Immersion, Spring Semester -- Weeks 13 & 14

Me as T/TAC staff persona Marlena Driver

Final Thoughts

Can this really be my final blog entry for the Immersion program? I can't believe how much the team accomplished in a little over 9 months and how much I have learned. We had our final presentation for the client Monday night. In attendance were GMU administrators, Immersion alums, and local ID professionals. The client and T/TAC staff at the presentation were impressed with our final result. I presented on the results of our usability testing of the Virtual Collaboration Center prototype. I also provided a demonstration of the current iteration of the prototype and gave a persona "walk-through" of the Training Collaboratory.

Looking back, I can't believe how much I have been exposed to during my experience in Immersion. Camtasia, wikis, blogs, Facebook, etc. All this exposure to Web 2.0 has even impacted my leisure time activities. Instead of taking a break by plopping down in front of the TV for 15 minutes, I play around in Facebook. I am willing to try emerging technologies whereas before I would have preferred to lurk. Heck, I even have a virtual resume and portfolio. I now have friends I never met face-to-face, and the number of my virtual friends keeps growing.

Above all, I had some things confirmed - I am a process person at heart and Instructional Design is all about process. When I first started grad school 1 1/2 years ago, I was completely scared not knowing where this would take me, but I am feeling confident about my career prospects for the first time in years. I have also realized that I need to keep my mental muscles fit by exercising them regularly through education. Does that mean a Ph.D. is in order? Stay tuned ...

Immersion, Spring Semester -- Week 6

Accessibility

Okay, so I know this posting is a little late (more on that later) and technically I am in Week 7, but I had to share this free new tool that I found while researching accessibility issues related to the training development tools for the Immersion T/TAC project. It is called SpokenText. It is a free online text to audio converter. I thought I would try it by converting a discussion posting that I typed up for my Educational Research class. I added their widget to the right sidebar with the text from the discussion posted converted to audio. Feel free to listen .... SpokenText also offers it as a stand alone MP3, MPEG4 so you can make it a podcast in iTunes, or lets you use their site to host and play your recordings. Pretty neat!

Immersion, Spring Semester -- Week 2

Struggling to Comprehend Design-Based Research

As I mentioned in last week’s post, the iTeam is responsible for writing a collaborative paper on design-based research (DBR). I am still struggling to understand what DBR is all about within an educational context. I found this post on Learning-Theories.com, hoping to generate a better understanding of the concept. After reading it three times, I understand that DBR considers context as well as the intervention itself. But, the quote that jumps out at me is this:

The intention of design-based research…is to inquire more broadly into the nature of learning in a complex system and to refine generative or predictive theories of learning.

Since context can be such a fluid aspect within the design process and can change on a dime, how can “predictive theories of learning” be generated?

And my first week as Scribe has been … interesting. While I was rather happy to stop facilitating the team work, I am finding it difficult to focus on the task at hand in team meetings since I have to concentrate on note taking. In addition, I feel like I do not have a grasp on where we are in the design process since I am not facilitating the agenda. As facilitator, I prepped for meetings by reviewing references and notes to make sure that we were on track. It enabled me to create a more thorough understanding of where we were, what we were trying to get to, and what we needed to do. There were also a few times when I had a very strong urge to jump up during the meetings and start writing on the board to clarify ideas and help with the focus of the meeting. I’m finding it harder to “take a back seat” and sit on my hands (where appropriate) then actually facilitating the group.

On a lighter note, I thought I would share this amusing video on Second Life:

Immersion, Spring Semester -- Week 1

... And we're off?

So the new semester began on Tuesday. The iTeam met and we processed the results of our Fall Semester work. We identified our new team roles (which will actually rotate this semester) and refined the responsibilities of each. As of this week, I will not be the Project Coordinator. Yippee! My assigned role is Scribe. While Scribe is not the most exciting role to undertake in this process, I welcome the change with open arms.

After meeting with our Immersion advisor, it appears that our client not only did not participate in our end of semester presentation, he probably didn't even view the presentation since then. So at this point, who knows what his feedback will be. We did make our intentions clear to our advisor -- we actually want to do some instructional design this semester, and not get bogged down in crafting some scheduling form for the video conferencing resources available to the T/TAC audience.

Our advisor also reviewed the syllabus for this semester. Included in our deliverables is a collaborative paper that focuses on design research. Considering that we didn't discuss design research very much last semester, this task seems a bit daunting to say the least. What is design research? Good question. That is something our team is asking as well -- but I did find a resource that was a little helpful to provide some sort of a context as we ponder this question.

We're Off to See the Wizard ...

So school starts back up tomorrow. The iTeam will be "immersing" ourselves once more with the task at hand. My big question is, will we succeed? Succeed at what, you may ask? Succeed at delivering the product the client wants? Succeed at delivering the product the client needs? Succeed by feeling that this was a productive learning experience for everyone involved? Perhaps only the Wizard can tell us for sure ...

Fall Semester Wrap Up

Some Final Thoughts ...

So today is the last day of the Fall Semester. As this semester draws to a close, here are some final thoughts ...

Advanced Instructional Design - Honestly, I didn't think I would enjoy this class very much. I am not a theory person. But I will have to say I was pleasantly surprised when everything came together for my final project. After a bit of a false start (Blackboard proved to be a bit inflexible for a Cognitive Flexibility Hypertext), I am relatively please with the end result.

Performance Centered Design - At first, I could barely follow what the instructor was talking about in this class (Question posed by instructor in the first class - In 60 seconds, tell me how many seconds are in a year? Response - Well, there are 12 - January second, February second, etc ... ). So, needless to say, I didn't think I would catch on. But, after working with my class partner, I think I had the most fun working on the final project in this class. Okay, our first iteration of the Public Speaking Support Blog needs a little work, but it is a pretty decent first stab from a couple of folks who only recently got into this whole Instructional Design field.

Immersion - I will have to say that I am not quite sure how I feel about my Immersion experience at this point. Last night, we gave our semester end presentation on the analysis phase of the project with the prospect of presenting virtually to our client, who at the last minute decided he couldn't participate. I think that about sums up the Immersion experience this semester for me. While we presented a "realistic" scenario for the team to work on during the design phase, who knows if it is going to fly with the client, or if it will even be realistic enough to work for the audience. On a positive note, we did have an SME attend the presentation last night and she gave us a glowing thumbs up. I just hope that we can deliver.

I am very proud of our team -- we brought the project together and delivered last night. I really felt like we were a cohesive unit, with lots to show for all our hard work. I am extremely happy to be involved with such a talented group of designers. It has made the semester that much easier when the road got bumpy. Great job, guys!

Immersion -- Week 11

Don't let chance remarks kill ideas or push you into another direction - David L. Morgan, Focus Groups as Qualitative Research

This statement can be interpreted in some many different ways concerning the recent Immersion experience. It could apply to the first time the virtual collaboration center (VCC) was mentioned to the iTeam ("... you know, we just purchased this great desktop web conferencing equipment ..."), it could apply to the reaction of an SME when the idea of the VCC was discussed (she laughed), or it could refer to the recent comments of the target audience that not only embraces the idea, but has built their own perceptions of what the iTeam is expected to accomplish with the VCC ("... it is up to you to determine what tools we can use in the VCC ..."). This is all well and good, however the iTeam has recently struggled with how we came to the conclusion that a VCC adequately meets the needs of T/TAC Online users. With the idea of the VCC, our target audience has narrowed significantly (to 15 people ... and compared to the number of people T/TAC Online serves, this "narrowed significantly" is an understatement). So, the iTeam wants to back up and check our assumptions. While this seems like a good idea, and I agree whole-heartedly that this is the right thing to do and we need to do it, I'm afraid we will be wasting our time -- the client is sold on the VCC concept and if we proceed with an in-depth survey opened up to all T/TAC Online users and find that there are more pressing needs for this audience, I don't think our team will be the group to address this problem. This would be another perfect project for a future Immersion team to tackle ...

Web 2.0 tools update

So, as I'm sure you have noticed, I have tested some free tools recently. My first impressions:

Springdoo - I love how easy this tool is to use. Recording a video and sending it via email or posting a video to a blog is quite simple. However, the problem I'm having is with their lovely Springcaster tool. Springcaster is an audio and video broadcasting widget you can embed into any blog or webpage. You can record directly into the widget and it stores your audio and video along with your other messages for everyone to skim through and access. Unfortunately, I have tried to embed their auto-generated code into a webpage and a blog with no success. I have contacted their tech support - they have been very responsive so far and are diligently working on the problem. I will keep you posted on the progress to resolve this issue.

PodOmatic - Ok, I love the ability to create and post a podcast (both video and audio), create the RSS feed, and host your podcasts for free without going through 20 different steps. If you want something quick and dirty and you don't have some sort of editing software like Garageband at your disposal, then this freebie should work. Drawbacks - Don't use their embedded audio/video recorder. The picture and sound are sub par at best. In addition, I found that it takes longer to load your episode to my podcasts page when using the embedded recorder. But my biggest pet peeve? The spammers within the PodOmatic "community". I haven't been a member for a full week and I already had to turn off email notifications and comments on my podcasts. Emails to their tech support so far have gone unanswered. Not the best experience so far ... so onto the next free podcasting tool.

Immersion -- Week 10

Mid-semester rant, doubts, blues ....

Up until this point, I have kept my posts pretty objective concerning the whole Immersion experience. For this posting I will digress a bit. This week has been a struggle for me. In one class I was included in a group that was on the receiving end of some pretty harsh and unproductive criticism in an activity that was intended to be an open and reasonably positive peer critique of our work.

I have doubted my ability to adequately facilitate the Immersion team and move them forward in the analysis phase of our project. Even though I have tried my best in the role as Project Coordinator to not act as a leader (see post on bioteaming), during client and SME meetings as well as interactions with our instructor I feel that I am responsible for filling that leadership role. I don't mind facilitating - as a matter of fact most of the time I enjoy it. But I'm finding that in this situation I dislike the facilitator role more and more each day. Perhaps it is because I have a vested interest in the outcome of the project and cannot act as an impartial party during this process. Sometimes I feel like I am battling my teammates and imposing my perspective and sense of order on them. I don't want that to happen. So this week I was more passive in my role to see what would happen in the team meeting. A circular, unproductive conversation ensued that had the team stalled on the same topic for about 45 minutes. Not good. I suggested that we all start sharing the role of leading client and SME meetings. They agreed, but didn't jump up and down at the opportunity to take on this task. I was able to convince one team member to handle a portion of the meeting while I stood by as back up.

Then to top it off, we got an interesting perspective from another instructor who filled in briefly for our Immersion advisor this week. From his view, it appears that our whole approach to the needs analysis needs to be completely revamped so we are not considering a virtual collaboration center as an end product. This has been a concern voiced by some team members as we have progressed through analysis. I feel that there are some competing agendas here that have prompted the "do what is wanted" stance where the project is concerned, causing the "do what is actually needed" approach to take a back seat (see my fuchsia post). That doesn't make me very happy.

On a more positive note, I did get to play with Springdoo, a neat Web 2.0 tool that allows you to create quick and easy videos that can be emailed, or posted to websites, blogs, and social networking sites. I posted my quick and dirty first attempt at a Springdoo video. My partner and I hope to use this for our Performance Centered Design project that will support public speaking.

Immersion -- Week 1

Teamwork

Okay, so classes started Monday and we had a kick-off for the Immersion project on Tuesday. We have a relatively small team (group of 5) of students with very diverse experiences. Our project is to bring Web 2.0 and/or mobile Web 2.0 to the users of T/TAC Online in some fashion. T/TAC Online is an online resource for Virginia teachers who work with special needs students. We will be meeting with the SMEs and other people involved in T/TAC on September 10th. Many Immersion teams have tackled T/TAC projects in the past. The current focus is a very different take from the projects that other teams have worked on in the past. As we delve into the Needs Analysis phase, it will be interesting to see exactly who is using the T/TAC site the most, how they are using it, and if these same users are currently using Web 2.0 professionally or personally.

It is no coincidence that we are focusing on Web 2.0 issues as most of the Immersion students are in the Multimedia/Hypermedia Design class. And it helps that both classes have the same instructor. She asked us to start a blog and post weekly reflections for Immersion. Lucky that I started this blog when I did! I will be posting my weekly reflections here along with other interesting tidbits as I see fit.

But until we have some in depth discussions with the SMEs, we will first focus on teamwork. We ran through some exercises from Teamwork from the Inside Out focusing on temperament characteristics using animal metaphors. We discovered that we are a team of dolphins and beavers. No lie. We are of the Idealist temperament (dolphins - driven by the need to have a purpose; relationship focused and empathetic, and the Guardian temperament (beavers - driven by the need to be responsible; builds results and needs to be part of the group). I am firmly a cross between a beaver and dolphin. Visually, that would be an interesting mash-up. But when pressed to fix on one "animal" versus another I just couldn't based on the characteristics prescribed by the author.

In addition, we had some reading on Virtual Team Productivity. In the article, the author focuses on bioteams, an area of research that identifies the characteristics of nature's most successful teams (ants, bees, etc.) and how these characteristics can be applied to our daily team interactions. It is an interesting article (there are no team leaders, orders are not issued, timely information is provided by everyone) but I am curious about how this bioteaming works if you think from a constructivist viewpoint -- looking at the notion of "Vital signs". If the team identifies their Vital Signs so that everyone knows when to respond and how to respond, wouldn't the response depend on how the individual constructs their meaning of a given situation? You can define your vital signs in black and white, but the individual's interpretation of using that vital sign in a situation where they deem it appropriate is the key. I think it may be a bit more complex than what leads up to a bee's waggle dance.