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 3

Agendas, agendas … too many agendas!

So this week we met with our client as a follow-up to the Needs Analysis conducted in the Fall. We discussed our results and suggestions for next steps. We weren’t exactly on the same page. For what the team would like to get out of the Immersion program (our agenda), we were focusing on a bottom up approach by looking at specific collaborative and development tools that we now know will work for our target audience. By the end of the Spring semester we will determine how to allow access to those tools as a one-stop shop, and we will build supports around those tools. Our client is looking for a top down approach and wants us to focus on designing an interface taking into consideration all of the potentials that could be offered in the Virtual Collaboration Center, and not focusing solely on what we know will work for the audience now. Then the client revealed that he needs this information as ammunition to present to his funders so he can get more money for tech support. Ah, ha … agenda revealed! Maybe we should have started our first conversation with – what do you want and what is the agenda behind it? I guess it is no surprise that it is money and probably flat out asking for his agenda would be too brazen, but at least it would have eliminated all the wheel spinning the team has endured trying to reconcile what we want to achieve in our graduate experience and what the client’s motivation is with this project.

In the meantime, we did have a great session looking at our Myers Briggs scores. As usual, I am an INFJ. But it was interesting to see how the rest of our team falls within the MB and it was good to listen to the suggestions for team interaction and problem solving.

Immersion -- Week 13

Movin' in the wrong direction?

So this week we spent some time trying to connect to the Movi server that T/TAC just purchased that will make desktop web/video conferencing a reality for T/TAC staff. We spent a couple hours trying different configurations, changing multiple settings (firewalls, ActiveX controls) to get it to work, but no dice. It appears that GMU may have put the server behind a firewall, which may take a few days (or more due to the holiday) to correct. So, we will try to test Movi sometime after the break, but all this makes me think that the T/TAC audience will have to go through this to make the Virtual Collaboration Center work.

In the meantime, I spent some time on Gliffy creating a graphical representation of GMU's Video conferencing capabilities. It was super easy to create the graphical representation using Gliffy and it was fun -- yes, I actually had fun doing my homework!

Immersion -- Week 12

Here is your fuchsia ...

We had an interesting meeting on Monday with our client. We broached the idea of conducting some parallel data gathering to check out assumptions about the Virtual Collaboration Center. In our interviews with the target audience, we began to see some serious disparities between what the client wants and what is truly needed for this audience. The client didn't agree. So we will give him the fuchsia he knows the audience needs. As a result, the iTeam received a crash course in video conferencing hardware and software. I now know more than I thought I ever would about video conferencing. I am responsible for creating a graphical representation of the GMU and T/TAC video conferencing set up -- if it is a decent representation, I may post it here in the coming weeks.

On a positive note, the folks at Springdoo came through and fixed my test Springcaster -- special thanks to Tom and all the folks in Springdoo's Tech Support! Now it can be tested for the PCD project I am working on. Here is the Springcaster -- take a moment to try it out and send me a response!

You too, can Springdoo

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 8

I love fuchsia -- can we get more fuchsia in this?

So the Immersion team recently spent some time talking to the "tools" experts within T/TAC - these are the folks that use some of the collaborative tolls I spoke of in a previous post. They use Adobe Connect, Polycom, and sometimes very sophisticated video conferencing equipment to communicate across the state. We also met with the client again to discuss his high level vision of the virtual collaboration/conferencing center. And while this ambitious goal is very attractive to those (like me) who want to explore the capabilities of such technologies, when pressed to determine who else we could talk to (a.k.a. the audience), the client told us to follow up with T/TAC staff in the client's region - when this virtual collaboration center is supposed to be designed with all T/TAC staff in mind - that is T/TAC staff across the entire state of Virginia. Anecdotal evidence indicate that audience members in other T/TAC regions do not have access to these nifty communication tools as do the folks in Region 4, nor do they have the support to operate these tools.

So what are we doing here? The client likes the color fuchsia, so we are going to give him more fuchsia? There is this nagging thought that our focus did not truly match the needs of our audience. As we struggled with determining the scope of our audience, we met with another stakeholder outside of Region 4. While this stakeholder probably would have preferred that we tackle another priority from our Performance Analysis, she warmed to the idea of developing and piloting the virtual collaboration center. Why? She reminded us that the initial concept of T/TAC Online was only embraced by a few people - and it has taken six years to become established as the main resource for public school staff on issues related to students with special needs. She believes that using a key group of opinion leaders to diffuse the idea of the virtual collaboration center to other T/TAC staff would work. We discussed asking one of the T/TAC Priority Project teams that embraces technology to be our "guinea pigs" during the design process. And besides - let's get real here - we only have until mid-May to work on this project. This is where we need to make a realistic decision and move forward knowing that we thoroughly considered all of our options.

Immersion -- Week 6

Completion of the Performance Analysis

We have finally finished our performance analysis! After meeting with a myriad of SMEs on all things T/TAC and T/TAC Online, it looks like we actually have some direction with our project. We met with the client this week and presented some straw (in other words, we gave the client some draft recommendations to respond to). After processing his feedback, we came up with the following priorities:

1. Develop a virtual collaboration center that would enable T/TAC staff to take advantage of existing but currently under-used conferencing and collaborative software resources.
2. Create resources to support T/TAC staff development with respect to their ability to use newer training creation tools.
3. Customize T/TAC Online content for individual users.

Our initial thoughts focused on creating a collaborative working environment for all T/TAC Online users and harnessing the "collective intelligence" of the audience through Web 2.0 tools. However, due to the perceived lack of control over the conversations that could occur in this type of environment, there would not be support for such an open exchange of ideas and information. But, if such an environment was created for T/TAC staff to enhance their ability to deliver training across the state, then this type of "virtual collaboration center" would probably be embraced. We discovered that T/TAC has recently acquired all sorts of neat conferencing tools that will allow T/TAC stakeholders to deliver and receive training virtually. So, the iTeam (Immersion Team) will get a chance to become familiar with such items as Flash, Camtasia, Articulate, Captivate, podcasting, and Adobe Connect. I can't wait to play with these innovative tools. I say -- let the games begin!

So, now that the Performance Analysis is complete, it is onto the Needs Assessment to determine which of the above priorities we will focus on.

Immersion -- Week 4

I am Jealous!



So, in my EDIT 730 class (Analysis and Design of Multimedia/Hypermedia Environments), we are working in teams on an Instructional Technology (IT) issue, focusing specifically on Web 2.0. Of course the Immersion team is working with T/TAC Online. Another team in the class is working with Croquet. No, it is not the game that is played in your backyard. Croquet is a "software development environment for creating and deploying deeply collaborative multi-user online applications on multiple operating systems and devices". While like Second Life in that it provides a 3D digital world, that is where the similarities end. It is open source. It has a peer-based network architecture. Users can develop applications collaboratively and easily, without the need to know how the applications work. You don't need a hi-tech video card or a super fast processor. Just a decent computer and a decent Internet connection. So the class Croquet team got to speak with some of the key people involved in the development of Croquet and the Croquet Consortium. While Croquet is still in its infancy, being involved at the beginning phases of a project that has the potential for a big impact is a unique opportunity. GMU's IT Program is exploring long term partnerships with the Croquet Consortium beyond the project in EDIT 730.

So can I say again that I am jealous? The Immersion Team met with our SMEs last week and they were all over the map with what they believe should be the next step for T/TAC Online. We spent most of last week spinning our wheels as a result. We needed to come up with project goals - when we still don't even know what the real IT issues are! Luckily, we met with more T/TAC professionals yesterday. Their insights on the day-to-day challenges of service delivery and promoting awareness of resources gave us a clearer picture as to what issues need to be addressed. But - don't get me wrong - I am still excited about the T/TAC project, I just want to be involved in the Croquet project too! Maybe that is something that can be addressed in the PhD program? Hmmm ....

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.