Wicked Project: Final

Good Afternoon, My name is Dale Ehrhart and I’m part of the Education Staff here at Sloan*Longway in Flint, Michigan.  Our organization’s Mission is to “create engaging experiences for everyone that inspire lifelong curiosity in history, science and technology."  To fulfill this mission we develop and teach a wide variety of educational programs that reach students and adults throughout Genesee County and beyond. For the most part we teach at Longway Planetarium, Sloan Museum, or the Buick Gallery but we also frequently perform outreaches at Schools and Libraries.

All of our programs are hands-on, materials rich and pretty intensive so remembering the content and pedagogy of each program is challenging. We also move at a pretty fast pace, so the information needed to teach these classes needs to be immediately assessable.   Binders with lesson plans get lost or ruined, classroom computers are not an option because these spaces are frequently open to the public.  I needed a cross-platform mobile solution that leveraged the capabilities of our educators’ smartphones.

I used weebly as my platform because it automatically convert to a mobile site it’s free to use.  Due to a request from my manager I had to come up with a password protected site.  Another online web authoring platform called webs fulfilled this need, however, I didn’t like its mobile options.  I wound up creating a password site that automatically redirects to the weebly pages.  I’m really happy about the QR Code generator I found because it enables the user to create colorful QR codes with embedded images. The QR codes are posted in the classroom and on the inside lid of our class boxes.  Educators use their cell phone equipped with a QR reader app to access mobile websites containing important content information and pedagogical information.  In addition to the content I uploaded images and videos to demonstate classroom setup and safe usage of equipment like the animal traps we set off in Trappers and Traders.

Creating cross-platform mobile websites linked to QR codes gives busy Sloan*Longway educators immediate access to the important content and pedagogical information using technology that they carry with them.  This falls directly in the center of the TPACK model.

For the most part the program was implemented as planned, however, my managers request for password changed things slightly.  Usually, making and using QR codes is easy. There are a bunch of generators out there.  I made the creation of my QR codes more difficult because I wanted to use color and logos.  I’m currently adding outreach and summer activities along with assessment pieces that educators can use to test themselves over content.  One blog reader had a fantastic suggestion that I crowdsource the information I need for the assessment pieces from my fellow educators. Finally, I'm looking forward to the fall because use of the sites will be limited until the fall after MEAP testing.    

Group Leadership Project

 So here it is, this is our Group Leadership for the Wii Remote Interactive Whiteboad. We used a varity of technology to deliver the tutorial. Our images were produced by taking screen shots of our Prezi. Originally I hoped to include transitions in the final but they wound up being choppy and adding time. In addition to Prezi we used Audacity to record sound, Windows MovieMaker to stitch the Jing screenshots together, and a variety of other software for the wii minitutorials embeded in the final.

 I had to learn a certain degree of trust in this process. Ashley asked to produce the final, which is something I like to do, and she did a good job.

 First off, I’d like to thank my other group members for their efforts, and I really enjoyed the process. Group work online is much different from working with others in a office and I’d like to study some strategies for it. One thing I would have changed is the way we shared files. I think we should have had a common place to dump our files, like Dropbox, and that would have facilitated the process better.

PLP for 812

As far as my goals from 810, I’m still active with Scratch and I just finished developing my Scratch Advanced Game camp for the summer.  I’m using a combination  of the 11 year old laptops I have at my disposal and students can bring their own laptop.  I conducted an all day PD workshop over the Flint Sitdown Strike that contained a QR Code Scavenger hunt a couple of months ago and in my original personal growth plan I mentioned that I wanted to develop a moodle course for our programs, but that has been replaced by my Wicked Project.    

I’m taking away quite a bit from my experience here.  I have never worked with groups online before and that was fantastic experience.  I learned about so many different pieces of software and how to use them as components in a larger project.  Finally, I learned about the value of developing and contributing to PLNs especially on twitter. 

As part of future growth, I planning to stop lurking and become a better contributor to PLNs other networks.  I’m also planning to do a better online job documenting what I create using my Weebly site.  


I love teaching and educational technology, and the MAET courses are fantastic, but I can’t continue with this path.  Sadly, I’ve decided to move away from education and look for opportunities elsewhere.  In addition to the recent policy trends at the state and national levels that make teaching unattractive there seems to be a lack of any viable path forward.   So, hopefully, I’ll be able to leverage what I’ve learned here for my job search and then integrate these skills with a career.  

Wicked Problem Project: Part D - Findings and Implications

In large part, the project has been implemented as planned.  In response to a request from my manager to use passwords, I altered my original plan from creating a group of standalone websites each with its own QR code to having a homepage linked to a QR code with sub-pages. Instead of having a poster of different QR code hanging on the wall I’m taping several copies of the QR codes to the bin that we use to store classroom materials  

Unfortunately, we’re at the end of the school year  and there is limited incentive for Sloan*Longway educators to use the website for training.   So far the response overall has been positive and everyone has downloaded and been trained on the use of QR codes, but the site should expect to see use after the MEAP in October.

 
 The major thing I would have done differently is talk to our IT department first.  I showed the project to our network administrator last week and he indicated he would have gladly provided server space and web templates that met my requirements.  I didn’t ask because the organization’s website doesn’t convert to a mobile format, and I assumed that it wasn’t just wasn’t part of package.  He indicated that this was a decision made by the organization as opposed to limited capability.   

The biggest lesson I learned is to make sure to check within your organization for resources first and don’t assume they’re not available. I spent quite a bit of time looking for and implementing alternatives after my manager requested passwords, and I didn’t need to do that.   I try to outsource portions of my projects whenever possible and the results reinforced that practice.  I used Common Craft’s video to explain QR codes to the staff, and they were far more willing to put QR readers on their devices after viewing the video then when I demonstrated the codes myself.  I’m glad I had a a list of free QR readers ready for the staff.  The most enjoyable thing I learned was how to customize QR codes.  Unless you’re geek the plain codes look pretty unappealing, so it was nice to find an easy, free way to alter them. 

In closing, we have a whole list of activities that are for outreaches and summer classes, and I’d like to include those on the website.  I’m developing self grading assessments using Google Form for the sites and I won’t do that again.  Developing one is fun, but developing  ten is tedious.  I'd like to apply this format to a list I'm developing for BYOD environments.  The flow would look like this:  QR Code and URL pointing to a homepage (ex. Mindmap) > subpages (webapps, ios apps, etc) > links to the resource and directions for use.

Data Visualization

I enjoy using image tools and I've been using Animoto, Gimp, Bubbl.us, Glogster, Google Earth, Wix,  Voice Thread, and other tools for several years. The first tool I tried for this assignment  is Text 2 Mind Map which is a really easy to use mind mapping application. You simply type in your outline and a mindmap is automatically generated as you type. I also looked at Gliffy which is a pretty cool diagram maker. I wound up using a tool that wasn't on the list called Piktochart.  Like many other services it has a free and paid Pro account.  The Pro account provides many more themes.

Unfortunately, I'm not really enjoying life right for a few different reasons and my mood became the topic for this visualization.  I really wanted to visualize something else but the spikes and colors grabbed my attention . The theme started like this:

and wound up like this

I've been tense and on edge all day and prior to this visualization I couldn't think of anything to create. The cool thing about visualizations is that they help you express complicated concepts including those not related to data..  After making the Piktochart I felt better and I realized I've been looking at evaluations from teachers for the past few days..  About 95% of our responses come back as Satisfied and Very Satisfied with the bulk being Very Satisfied.  The other responses on the evaluation are Neutral, Dissatisfied, and Very Dissatisfied.   Here is a Wordle respresenting the responses.

Wicked Problem-Implementation

Scan the QR Code below to go to the Mobile Site

or click on

http://sloanlongwayeducation.webs.com/

Password: Sloanlongway

Transcript

Hi, This is Dale. Today we’re going to talk a little bit about the implementation of the Wicked Problem. Specifically some Surprises, Some Unexpected Bumps in the Road and some things that went well.  First off, I had some surprises last week.

For those who don’t remember, I’m creating a multi-platform mobile training system for Sloan*Longway educators accessed though QR codes. So far the project has gone fairly smoothly and I’m meeting my goal of it being entirely free.  Unfortunately,  we unable to locate  the Word Documents  for a few of the lesson plans and I’m going to have to transcribe existing copies by hand. My  manager mentioned last week that she wanted a password on the QR codes so  anybody just can’t come up and scan our lesson plans. So this led to some unexpected bumps in the Road.

I’m using Weebly as my platform because it automatically converts to a mobile site and most of the features are free, however, password protection is part of its paid service.  Unfortunately, adding a password yourself with HTML, Javascript, or PHP violates Weebly TOS so I had to find an alternative. I found a site similar to Weebly called  WEBS  that has some basic  password protection but I don’t like its mobile formatting. So I created a custom password site on WEBs that automatically directs to the Weebly site.  So, I’m looking for option that does what I want with passwords and mobile formatting, Since I have to have a password I’m only creating one QR code that accesses the entire site.  Although it changes my original concept to some degree I really enjoy coming up with these types of solutions so the bumps in the road are kind of fun. The  thing I’m really happy about is the QR code generator I found and that’s coming up next.

I found this QR generator called ODOA, and I’ll include the link at the end of the podcast’s transcript. This generator lets you include images and change colors in the code.  So I created a QR code that includes the Sloan*Longway logo and uses the colors found on the logo.  Pretty Slick.  The QR code will be included in the posting along with the URL.

That’s all for now, Thanks for listening.

QR Generator

http://qr.odoa.eu/Web-QR-Code-Logo.aspx

Just in case you've never used a QR code here's a quick tutorial

Full and Mobile Home Page

Group Leadership Project: Part B - Storyboard and Script

Sometime you have to sit back and think about how amazing the hardware and software you use truly is.  During this group meeting,  Ashley, Rachael, and I worked collaboratively in Skype, Google Docs, and Prezi and sent links to information and video simultaneously .  The meeting was productive and we developed our storyboard here in GoogleDocs and our rough sketch in Prezi below.

Group 5 Interactive Wiiboard Tutorial on Prezi

Rachael has been working on the software, trouble shooting, and resources section for our group project while Ashley has focused on the content for our lesson plan demostration.  I am  focusing on hardware and process sections.  All of us have contributed in both the prezi and the Google Doc.

As we move toward the completion of the project Rachael will create a video of an app ipad that can be used with the Wiimote IWB and Ashly will record the audio for the presentation.  I will work on an instructional video for the setup of the wiimote IWB and a video presenting Ashley's lesson plan.  The three of us will continue to tweak the script in the storyboard and the Prezi as we continue.  

Mobile Learning

I'm been a huge fan of Mobile Learning since 2005.  For me, it started with Palm Handhelds and the early iPods, and has evolved into cell phones, Flip cameras, and Apple's iOS devices.  For the record, I don't consider anything that you can't stick in your pocket a true mobile learning device (that includes iPads), but that's material for another post.  I'd also like to see a device price point under $200.00, but even at $200.00 per device I really struggle to see how an school sponsored, single-platform mobile learning initiative can survive.

I'm following Saline Area Schools new BYOD policy with great interest, and I embedded it in an earlier posing here. For the uninitiated, BYOD stands for "Bring Your Own Device", and in this policy the teacher has the discretion of whether-or-not mobile and other devices are used in the classroom. But that leads to the question "What does a BYOD classroom look like and how can a teacher leverage all these different platforms?"  For me, the answer is providing the students the choice of a wide range of assignments that meet their learning styles which may or may not be accomplished using technology. Here are some of the resources I would use to develop a BYOD Classroom.

• Kathy Nunley's Layered Curriculum
• Mr. Roughton's Classroom 2.0
• From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning
• Learning In Hand
• The Flipped Classroom 

The educator will also have to develop a broad understanding of the capabilities of different platforms. For example, while students can create mindmaps on Netbooks and iOS devices, iOS apps typically do not allow  multiple users editing the same project at the same time.

Concerns about texting and other issues are often cited when bringing mobile devices in the classroom, but students often pass handwritten notes and so far the solution hasn't been banning paper and pencils. In closing, here are a few sample tweets on Twitter's #pencilchat.

• "I refuse to use pencils in my classroom until manufacturers figure out a way to limit what students can write with them."
•  "Any teacher who can be replaced by a pencil... should be. - Arthur C. Chalk"
•  "There is no evidence that the pencil makes learning faster, easier or better."
•  "I'm going to work hard to make sure my children are prepared to use pencils in the workforce."
•  “The problem with pencils is that kids are going to use them to copy stuff out of books."
•  “I don’t have time 2 learn about pencils. Besides, students use them at home all the time, so they are probably experts already."

Wicked Project Audio

view on Audioboo

PART A - Brainstorm Session

For our group project we've decided to produce a tutorial on the setup and use of Wii remote interactive whiteboard.  Unfortunately, the initial portion of this project, our group brainstorm, had technical difficulties and video of our session didn't record.   This is ironic,  because we chose to use the web conferencing tool, Big Marker, due to the audio recording problems we were having with Jing, Camtasia, CamStudio, Screencast-o-matic, etc.  These tools only recorded the in-microphone for us despite our attempts to record the system audio. Big Marker worked perfectly in our test run, it recorded the audio from the three of us and produced video, but in the end only the audio was saved.  Big Marker was chosen because it provided a solid, easy-to-use web conferencing platform and also recorded video and audio without the need for other software. Unfortunately, it wound up being unreliable. 

Our attempt can be found here. 

Despite the technical issues, the meeting was productive. Our Group formally settled on producing a tutorial for the Wiimote IWB using a Prezi screen recording combined with audio.  Rachael and Dale provided information here for Ashley to disseminate and the group is meeting Sunday, June 3rd to discuss further plans with our upcoming storyboard.  Rachael and Dale will concentrate on the setup, hardware, and software components of the IWB while Ashley will provide a geography lesson for the IWB and make sure the information provided by Rachael and Dale is accessible to new users.          

Wicked Problem Project: Part B - Application of TPACK

My wicked project is an effort to provide a cross-platform mobile training and remediation training solution for education programs presented by Sloan*Longway educators. The technology needs to be free, support HTML5, and be quick.

To allow for quick access, I will create a poster of QR codes that will on the classroom wall.  Educators will use their cell phone equipped with a QR reader app to access mobile websites containing important content a information and a brief self-grading quiz created with Google Forms that provide immediate  feedback so educators can assess their content knowledge over the related GLCEs.

In addition to the content, the initial setup of many programs is intimidating.  I will post the lesson plans, and  upload images and videos to demonstrate the setups safe usage of items like the liquid nitrogen dewer. The website will also contain an embedded self grading quiz using Google forms that provides immediate feedback to the educator.

Sloan*Longway educators experience three issues when teaching the core educational programs.  These issues are remembering important content and pedagogical details, classroom setup, and the proper use of equipment.  Unfortunately, binders tend to get lost or ruined quickly, and computers with internet access are not available in the classrooms.  With this mobile solution,  Educators will have immediate access to important content and pedagogical information

About Me

PART A - Description of Need or Opportunity

Sloan*Longway is a historical museum and Science Center located off of I-475 in Flint, Michigan. Its mission is to "create engaging experiences for everyone that inspire a lifelong curiosity in history, science and technology." To fulfill this mission Sloan*Longway provides a variety of educational programming for students and adults throughout the year. In order to meet demand from local school districts, the organization offers 26 hands-on and materials rich core programs aligned to Michigan's Science and Social Studies GLCEs. These programs are taught by 3 full-time educators and 4 part-time educators. For various reasons, staff training and remediation is an ongoing problem which results in an undesirable level of program specialization within the staff.  

 In order to help allieviate this issue, I plan to create an easily assessable mulit-platform mobile solution for iOS, Android, and Windows phones. My initial concept is a series of websites that contain key program background, content, set-up, and other information that will be accessed through the phone's camera with QR Codes. Here is a brief description of QR codes from Common Craft:

I plan to create 12 websites for the top 6 science programs and the top 6 social studies programs  using free sources like Weebly, YoutTube, and other non-flash based resources.  QR code creators and readers are free so the only cost for this project will be paper and laminate.  Furthermore, using a QR reader is relatively straightforward so only minimal staff training is required. I plan to track the use of  the websites with a counter, and will provide a brief survey using Google Forms.

Here are some sites that provide information for using QR codes in training:
How to Use QR Codes in Corporate Training

5 Real Ways To Use QR Codes In Education

You and QR Codes

Saline BYOD Policy

812 Introduction Video

DaleVideoIntro_0001.wmv Watch on Posterous

Introduction Video for CEP812

CEP 812 Final Reflection

In the past I’ve viewed myself as more of a technology assistant for teachers. I’m amazed at some the creative ideas that teacher have and since I’m proficient at a technical level I can help them meet their goals.  Studying ideas like Instructional Design Principle, UDL, and Face to Face strategies gives me confidence and helps me find my own voice. 

I’ve always wondered how well I would function in a classroom with access to limited technology.  Using web based technologies allow you to extend the classroom walls and take advantage of technology that students own in their own homes.  From content delivery to projects, instructors can use the web to leverage time and resources and use classroom time for mastery and student presentations.

I think I’ve found good platforms with Weebly and myUdutu to present the content I created for 8^th US History Classrooms, and I will continue to work at that.  I had planned on using Moodle, but Weebly sites are more assessable and I can easily port myUdutu objects later on. Here is the link to Water Treatment which I created as part of CEP811. I want to use the inbuilt mics on iOS devices for projects like this, so I have to figure how to improve the audio production.

I originally intended to take a break and continue with CEP 812 in July.  However, after reviewing the July schedule at work I’ll start right back up on May 7^th.  I will continue to study the TPACK framework, UDL, and Face 2 Face strategies to the point where I can hold an in-depth conversation with them and look for ways to express myself through Instructional technology.

Online Learning

The Michigan Merit Curriculum Online Experience Guideline Companion Document provides several examples that help teachers meet Michigan's Online Experience Requirements. I've worked with most of the technologies listed at some point over the last few years and lists like this remind me of things I've forgotten about.  For me, the most valuable tool is a Learning Management System (LMS).


Unfortunately, I've haven't worked on the administrator side of Blackboard for a couple of years.  When I had the opportunity to do so I was amazed with what I could do in the environment.  The LMS is an organizational force that allows a teacher to aggregate the much of the learning experience into a single location. Every online learning experience listed in the companion document could be linked to the LMS. If used to its fullest potential the LMS can organize the day, store resources like pdf files or presentations, link external sites, embed objects, provide online discussion, and even do some grading.  Here are a few more things the LMS can do:

• Facilitate parental communication
• Supports differentiation and student choice
• Supports flipping the classroom
• Provides assignments to absent students 
• creates the potential for anywhere/anytime learning

Using the LMS to its fullest potential requires quite a bit up front work,  but after that it's more about modifying and tweaking.     

XML and RSS give us the technical ability to do the things we do like sharing and collaborating with web 2.0 technologies.  They are the engines for the online experiences and environments we want to create so it is valuable to learn about them for background knowledge and technical proficiency but there not really an online experience.  It's a few years old now, but this is my favorite video about XML and RSS are and what they do.

This entry may be referring to the use of RSS feeds to create Personal Learning Networks which aggregate several continuously updated websites (blogs, news, video, etc) at a single location. If that's the case then, for example, an ELA teacher could encourage students to create blogs and  then RSS readers for sharing and commenting.      

Wikis

For our wiki lab in CEP 811 we've been asked to do a couple of tasks. The first task involved finding our place of work on Wikipedia and changing some of the information.
I work for Sloan*Longway in the Flint Cultural Center.

Here is the original wiki posting.

Over the last year our Board and Director has stressed the importance of our Mission Statements so I added those to the Wikipedia page.

I've been using PBWiki and WikiSpaces for several years. WikiSpaces, in particular, was very helpful to me and would up being a big help for my employment at the Cultural Center. Unfortunately, I edited out quite a bit a while back. These are 3 of my active wikis.

http://daleehrhart.wikispaces.com/Resume
http://daleehrhart.wikispaces.com/VideoResume


I've been wanting to make a wiki for my favorite iOS apps and web apps for a while so I decided to begin doing that.on PBWiki. Here is the start of that feel free to edit it yourself.

A Few of My Favorite Apps

UDL Lesson Plan Evaluation

After studying the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) I evaluated the lesson plan for Solar Wars that I submitted to Merlot.  Click on the link below to see the evaluation.

UDL Guidelines: Solar Wars

I wrote this lesson plan to enable other Sloan*Longway educators to teach the Solar Wars economic simulations with older model Palm handhelds at camp-ins.  It's a duplicate of what I do with upper elementary students.  I enjoy teaching this and UDL has helped me see several ways I can improve it.

Personal Learning Reflection

After a few years of stagnation, I really enjoyed this first step coming back to educational technology, and I’m looking forward to the next class and the next steps forward. 

• What are some things that you have learned about effective teaching strategies when integrating technology?

I enjoy using new technology, and I like to see how I can adapt it for classroom use. I’ve been aware of NETS and TPACK for quite some time, and I’m looking forward to using a systematic method for evaluating and using technology in the classroom. The frameworks give me a different way to think about why and how technology is being used.  Using these frameworks also allow me to use the technological skill sets the students bring into the classroom.  I don’t have to be an expert in every piece of technology that comes along, but I can evaluate if it meets the content and technical expectations.

·         How did integrating the Internet help you think about and evaluate uses of technology?

Using RSS, the Internet has the capability to feed you information over a wide range of topics from a variety of sources like YouTube, blogs, and wikis.  Networks like Twitter and MaculSpace on Ning help you to create PLNs that provide support for using different ideas, methods, and technology in the classroom.  The Internet has become much more than a research tool.  Web2.0 allows us to create, collaborate, and share content in ways that were unimaginable only a few years ago.  The way the Web2.0 can be used forces me to pause when I look at iOS devices as a mobile learning platform.

• Which of the assignments that you turned in do you feel really exemplifies good teaching with technology and why?

I thought the SIG project was fantastic because of all the different elements that were brought into it.  Students had to collaborate, research, and use a variety of technology to create a final presentation that would be broadcast to a wider audience. These are exactly the type of skills students need to develop to be successful in the future. This was the first time I had done something like this without first meeting the person and I will be able to grow from it.

• How have you met your goals established in your Personal Growth Plan?

Here are the Goals I stated in my Personal Growth Plan.

I  plan to continue teaching the Scratch programming and MovieStar camps I’ve developed and taught over the past few years. I’m developing “Do So Much with Your iPod Touch” , “PowerPoint SmowerPoint”, and other technology classes as bring your own device style classes to compensate for the lack of hardware. I plan to be more aggressive in contacting local school districts and area libraries for after-school tech clubs and programs.

Although I’ve developed them, I’m not meeting my goal of with BYOD classes.  My organization doesn’t want to exclude people who don’t have the devices so I’ll have to do this on my own.  Otherwise I’m doing well, I’ll have my summer camps (Scratch and MovieStar) with the Shiawassee RESD and the Clinton RESA and I’ve talked with after-school programs that we do outreaches with about providing tech components.

• Do you have any new goals? What are your plans for reaching your new goals and your long-term goals after this course is over?

I’m developing an online training program for our class offerings using Moodle.  Our network administrator has given the green light on using our servers to host the project.  Last year I wrote a school outreach grant for our historical programs and that will be continued this year, but I will develop a professional development piece that includes an online component.