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.