usual, text-heavy communication style. I too think that this kind of job aid could be improved in some ways. For example, a video recipe that allows users to click through the different steps could be an improvement because the video would only progress when the user was ready. Also, a text-based recipe could be improved by allowing the user to cross out steps that they have already completed. This tool might further be improved by highlight whatever step the user is currently engaged in so they are even more focused on the specific step.

Topic 2: Navigation

One of my favorite job aids is Google Navigation. Google Navigation helps me complete the procedural job of driving to a specific location by giving turn-by-turn directions in real time. In terms of currently unrealistic improvements, indoor navigation could be of incredible use to users. For example, turn-by-turn directions would be very helpful for someone looking for a specific book section in Barnes and Noble. A more feasible improvement might be the ability to minimize the navigation so users can use a music playing application, for example, without needing to exit the navigation. As you can tell, I don’t believe job aids need to completely engage a user to be well designed.

-Scott 

Proposal Process

Hi readers,

This past week our project team has met several times to write the proposal. Although the proposal is still a work in progress, we have begun to elaborate on the things we may want to include in our instruction with greater detail. I plan to briefly talk about our process in creating the proposal.

The first thing our group did was populate a list of some of the general instructional elements we hoped to include in the online instruction. These categories are “video,” “text lessons,” “images,” and “interactive activities.” These groups are not completely inclusive but they gave us a sufficient enough way to begin organizing our design decisions.

In terms of video, we plan to make cut-out animated videos with narration and occasional text. The style of these videos connects with the informal, light-hearted mood of play-based teaching. We also may have live action videos in which we act out activities or simply lecture directly to the camera. We hope that if we use multiple styles of videos that each style will be consistent with a specific theme or topic. For example, all animated videos may be only used to illustrate concrete activities, whereas conceptual lessons may only be shown with live action video.

In terms of images, we plan to use some pictures with the text-based instruction slides. The images will be consistent in style. Consistency adds to the professionalism of the site. Also, the images should be closely related to the content. Finally, we will likely employ color pictures because color is often more aesthetically pleasing.

Finally, we plan to include several interactive activities so the user stays engaged with the lesson. One idea is to have users answer questions after reading a text or watching a video. In some cases, we may only be able to provide “suggested  responses” to user’s answers. However, quizzes on conceptual information could include direct feedback in which the user is told exactly whether they got an answer correct or not. Also, we are considering asking users to create their own play-based activity given specific constraints. One final idea we have is to have animated “choose your own path” videos in which user’s choices determine how an activity is set up and run. Some of these paths could be better for creating play-based learning environments and we would alert the learner to those considerations once the video has completed.

We will be sure to post our proposal so everyone can view it once it is finished by Monday!

-Scott

Class Reflections

Last Monday’s class was very interesting and relevant thanks to the insightful project suggestions given during the group discussion exercise. One such suggestion was that our team consider including “community” elements to our digital instruction. This community could be as simple as a forum in which elementary teachers share their experience using play-based teaching strategies. In terms of feedback, this kind of community tool could also be used to collect user ideas for future revisions of the instruction. Although, one of our primary concerns is that, in a real-world situation, there would not be enough users post content and contribute to the community. In recognition of this limitation, our team is considering alternative ways to give our users the chance to collaborate and share ideas. One solution might be to provide users with an easy guide to forums and other online communities currently in operation. Edutopia.com is an example of one such community.

Besides offering a way for teachers to share ideas and learn about new educational strategies, Edutopia may also be a prime resource once we begin more thoroughly researching kindergarten and 1^st grade learning environments. The following link leads to the site’s lower elementary educational resources page. http://www.edutopia.org/grade-level-k-2

Also, because our instruction plans to include examples of play-based activities, we were given the suggestion that videos could be employed to clearly show how certain activities are performed in class. I think videos could be an entertaining and engaging way to keep users of our instruction interested in the intervention. However, because our group has only minimal videography skills, there are concerns regarding the quality of videos would could create. That said, I personally have regained some confidence in our ability to overcome technical challenges. This confidence is in mainly due to our group’s ability to quickly create the “snow” audio instruction. Even though none of us knew the best way to create the audio track, we successfully created the audio track with much less difficulty than I had anticipated. 

-Scott 

Class Recap

Monday class recap

During last class, I received some very helpful advice regarding my infographic design from Janet and Fallon. As you might know, I chose the prison system as a topic. Originally, I was struggling to come up with a clear and visually interesting way to organize my infographic. I knew there were categories of the “prison experience” that I wanted to include. For example, the trial, facility, meals, work, recreation, daily life, security. Janet and Fallon suggested that I create a top-down view of the prison and subdivide square section to represent these different categories. I really like this idea because it blends reality of content (ie- various rooms representing different prison activities) with a highly organized and easy to understand display of visual information.

Wednesday project meeting recap

After discussing our project with Dr. G, we learned that we must conduct a more thorough audience analysis. The main reason why we need to do this is because our group has decided to change our instruction from what we presented last semester. Although these parameters are still being finalized, currently our instruction focuses on improving 1^st grade teachers’ ability to engage their students using play-based teaching strategies. Along with that, we are looking into the justification that play-based teaching strategies are more relevant in 1^st grade because students are more used to that style of teaching in Kindergarten.

At our meeting we brain-stormed several questions that we might pose to 1^st grade teachers. We are still refining these questions so we would love your input on them! We want to craft questions that might result in answers that justify our project. However, we also do not want to lead those answering to give a certain answer. Additionally, we are hoping their answers could help us focus our understanding of play-based teaching. There is not a set definition of what that kind of teaching entails so we are still collectively determining what is and is not play-based. Below are the questions we came up with.

How would you describe your teaching strategies?

How would you describe the difficulties students face transitioning to 1^st grade?

How do you help students adapt to the new grade environment?

If you incorporate play in your teaching methods how do you do that? Any examples?

What kind of play resources do you wish you had to adapt students to 1^st grade?

Have you ever been given any play resources to help adapt students to 1^st grade?

-Scott