Reflections By Month:
| August/September |
Reflections: Week Beginning August 26
We have been spending lots of time talking about group dynamics and phases
within new groups. It is worth the time and attention especially with
so many talented "go getters" in our program. I am really starting
to be more introspective about the way I work alone and with others. This
will probably lead to some good self-development along the way. I am challenging
myself to internalize many of the questions and critique my performance
on every level. I think the 17 Qualities of a Team Player book and focusing
on the Tuckman Model have been helpful although some of the illustrative
examples in the 17 Qualities book are a bit over the top. I'm still getting
used to the heavy workloads from so many directions.
We are still in the early stages of everything and still getting to know
each other.
A point Trista brought up in class the other day about not trusting others
yet was funny but a point well made. In this new environment it will take
a while for us to feel comfortable individually and working as a group.
I do know that we have a wealth of talent in the Immersion Program and
on our TTAC team. We just need to put our best efforts forward and discover
what does and what doesn't work in ISD.
The Immersion Groups are off to a running start with our two projects
- the brand new NSF and the continuing T/TAC. The NSF project sounds like
an exciting one but this will require much time on needs analysis and
task analysis in the coming weeks. After the analysis phase the GMU NSF
team will have a refined understanding of the needs and technology tools
to provide this under-served community. It seems to me the NSF team may
not get much past the foundation development so actual technology applications
would happen at a latter phase. Since I just finished doing and exhaustive
needs and task analysis as a contract job, I am glad that I won't have
to do it again and in a large group (which can be frustrating).
The T/TAC project has had several teams develop its scope, its web interface
and tools. At this point, it seems to me that the areas we will need to
focus much time and attention on will be the addition of content throughout
the site and building out tools to further support the T/TAC user community.
I am going to try to push myself to get involved in applications of technologies
that are new to me, as the semester progresses. So much of my past work
projects I have been the creative problem solver and given a technical
person or two to help develop may ideas and bring them to fruition. This
Immersion experience is my chance to roll up my sleeves and learn technical
ins and outs so that I can develop as a more technically skilled practitioner.
Suggestions for improvement:
Coming into Phase 5 of T/TAC there seems to be little in the way of help
or wizards to aid people having trouble on the site. In Performance Centered
Design, Wizards can be frowned upon but with an audience that may not
be very computer savvy, this capability might be a needed tool. Related
to this, it would be nice to integrate user feedback into the site so
we will continue to get suggestions on how to improve tools, navigation
and processes. Another aspect that might be helpful is a streaming video
introduction to the audience about the site and its capabilities. I'm
sure I will come up with more suggestions in the next few days as I become
more familiar with the project and its history.
Reflections: Week Beginning September 2
It is time to keep my eyes on the prize and focus on all the work coming
my way. There still is much focus on team building and everyone has latched
onto the Tuckman Team Development Model. This model must work it is widely
known and was first conceived of in 1965. I understand that there needs
to be emphasis on group dynamics and establishing agreed upon expectations
for everyone; this is obviously important. In the back of my head I am
wondering why so much emphasis on these things here? Did something go
horribly wrong with previous Immersion groups? At any rate I am enjoying
the 17 Qualities of a Team Player book. This book is a light read but
it does make me think about my personal goals and aligning them with my
values. This is something I really had not done since I was in undergraduate
studies when I could give a reason or explanation for almost every action.
The debate and thoughtful dialogue that is starting to engage me in more
intellectual pursuits is a welcome change form the working world. I feel
like I am just getting my bearings and am jumping into conversation when
I feel I'm on top of the pedagogical issue out there to be attacked or
touted. There is nothing like being in a dynamic academic environment.
Soon I hope to find a niche inside the team to challenge myself and learn
what it really takes to be an instructional designer and developer.
Reflections: Week Beginning September 9
Individual reflection on participation in team and individual contribution.
We are "storming" and "norming" this week. We are
spending a lot of time deciding on communication protocols and its probably
a good idea since we seem to talk over each other frequently and get sidetracked
often. This "norming" is taking time to get agreement and "buy
in" but in the end it probably is time well spent.
The article from Cultivating Communities of Practice titled The challenge
of Distributed Communities was the first article that I have read in the
program so far where I thought ah ha this has lots of correlation to my
focuses in my undergraduate program.
On 9/16, during a meeting with the our TTAC group, I was thinking out
loud as I spoke to Brenda and the team and proposed that we build PCD
project into an element of TTAC like one of the "Webshops" for
our 797 final project. The proposal was well received and I was complemented
for my idea by Brenda and others on the team (that felt good). I guess
this is yet another example of "enlargement" of an idea to a
proposal and possible element of the TTAC site.
Reflections: Week Beginning September 23
I have made it a point to let others know what information and resources
I can provide to them and it always is reciprocated. Case in point, since
I’m relatively new to doing web work myself (instead of directing
others) this action learning has allowed me to stretch my skills in this
new area without great pressure from others, the only the pressure is
the pressure I put on myself. Since becoming a co-webmaster I have started
to make the most of my collaboration with Trista by learning as much as
I can from her. In turn, I have promised her when the time comes to integrate
digital media or any video editing, I will be happy to teach her what
she wants to learn. I have seen this kind of cooperation happen all the
time in our T/TAC group. This action learning model has some nice dynamics
to it like this kind collaborative learning. This model seems to bring
out and support new skills and competencies and positive interdependence.
Reflections: Week Beginning September 30
This week was a good and productive one we finally got to see the other
Immersion Group doing their thing. Andrea and Steve did a nice Power Point
presentation for all of us. I thought it was particularly interesting
to draw parallels in my mind of the similarities between their analysis
experiences and ours. Another interesting aspect is dealing with people
focused in on different points of the project. Some people only seem to
focus on the here and now and day to day while others are working to bring
the whole picture together regardless of the details. I think these different
focuses resulted in a few notable examples were the mismatching of our
expectations and those of the clients, some misunderstandings and miscommunications
between the teams and different clients and all of these events causing
us to redirect efforts in areas that we didn't anticipate.
Related issues: T/TAC doing or not doing Webshops, NSF working to actually
be trainers for the community in the community center.
October
Reflections: Week Beginning October 7
Last week Trista and I made a presentation to our team about "Communities
of Practice". The book we referenced primarily for the work was:
A Guide to Managing Knowledge: Cultivating Communities of Practice by
Etienne Wenger Et al. We felt that this was greatly needed in order for
the T/TAC team to really think about what kind of online community we
are creating for our audience. The resulting questions I posed to the
team after the presentation is: what is T/TAC Online? Is it a tool for
a community of practice or just a tool used by a less connected type of
online community? Do the T/TAC practitioners even have an interest in
having a community of practice?
Trista and I felt that this presentation could put the breaks on some
of our work and that it could possibly cause a major shift in website
redesign goals and affordances but hey this is part of the discovery learning
process that we experience constantly. I think that we framed the issues
well enough that the content was synthesized by the team. This week people
are talking about design, audience and communities of practice all in
the same breath and critically thinking about how these elements affect
one another. To date we are still having academic debates about weather
T/TAC Online is or has the potential to be a community of practice. Now
that we have had a few good debates on the topic, I think this issue will
remain a question for some time to come (we owe it to our clients).
We are doing Usability Testing and I am really learning a lot from this work - I enjoy it. This semester is my first formal expeosure to this work but it has some similarities to the informal evaluations I uesed to do evaluating different multimedia software at the Discovery Channel. This testing goes more deep and has more breadth than any work I had done previously. We are really looking very closely at what the learners are "getting"- and more specifically learning what you intended for them to learn. I have video taped all of our learners so that we can go back and evaluate what they were doing and why. Video taping and having the learner "think out loud" is a great combination to really discover great details of usabliity. I'm looking forward to more of this work.
Reflections: Week Beginning October 21
Reflection: "No model is perfect but some are helpful".
This has become a mantra, stuck in my head for weeks. It keeps grinding
away, day in and out as I ruminate at every stage of new elements brought
to light in our T/TAC work. I keep wondering if this is a good sign that
I am taking my work very seriously with critical thinking, to the point
of excess. Or, is this common practice for ID professionals? Don Norman
very well might think this way.
The questions I am left with are: when do you know you have extracted
the most critical elements of a design problem? What level of representation
is most useful to illuminate? When can you be sure you have extracted
the right elements? How do you know your representation of the interconnectedness
of the elements is as helpful as it could be?
I’m second guessing lots of models and the way that their information
is represented to me. I’ve started to sketch alternative visual models
to new ones I encounter. I guess I have found something I am really drawn
to examine in great detail.
I think this whole way of thinking is being influenced by Use Cases and
by Gary Dickleman’s 797 class. I’ve been tape recording most
all of his classes in order to capture more information than I can write.
I’ve been listening to the tapes during my commutes to and from home.
Maybe this model mantra is just me finding a new niche or its just enlarging
ideas from too much exposure to Gary?
Reflections: Week Beginning November 11
Working on Use Cases and Interface Content Modeling this week prompted
this analogy.
"Use Cases" and The Arts: The Obvious Analogy:
A couple of weeks ago the new experience of creating use cases for our
website really struck me as something that can be an individual and creative
experience, as unique to the author as a painting is to the artist. I've
been thinking about the various levels of perception that hold true to
this idea. Here is what I have roughed out so far.
Use cases we developed were trying to get at the optimal dialogue between
the user and the system (the website tools). The intention of the user
is what starts the use case. So the ISD and the use cases are like the
artist envisioning a complete composition that is composed of fastidious
elements that must stewarded to become a successful integrated piece of
work. The use cases evolve from the formative conceptual stages to the
summate tangible product. This is just the first high level layer of topography
on the use cases creative canvas. If we are to view the ISD as the artist
what kind of artist is the ISD? Are the ISD’s use case approaches
those of minimalists, abstract expressionists, or photo realists? Are
the concepts they wish to convey overarching and high level, are they
loosely defined dynamic relationships or are they precise, deliberate,
straightforward and blatantly obvious?
The approaches I have seen from several different ISDs designing for the
same modeling outcome has run the gamut. Each person approached the work
from different school of thought. The prolific works resulting from the
creative generative process are all unique.
Some designers want to hold onto the known elements and don’t stray
far from the obvious representation while others initially abstract in
approach bring the design back in to an accessible and meaningful level
for the audience. Just like in the creation of art it’s hard to know
when to stop and accept that your work is done.
Harder still can be the final museum display of these use cases from different
designer’s schools of thought. These ISDs must find a way to exhibit
their unique work under the roof of the project.
In the case of T/TAC we had minimalists, abstract expressionists and photo
realists each designing for elements of a final exhibition that needed
to be comprehensive and cohesive. The key to this success was knowledgeable
designers and a good curator or project manager. At the confluence of
these efforts is the intimate understanding of the use case representations
and the ability to piece them together. This process takes a the seemingly
disassociated works and hangs them on the wall together to form an exhibit
that presents a display of linked and complete system.
If that kind of thinking doesn’t appeal to you, enjoy the Use Case
Paper Representations on your wall. One of these designs should look good
with your couch:
LINK THESE LATER:Abstract Elements Study 1, Abstract Elements Study
2, Abstract Elements Study 3, Abstract Elements Study 4, Abstract Elements
Study 5
Reflections: Week Beginning November18
I was amazed to see we were actually doing some real "storming"
today in our meeting. There were several spirited disagreements, one of
the debates happened between two of our most diplomatic team members in
the middle of our meeting. I think that the stress was starting to be
felt by all of us; we just wear it differently. The really interesting
thing is that within a couple of minutes each of the teammates apologized
(it was still tense). Hoping to ease the transition back to normalcy with
some humor I apologized to everyone for anything I might do in the future
– that seemed to help some. I think that we are all getting tired
from doing late nights and early mornings for the end of the semester
crunch. As a hyperactive sleep deprived teacher from the state of Utah
once said "the semester is running out of laters".
The impressive thing about this storming was that it didn’t last
long and no one took it personally. This indicates several things to me:
we adhere to our established norms, and we have created a space that has
some creative abrasion, we have good professional attitudes, even if ideas
are shot down we aren’t hesitant to throw out new possibilities.
I think Rob Parrott said it best when he was commenting on our group dynamics:
"…it is hard sometimes to detach your ideas you throw out to
the group from yourself. We all have had to do that this semester. Your
ideas are your babies and a lot of us got our babies voted down and called
‘UGLY’ but we moved on without our ugly kids."
Other noteworthy work this week happend in the creation of flow charts for the TTAC site based upon our Interface Content Modeling and Use Cases and we had the opportunity to spend more time on Section 508. I worked with Trista and Lucinda on investigating what common software programs and tools are compliant natively or can be made compliant through some kind of a conversion process. This was really interesting work. I looked up lots of information on the web and then had to call several vendors and software companies including ADOBE and Microsoft. I was amazed at how little knowledge any of the "Experts" had about 508 compliance and how their product was or wasn't compliant.
I have read all of the government's 508 document and other documents based upon 508 legislation but I still have a lot of questions. Lots of software companies say they are addressing 508 compliance but offer few details on how it is being done. In addition to justt finding autoring software that can be 508 compliant it also has to work eaily as an uploadable object to our website database; this compounds the matter even more. What we know is PowerPoint to HTML won't work with our website and even though Adobe says PowerPoint to .PDF works, with Acrobat 5.0 we have not found a way to make it accessible.
Reflections: Week Beginning December 2
Okay I blinked last a week and once the week before that now suddenly
we have to redesign everything (targeted redesign of the entire site)!
Its amazing what a small group of committed and talented people can do
in the course of a few days. Some of us were blind-sided by the turn of
events, some embraced the challenge and others just asked what they could
to help. Brenda seemed to take the changes in stride as though she had
seen this all before. Fortunately we can all pitch in extra hours now
that two more classes have finished.
The thing I am looking forward to is the work on the Visual Design
of the site. I hope we will have the time to rethink lots of things especially
since Trista, Lucinda and I have reworked flows and the content management
of the site- not that everything needs to be changed but a lot could change
if we remain open minded. This should be fun.
People are starting to look tired and I feel it right now. I may write
more later but that will be after some good sleep.
Reflections: Week Beginning December 9
A Conversation with an NSF team member:
The 17 Qualities of a Team Player book that we all read at the start of
our program was a little over the top as far as some examples went but
nonetheless a helpful book for many of us. I was talking to an NSF team
member about how I thought the book seemed to set the tone, discipline
and process for the way our T/TAC team would eventually work together.
We internalized the messages in the book, which helped lead the team to
develop our norms and expectations. The NSF team member thought that the
book was also helpful in that same respect but some in their group did
not internalize the lessons, particularly chapters 14 and 15. There was
sometimes resistance to the message. This attitudinal issue caused some
team dynamic problems later in the semester. This NSF team member really
felt that lack of internalizing lessons from this book had a role in group
dynamic issues later. This conversation I had makes me wonder how much
Brenda and Kevin were aware of what internalizing versus not internalizing
these readings can make on group behavior.
My last day in the lab for the semester (Friday the 13th) is spent updating
our T/TAC Phase 5 website with all of the new material that has been created
in the last couple days. If others were to look at the rush of material
that has come in during the last 72 hours they would wonder how it was
all possible. I see all of this work since my webmaster position puts
me in direct line of receivership of new documents, wire-frames and templates.
I caught myself thinking about the sheer output of the team and I felt
fortunate to have worked with such good and talented people over the last
four months. I am really looking forward to some time off. I am exhausted
and need some down time right now. I am really looking forward to next
semester and I hope to continue to push in new directions and have more
immersive learning experiences.
January 21-26
What did you do this week?
This week we mostly got reaclimated to being back at GMU and spent time on team building and reading about team and community building. Later in the week we spent time thinking about roles and team norms. We also revisited the issues/ questions that Trista and I posed to the team last semester – is TTAC Online a Community of Practice, is it just a community, does TTAC Online have any interest in being a Community of Practice?
What did you learn
this week?
Our group has changed with the absence of two of our team
from last term. I don’t think that his is a radical departure from
the dynamic we had previously but with some time and some social negotiation
we should be in a familiar and productive team dynamic shortly. I think
we realized that on some levels we would need to reinvent ourselves and
the team for new challenges and tasks.
We continued to examine the issue of "Communities and Online Communities"
in our readings. We also examined the reasons why communities arise, for
whom and for what purposes? The team also looked at the issue of "sociability
structures" imbedded in learning and community models.
How did you learn what you learned?
Reading several assignments were helpful to getting back into the mindset of team dynamics (since returning from break). In addition to the assigned readings I went back to review some of my favorite parts of the 17 Qualities of a Team Player book from last semester. I think most of the material I learned I did through linking and reflecting back on experiences from last semester. The trigger for me was reading the assignments on the issue of communities I internalized this material and placed in context of my experiences last semester.
What have you accomplished this week?
I did the reading assignments for the week and went back to a book I liked from last semester in order to get geared up for the Spring term. I participated in the social negotiation for the creation of team norms, permanent and rotating roles of the team. I got confirmation that Claudette and Rob did in fact want to assist in maintenance of the project website. This was welcome news since I had hoped to have some help with the keeping the website up to date this semester. I spent about a day and a half setting up the FTP site and web pages for the TTAC Phase 6 Project site.
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
I think that the activities were appropriate for the week and for a team
that has not had tremendous change from the previous term (but some change).
I thought that having the groups all meet together was helpful in reconnecting
with people on other teams that we seldom get to see.
I appreciated and felt honored being nominated by Rob Moss to be team
coordinator this term and then having the team unanimously vote in favor
of the nomination.
What would you change about this week?
I would have had assigned another reading/ book similar to the 17 Qualities from Fall term that had the same feel and effect on getting "team minded" with the aid of good anecdotal stories and quotes.
January 27- February 2
What did you do this week?
This week I spent several hours running around getting approval for the
addition of Kristine Neuber’s web accessibility class instead of
the other degree mandated tools class I had signed up to take. I felt
more settled once I had arranged this change in schedule with approval
from Brenda, Brenda and Kristine.
We met with our programmer SB and got updated on what he had done over
the break to develop elements we gave to him at the end of last term.
We were all surprised to see that less had been done than we had expected
(apparently SB had been pulled off of our project to work on another project
for Mike B.). We worked on defining our goals, the client goals and how
we can make them compatible and intersect.
We spent time focusing our reading and discussions on evaluation strategies
for projects and learning and usability studies.
I was given a few HTML modifications to do for templates and colors within
our TTAC On-line project site.
What did you learn this week?
Learning related directly to our project- happened during a meeting with
SB when we realized we had to revise our first draft for project goals
and timelines. We would have to push back much of what we hoped to do
due to lack of programming done on our database driven website.
I think that reading the Rosen book
The Anatomy of Buzz: Chapters 1-3 was an eye-opening lesson on communication
dynamics and the diffusion and dissemination of ideas.
How did you learn what you learned?
I learned from reading the weeks assignments as well as several group meetings between the LAO and TTAC teams. I thought the meetings were good generative learning platforms. I think having Brenda and Mike facilitate several meetings was helpful in getting us to focus on common tasks and issues we share as teams. I think this guidance and scaffolding was helpful in getting started some productive thinking and brainstorming about our goals as teams, as individuals and the goals of our clients.
What have you accomplished this week?
I slowly felt like I was getting back into the academic routine again.
I spent several hours after class at the lab working on one of my jobs
this Spring; being the primary webmaster for our project site. I hope
that later in the semester I can give most site responsibilities over
to Rob and Claudette for their own edification.
Since no one has been able to meet I have taken it upon myself to create
the new project site for the team for this semester as well as the new
Phase 6 logo. On Thursday I spent 8 hours on the TTAC Phase 6 website
and got it linked to the GMU Immersion site as well as create its structure
and links. This was a lot of work but it will make the rest of the semester
easier to post and update the site.
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
I felt like the group meetings were very productive and helpful. As I said earlier, I think good generative learning can come from successful group meetings and I think we hit the mark this week.
What would you change about this week?
I would have liked spending more time than we did going over our reading and discussing them in class (more generative learning directly related to newly acquired knowledge).
February 3- 8
What did you do this
week?
Our TTAC and NSF teams toured the GMU Media Lab in the Johnson
Center.
We had several good meetings this week one of them happened after we got
a conference room in the Johnson Center and just worked through three
things 1) the creation of goals for the semester and 2) how we might build
buzz and 3) how to help build an online community.
On the fifth we had a very helpful meeting with Brenda which helped us
reign in and organize what seemed like a huge unmanageable list of thoughts
and goals
which resulted in a methodical list of goals and focuses and the creation
of an image map to show the interrelatedness.
I researched portable media drive options for the GSE to fully take advantage
of the non-networked media stations in the lab. I then sent my procurement
recommendation to Brenda for review and purchase.
On Saturday I attended the Hellen Kellar Institute for Human disAbilities
and TAM conference and workshops to learn more about section 508 assistive
technology and to create some "buzz" about the TTAC Online project.
What did you learn this week?
I think that this was more of an organization week for the team and some
scaffolding from Brenda was very much needed and appreciated. .
How did you learn what you learned?
I think most learning for me happened in group dialogue and meetings.
I think that the enlargement of ideas, scaffolding provided by Brenda
(just in time) and peer to peer feedback and support all added to the
learning I experienced during this week as well as the readings on usability
testing and anatomy of buzz that helped gear us up to be thinking about
many of these issues and ideas we needed to consider at that time
What have you accomplished this week?
I created an electronic modified version of the image map that we developed
during our meeting with Brenda.
I continued to refine our phase 6 project website (I spent about four
hours working to develop the project website).
How do you feel about
this weeks activities?
I think the meetings we had this week were critical to the success
we are planning for this semester.
What would you change about this week?
I think this week would have been a good time for the team to focus and reflect upon last semester. I think doing an official kind of a post-mortem to evaluate and reflect on last term as we look ahead to new goals would have been helpful. I do think to a certain degree some of this was done but I think we could have milked more out of this process. This was a practice that I used to do on many TV productions and post-production projects and it always seemed valuable.
February 10-15
What did you do this week?
This week was especially busy and equally interesting. We continued to
refine our goals for the semester (both for the project and personally).
We also started planning for the new round of usability studies and overall
evaluation plan for the TTAC Project. For the usability work we created
new subgroups (I went with the team focusing on the special education
teachers).
On Monday and Wednesday we had presentations for SCORM from the people
at ADL and on Wednesday we had another presentation on section 508 compliance
given by Kristine Neuber to help us think more about our 508 compliance
for our project site.
What did you learn this week?
I learned a lot about SCORM and became very interested in it and Knowledge
Objects in general. I also realized that there was a significant amount
of knowledge transference from my many years of doing content management,
creating hierarchical metadata schema as I developed the Discovery Channel’s
digital media asset schema and meta tags. This was true aha moment and
it made me feel like all of that specialized work had actual relevance
in the related information structures and issues of knowledge management
and learning objects.
In the area of 508 compliance Kristine refreshed us on the issues we need
to keep in mind as we make the site compliant and we realized that we
may have to go deeper into the database driven site than we previously
thought to make certain changes for compliance.
How did you learn what you learned?
Learning related to SCORM and knowledge objects happened in a really
dynamic way for me. As the ADL presenters were talking about SCORM and
the challenges of creating reusable and contextless objects I had flashbacks
to me pulling my hair out as I worked on creating supporting metadata
and their standard schemas for video clips and graphics at the Discovery
Channel. Then I started thinking about domains of knowledge and domains
of learning epistemologies from readings and lectures. Next I started
sketching out an image map of how these objects could be identified; categorized
and reused- it really blew my mind! A few minutes later I asked several
questions of the ADL presenter and if they had tried the approach I had
just generated as a concept/ image map – he said they had and it
had some promise. For having just really been introduced to this SCORM
stuff I felt a lot brighter than I normally do.
The second thing that I realized/ learned after our group met with Kristine
Neuber is that we may have to go deeper into our website to make it 508
compliant than we had previously thought necessary.
What have you accomplished this week?
I contributed ideas and questions to think about to both presentations
during the week.
I gained new found knowledge transfer from aspects of my old profession
to Knowledge Management.
Other things I did: got a sympathy card for Deana and a card and cake
for Lucinda.
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
I thought that the activities this week were especially eye opening to me and they sparked new interests I will persue on my own time.
What would you change about this week?
I wouldn’t change a thing this was a very good week and I now have a new interest in learning objects and SCORM. I think I will do 792 my paper on this topic.
What did you do this week?
We prepared for the TTAC shareholder’s meeting. We all divided up into subgroups and worked. I went into the group focusing on the development of the actual learning module for the March 20th Meeting. I helped Deana collect and sort content material for the development of an example Webshop to go onto our website. I was team scribe this week so I took notes at the meetings this week and have posted the material on the project website. I also went through "Edit Webshop" to find errors on the site or any inconsistencies. As the Team Coordinator I was asked by a team member to talk through some frustrations she was having with another member and difficult dynamics she had encountered. This meeting helped blow off steam and readied me for a possibly difficult conversation with the other party.
What did you learn this week?
I feel like I got a good introduction to training development and the considerations that should be pondered. I appreciated the time I got to spend working with Cindy as we worked through material for the March 20th training and presentation.
How did you learn what you learned?
Almost everything I learned this week was learned by doing (situated cognition).
What have you accomplished this week?
This week my calendar is full of contributions I made most of them I have already mentioned. I think the think the most tangible contributions this week were the two pages of problems I documented on the website and the new material I posted to our project site.
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
I was glad to have more time working on the development of training for the TTAC Online presentation. I think that this was time well spent and I enjoyed the group work.
What would you change about this week?
I wish there had been fewer distractions this week so that w could have developed even more training material.
March 10- 16
What did you do this week?
We made last minute work to prepare for the TTAC shareholder’s meeting. We all divided up into subgroups and worked to trouble shoot and test the site for bugs. I found and documented two pages full of bugs in the Webshops creation pages and edit Webshops. It turns out that several of these problems were unique to my MAC platform since they could not be replicated on two PCs. I also came in the afternoon on Tuesday and at 9AM on Wednesday (during spring break) to be support and help to Mary Wilds while she got content together for webshops. I also researched all the available material for " MS Producer" in preparation for my presentation in Richmond.
What did you learn this week?
THIS IS SPRING BREAK BUT IT SURE DOESN'T FEEL LIKE IT.
I learned that we had more bugs on our website than I was previously aware and this was unnerving to me and to Claudette as we watched Mary struggle with adding content to our site (just one week before our big day in Richmond). We are well ahead of schedule for our internal launch of TTAC Online this July but we still needed more functionality for our presentation and training. We want more functionality for the presentation to the Assistive Technology Taskforce and other Virginia Department of Education representatives.
How did you learn what you learned?
Much of what I learned this week was from practical hands on applications,
testing integrity of Webshops creation pages and research on the internet
in the case of MS Producer.
What have you accomplished this week?
I feel well prepared for talking about MS Producer at the March 20th meeting. I partnered with and helped Mary Wilds while she was on site (during spring break) to populate webshops with assistive technology material. I documented a range of errors in the webshops section of TTAC Online.
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
The activities this week were stressful as we were coming down the stretch for the big presentation in Richmond next week. I think that our team, as usual did great things by dividing and conquering tasks as individuals and subgroups – we never seem to disappoint in anyway the larger team. I think that we were nervous and second guessing ourselves about the effectiveness, buzz and level of our presentation would be based upon the various problems we encountered, documented and reported to SB in varying degrees of tiered priorities for functionality we could count on during our presentation day.
What would you change about this week?
I would have made it a real Spring Break and not have done any work at
all; just relaxed.
I wouldn’t have changed a thing the sense of urgency and slight panic
about doing a good presentation were good motivators for all of us. I
think we were able to plow through a lot of material faster and with greater
focus as a result.
March 17- 23
What did you learn this week?
I discovered that the majority of the two pages full of problems I documented in "Edit Webshops" was unique to my own experiences on the computer. It turns out that several of these problems were unique to my MAC platform since they could not be replicated on two PCs.
How did you learn what you learned?
I don’t think I learned anything this week. Most of the week was spent rushing around getting ready for our shareholders presentation and doing a lot of technical work.
How did you learn what you learned?
Anything I learned this week was from practical hands on applications situated learning (learning by doing).
What have you accomplished this week?
I collected my material for " MS Producer" in preparation
for my presentation in Richmond.
Rob Moss and I went down to Richmond a day early to meet the on-site AV
Engineer (Richard Schley) and to set up for the camera switcher and Mini
DV recording from three different inputs. Poor timing resulted in Richard
having a visit to the hospital on the day we were to present training
for the TTAC Online website so we wanted to make sure that everything
was in perfect shape while we had a small window of opportunity to work
with Richard. We also setup the 30 PCs in the training room with proper
browsers settings and training material loaded onto the desktops. When
there was a need for individual help in our training classroom I helped
learners work through any problems they encountered and then returned
to my video work. I was well prepared for talking about MS Producer at
the March 20th meeting (which I was asked to do impromptu). I videotaped
the entire training in Richmond and shared camera switching responsibilities
with Rob Moss.
See e-mail from Richard Schley :
From Richard Schley <rschley@mail.vak12ed.edu>
Date Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:22:01 -0500
To rmoss1@gmu.edu
Subject Re: Thanks for the help! Robert - share this with Shawn please
I really enjoyed working with both of you. Your professionalism and expertise
was impressive. It is refreshing to find polite, respectful and knowledgeable
young people today, who I would be honored to call
colleagues.(compared to me you guys are young) I was very upset when I
found out I had to go for that procedure during your scheduled activity
because, the complexity of what you were doing exceeded the engineering
comfort level of my fellow staff.
The short time I was with you two, I felt you were both very much in charge
and went to that appointment knowing the place was in good hands (equal
to or greater than mine) and did not worry (or even call in). The next
day I arrive and find the room is 100% (no one ever leaves it that way)"Sstuff"
is put away or neatly situated where I can just put it away. Even the
batteries.. that was a nice touch.
Took me a while to write this - well us engineer types you know - but
I just had to thank you - really thank you.
Hope to see you and work with you again.
Thanks again,
Sincerely,
Richard
Richard L. Schley
Specialist, Instructional Technology
Virginia Department of Education
James Monroe Building
101 North 14th Street
P.O. Box 2120
Richmond, VA 23218-2120
How do you feel about this weeks activities?
The activities this week were stressful and rewarding through our hard work we were well prepared to present training to our audience in Richmond. We got very positive feedback during our presentation, the training and on survey questions about the training. I think that we were able to develop some good buzz about TTAC Online.
What would you change about this week?
I wouldn’t have changed a thing. This was a good and busy week
.
March 31-April 6
What did you do this week?
I spent some time reflecting on my reflections so I was meta-meta-thinking.
I have been able to articulate some disappointment I have been feeling.
I have been less inclined to write my reflections and consequently I have
been less prolific because of the repetative and superficial format we
have been asked to follow for our reflections. My reflections do not fit
into six categorical questions each week, These reflections, are more
often than not stream of consciousness and consequently lead to deeper
thoughts.
Our team was asked to voluntarily participate in this activity to help
a Ph.D.student learn about knowledge creation. We agreed to the conditions
as a group at the begining of the semester. Absent since this agreement
has been any involvement of any kind by the Ph.D. student we were doing
this writing format for (not even e-mail). Is this socially negotiated
agreement between us dissolved since the Ph.D. candidate has not lived
up to his end of the contract? The candidate has missed all but two of
our group activities and group meetings (the very place where most learning
and knowledge transfer occurs). Should we have socially renegotiated this
agreement (we do this all the time in our program)? Does it seem like
a reasonable thing to do?
At this point, I think that its too bad we haven't talked about this derailed
project sooner. Earlier we could have gotten this back on track or just
officially dropped it. This six-question format continues to be a seemingly
pointless disruption to more thoughtful reflections.
What did you learn this week?
I think I learned a lot this week about different evaluation tools for 508 Compliance and I have started sketching out some ideas about how to systematically approach this task.
How did you learn what you learned?
Anything I learned this week was from practical hands on applications situated learning (learning by doing).
What have you accomplished this week?
We made some very good progress in the direction of the development of our Section 508 plan of the TTAC Online site.
How do you feel about these weeks activities?
I think Trista summed up the week well in this quote" As long as we are confused together I am okay." The time we spent focusing on Section 508 Compliance was helpful and put us on track with the development of a comprehensive plan for TTAC Online.
What would you change about this week?
I wouldn’t have changed a thing. Everything we do here adds to our knowledge base from experiential learning.
April 7- April 13
What did you do this week?
This week I was focused more focused on the Section 508 issues related
to out T/TAC site.
Several members of the team met in the Assistive Technology lab to talk
through accessibility issues or concerns we had about making our site
compliant. We had a good team meeting and discussion with Brenda on Tuesday.
What
did you learn this week?
I think the two most valuable things I learned this week were related
to group work and problem solving (this seems to be very common for me).
The two things I am thinking of are working through and drafting the Section
508 plan and our group discussion about chapters 4-6 in the Clark and
Mayer e-Learning book. These two separate learning events also intersect.
During discussion of the reading assignment it dawned upon me that there
was not a single reference to accessibility in the Clark and Mayer e-Learning
book (this definitely dated these book chapters). It was obvious that
there were several sections in the e-Learning book that would be totally
rewritten if they were drafted today. The lack of any information on Section
508 and issues related to accessibility was surprising.
The other interesting idea that was discussed was the question of weather
or not the e-Learning studied in these chapters was dated in other ways
also? Are the learning models we are studying modalities of the past?
Kids today can grow up watching and learning from CNN Ticker tape, fast
cuts and multiple simultaneous windows of information being presented
as inputs causing the development of shared cognitive attention from the
viewer/ learner. I don’t think and much thought has been given to
the manner in which rich and multiple input can be and are synthesized
by our young learners – there may be effective and new media rich
models to examine here.
The question that has continued to stick with me is: "Do people intuitively
know how they learn best?" I’m not sure that there is an absolute
answer because we have all been prejudiced by our previous learning experiences
and we may have a false sense of understanding ourselves as a result.
How did you learn what you learned?
Discussion, debate and decision making were the elements that helped drive
the more dynamic learning that took place this week.
What have you accomplished
this week?
I was a principle author in the drafting of the Section 508 Plan for T/TAC
How do you feel about these weeks’ activities?
This week’s activities were productive and resulted in the creation
of some tangible results.
What would you change about
this week?
Why would I want to change anything that resulted in learning?
April 14- April
20
What did you do this week?
This week all three teams met to present team updates to other groups.
Every one in our group took a section of the presentation. My area for
the presentation was Section 508 Compliance and the role of 508 in our
planning and development of the T/TAC website.
I presented for about five minutes and used PowerPoint slides to articulate
certain points.
Tuesday we had another good discussion as a team as we reflected on our
e-Learning chapters 6-9. On Wednesday Deana, Claudette and I spent time
drafting our first collaborative effort compiling our Section 508 plan
for our website.
I also helped with Deana to help reformat posters and change out some
content for the Innovations Student Projects Competition.
What did you learn this week?
During discussions I brought up the idea of the informed artist or designer
having the ability to almost intuitively bring cognition and design together.
We discussed at length and I walked away with the feeling that these individuals
can tap into deep thinking, which can result in informed design.
Is ISD an art a science or both? The developers of Learning Management
Systems assume that Learning Objects can be solely supported by science
with no allowance for the art of the delivery or the creation of content
– is this an oversight?
One thing that is for certain, is that in dealing with human cognition
and the intangibles of an art form it is nearly impossible to quantify
any of it in science.
I liked Traista’s comment about the possibility that we may need
to change the way society thinks to better reflect current concepts and
to recognize elements of learning and thought outside the realm of the
quantifiable. The quote was something to this effect. " Societal
thinking metacognatively occurs less than objectivist thinking from 400
years of Copernican thought all things are quantifiable."
How did you learn what you learned?
Lots of discussion and reflection after the discussions helped me to learn
much of what I synthesized this week.
What have you accomplished this week?
We finished our Section 508 Plan this week and created some timelines
to hit before the end of the semester.
How do you feel about these
weeks activities?
The discussions from the e-Learning book are some of the best we have
had. I have really missed these dialogues and assigned readings.
What would you change about
this week?
I would make other weeks like this week. I think this week struck an nice
balance between readings and projects and tangible progress on the T/TAC
project.
April 21- April
27
What did you do this week?
I made arrangements with Shuangbao to meet and work with him on Section
508 Compliance of the T/TAC site using RAMP to evaluate and modify problems.
Rob Moss and I teamed again for another media event. We prepared to use
the GMU studio in the STAR Lab on Wednesday but after several hours of
us helping the staff figure things out, we gave up and made arrangements
to shoot our video production in a real television studio in Arlington
on Thursday.
Rob and I taught some studio lighting, teleprompting and camera work to
Deana and Lucinda got comfortable with being talent.
Saturday Deana and I went over to Rob’s to put the video I shot into
Microsoft Producer to index parts of the script for random accessing elements
and to work on synchronous text with the video to make the project 508
compliant.
This process took several hours.
What did you learn this week?
I realized how much I have missed to television production work but I
was also reminded that I now have more new ISD skills that can be integrated
into media production and post-production jobs.
How did you learn what you learned?
This week some new learning happened when working with Rob and Deana on
the multimedia production piece while trying to make the media 508 Compliant.
How do you feel about these weeks activities?
I was disappointed that the STAR Lab was in such a state of affairs. This
was my second experience doing, or trying to do professional quality video
production in the STAR Lab studio. The STAR team really needs to learn
the gear and handle it better. I expect higher standards for GMU, we as
students should not have to make studio arrangements elsewhere for basic
camera, switcher, and TelPrompTer work. Other than this inconvenience,
the rest of the week was very positive and fruitful.
What would you change about this week?
I would have shot the video production on GMU grounds with GMU resources.
April 28- May 4
What did you do this week?
This week was spent in the practice of making the T/TAC site Section 508
Compliant. I was able to schedule time to meet with Shuangbao, Kristine
and Claudette at the same time to carefully examine our site and try to
address compliance issues.
To get this process into full swing I attempted to run several of our
pages through WAVE but was unable to do it because of some firewall issues.
Checking site HTML pages then began with RAMP. Time spent on RAMP was
helpful since I am still getting used to the not so user friendly interface.
Also during the week, I volunteered to answer questions for prospective
Immersion Students at the Open House that was held on Tuesday. On Wednesday
I volunteered to be at the T/TAC Innovations Booth #11 for the tear down
and wrap-up of the competition.
What did you learn this
week?
I learned that my knowledge of Section 508 runs much more deep than I
had realized; right down to identifying and explaining why very detailed
coding issues in webpages need to be changed and how they needed to be
changed for compliance. I thought I might have some trouble with such
a complicated database driven and login pages but I did not have a problem
at all. Apparently all the accessibility and 508 books I have been reading
over the last year have really sunk in. After running RAMP on the login
page of the T/TAC site I realized that we will need Shuangbao to reference
the database script from another location with anchor tags. This change
will enable screen readers to navigate through the graphic heavy pages
without getting hung up in jumbled up database code. This will also make
the ALT Tags and Long Description Tags obvious and navigable.
How did you learn what you
learned?
I learned what I learned through situated cognition, discovery learning
and problem based learning.
What have you accomplished
this week?
This week I feel like we made some substantial headway in the 508 evaluation
of the T/TAC site. I also feel like I now have a working method for approaching
the site systematically in order to bring it into compliance. This progress
made me and the team feel like we are on the road to compliance.
How do you feel about these
weeks activities?
I think that sitting down and doing this 508 work for an extended period
of time was invaluable and will go a long way towards the execution of
the 508 Plan Deana, Claudette and I authored.
What would you change about
this week?
I would not change a thing this week.