Week 4 Reading

I read an article this week that turned out to be quite the amazing find. It details a study conducted in southern Africa regarding the implementation of software to facilitate changes in curriculum development.

Exemplary materials, such as teacher guides, have been found to be especially useful

during the initial phases of curriculum implementation. Van den Akker (1998)

summarizes three main advantages offered by exemplary materials:

• Clearer understanding of how to translate curriculum ideas into classroom

practice

• Concrete foothold for execution of lessons that resemble the original

intentions of the designers

• Stimulation of reflection on one’s own role with the eventual possibility

of adjusting one’s own attitude toward the innovation.

(McKenney, S., 2005, p. 170)

Talk about a powerful argument for this type of teacher training. I'm holding on tightly to this article.

PE_6 Adobe Premiere Pro, pt. 3

Final installment...

I spent a good chunk of time editing footage with Adobe Premiere Pro this afternoon. This software definitely falls under the category of very deep tool set. Like most of the Adobe suite of software, it can be learned in a day but takes a lifetime to master.

Since I’ll be shooting quite a bit of hi-def footage over the next few months for a couple of big projects at school, I’ll hopefully become proficient at manipulating the clips pretty quickly. I mentioned it in an earlier post, but iMovie and Final Cut Express do not come loaded with the codec to handle hi-def files saved to a P2 card.

Using my experience with other video editing software I can import and trim clips, insert transitions and render final versions with little effort. Now I need to spend some time learning the tools and tricks that will add an extra level of polish.

No time like the present.

PE_5 Adobe Premiere Pro, pt. 2

Lynda.com to the rescue!

If you have not yet activated your lynda.com account and paid a visit to the site, do it now. I went looking for help adjusting audio clips and found five hours with of video lessons. The archive is very well organized. Main headings toggle open and closed with lists of subtopics. Any clip can be bookmarked for easy access later on. I found the search function to be most helpful. Since I am just learning how to use this software, I don't always know where to begin looking for answers to my specific questions. Search, and ye shall receive.

I'll end this post with a screen shot of Premiere Pro. There is a lot going on at once. CLip library on the left, timeline editor across the bottom and two mini screens for previewing individual clips or the entire project across the top.

FV_I have seen the future...

This video is in response to my AR problem statement:


How open and willing are teachers to enhancing their current math curriculum with outside sources, and what are the most efficient and effective methods to convey those sources?

PE_4 Adobe Premiere Pro CS5

I've chosen to focus on Adobe Premiere Pro CS5 this week. My practical experience with this tool is immediate. I'm working on a marketing video at school and have been shooting footage with a new hi-def camera. The resulting files are in a codec that is not compatible with iMovie or Final Cut Express, but is readable with Premiere Pro. Fortunately, very fortunately in fact, the Launch Box package includes Premiere Pro.


The Premiere Pro interface and workflow is very similar to Final Cut Express, so the learning curve is not as steep as I expected. This week I've been playing with some test footage just to become more comfortable. Monday the real work begins.


I'll be back with more thoughts this evening...

Week 3 Reading

This week I picked my way in and out of three books about user interfaces. Ranging from the conceptual to the practical, these volumes cover just about all I need to begin prototyping a new interface I am creating for my school.

When reading technical publications I always start with the forward or introduction before diving into the nuts and bolts of the text. I like to know where the author is coming from philosophically before the heavy information takes over.

I’ll share a passage from the opening pages of each book that helped inform my purchases, and ultimately my buy-in to the authors take on GUI design.

From About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design:

Interaction design has also shown its power as a marketing tool, communicating with great clarity and specificity about exactly whom will be using the product and why. Getting to the root of customer motivations is manna for marketers… (Cooper, 2007, p. xxiii)

From Effective UI: The Art of Building Great User Experience in Software:

User experience is, as the name suggests, the experience a user has when interacting with software. Just as is the case with music, a software product’s UX falls somewhere along a range between subjectively good and subjectively bad. (Anderson, McRee & Wilson, 2010, p. 4)

From Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design:

But it’s still not easy to design good interfaces. Let’s say you’re not a trained or self-taught interface designer. If you just use the UI toolkits the way they should be used, and if you follow the various style guides or imitate existing applications, you can probably create a mediocre but passable interface. (Tidwell, 2005, p. xi)

BP_12 OMM issuu.com

issuu.com


Simply brilliant online publishing.

PE_3 Google Forms, pt.3

I'm done with Survey Monkey. Why pay for something, when it can be had (with better customization and result reporting) for free. I'm completely sold on Google Forms/Spreadsheets. Like I said earlier, the menu items and navigation take a little practice for a rookie. But once you have it mastered, you begin to understand why Google is where it is today.


The simple integration of form and spreadsheet as one document. The elegance of the results graphs. The universal access by anyone or everyone. It all adds up to a powerful set of tools for gathering and analyzing  data, opinion and trends.


I have found the perfect survey tool of my Action Research Project.

PE_2 Google Forms, pt. 2

After entering some sample data in my Google Form I clicked over to the results page. I was greeted with colorful graphs of the bar, line and pie variety. Very nice, clear representations of the data.

results graphs

It took me a few minutes to sort through the navigation. The results are stored in a spreadsheet that is automatically generated, and as I can discern, becomes a view option rather than a new file. 


When I revisited the doc today it remembered the last view I was in when I closed the file last night. Or maybe it defaults to the spreadsheet view. I have not figured this out yet.

spreadsheet view

I'll play with it some more today and post additional findings this evening in PE_3 Google Forms, pt. 3. Stay tuned...

BP_9 Ning

Is Ning the Swiss army knife of web 2.0 tools? Perhaps. It’s a blog, discussion forum, photo/video viewer, social network, chat room and event calendar all on one page. Want even more? Ning has apps galore that you can add to enhance the experience.

Take look at these samples for a few minutes and come back to read the rest of this post…

http://www.musicforrelief.org/

http://autismspeaksnetwork.ning.com/

http://moonfrye.ning.com/

http://friends.mavs.com/

http://kissescookies.ning.com/

Click image to visit this page

Pretty diverse group of sites, don’t you think? I think that speaks to how versatile and customizable Ning can be.

I’m considering implementing a Ning site for my school as a way of promoting our push to share our curriculum. I could post sample lesson plans in the blog, create a video archive of teachers working students, and provide answers to questions through a message board. Additionally, the message board could become a hub for like-minded educators to share their experiences with each other. I find this feature to hold the most potential for creating bonds between teachers looking to collaborate beyond the walls of their school.

Drive members to the site with robust content and media; keep them there with captivating conversation and compelling connections.

PE_1 Google Forms, part 1

I have chosen to explore Google Forms for my PE assignment this month. I have always relied on surveymonkey.com for my queries, but have wanted to experiment with alternate options. I have created Google Documents and Spreadsheets in the past, so I am familiar with the Google interface and commands. My only experience with Google Forms is on the input and submission side, not creation and implementation.


To begin, I created a test form using one of each of the different types of questions so I could see how they all work. Here's a screenshot of the editing pane.

I'll post a link to the completed form so you can give it a try.

BP_11 Comment on David Steinke's visualizing.org Post

Link to my comment on David's post about visualizing.org.

Here's an example of what can be seen at visualizing.org to present data in a aesthetically pleasing manner.  The image links to the source page if you want to see a larger version and read a full description.

BP_10 Comment on Bruce Neubauer's Animoto Post

Link to my comment on Bruce's post about Animoto.

Animoto isn't kidding around with this statement. The videos are pretty killer.

The Conversation Prism

Very timely graphic representation of our month in the world of Web 2.0.

BP5_Issuu.com

I have read magazines on Issuu.com, but never gave a second thought to the fact that:

• Issuu is a searchable library of countless periodicals and books.
• Issuu is a powerful publishing tool.

Until now, Issuu was just another graphic interface that would appear on the screen when I clicked a link. I would read whatever article or issue popped up and then I would navigate away from the site. I had no idea of the depth of material that is published through Issuu. Browsing the library, I found magazines covering Norwegian architecture, InDesign tutorials, and graphic design to name a few. Seems I could spend endless hours digging through all the offerings. The sidebar containing related publications is a dangerous place.


Back on topic - How will this site improve the work that I do? I’ve been looking for a way to e-publish Spark, the bi-annual magazine published by my school. Each of the eight issues we have generated are available as a PDF download at www.ucds.org/spark. Right click, download, scroll through the pages with Acrobat Reader or Preview=boring.


Embed issues on webpages, flip through pages of issues, subscribe to publishers, save everything in your own library=super cool! If you can make a PDF(Macs make it very easy with the print function, in case you didn’t know), you can publish online. Simple as that. 



And for the stats lovers, check this out - 250,000 new publications each month viewed by 33 million readers.

Here's sample of a Spark issue that was given the Issuu.com treatment...

Open publication - Free publishing - More science

BP8_Web 2.0 Tools Ad

Wiki, wiki, wiki... The URL at the end of the video is live, so feel free to pay a visit and see the progress of an active wiki.

BP7_Janene Neal's Wordle Post

Janene Neal to the rescue! I was looking for a tool like Wordle earlier this week. Check out Janene's blog and read my comment along with the one posted by Heather Taylor.

BP6_Dennis Woodward's Google Docs Post

Dennis has a video embedded on his blog that describes the new updates to Google Docs. Follow this link to the comments section.

BP4_Discovering Web 2.0 Tools

What is a wiki? I used to think it was just an oddly named website full of information from potentially dubious origins. I now know that a wiki is a powerful web 2.0 tool that can be leveraged to connect project members in one central location.

This transformation of thought occurred for me three years ago. I was asked to lead my school’s reaccreditation required by our independent school association. Somehow I had to monitor the writing, review, editing and publishing of a twelve-section, 250-page document collectively written by every employee of the school. Looking through files from the previous reaccreditation seven years earlier, I found folder after folder of countless Word documents. As committees prepared their assigned section, each member submitted a document that was combined with the rest. This committee file went through at least five iterations before being added to the master document. Another round of six revisions and the final product was submitted for approval. I knew there had to be a better way.

Through a listserv, I discovered the world of wikis. And then because of several glowing recommendations, PBWorks. The payoff was instantaneous. I created an account, set up the wiki structure, and taught the faculty how to use it. I watched with pride as pages filled with content and comments. Peer review was as simple as sharing a link. Writers could respond to questions within the document. I could compare or roll back to earlier versions. The skeptic in me saved a local version each week, but this certainly was not necessary.

When all was said and done, I asked for some feedback on the experience. Here are the highlights from the responses.

• Many individuals can work on the same document at the same time.
• Content is instantly accessible from any device that connects to the Internet.
• Everyone on the team can track progress in real-time.
• No need to worry about finding the most recent version of a file.
• Resources and links are a click away.
• Brainstorming lists can be generated virtually.
• Collaboration can occur at a natural pace based on the availability of those involved.
• Subscribers can receive update notifications.

 I now administer five wikis for parent association, faculty and Board of Trustees committees. I rest easy knowing that each group is working efficiently and effectively because of a funny little word, the wiki.

W1 Reading

This was my first week delving into my AR project. While the focus has yet to be narrowed down, I have a general idea regarding curriculum software and web-based curriculum.

Going on the premise that first impressions matter most, I decided to begin by investigating the design and development of the graphic user interface or GUI. We’re all familiar with them whether we realize it or not. They are ubiquitous: the Google home page or the window that I’m in right now, Microsoft Word.  Someone or some group of people designed the layout, picked the colors, created the icons, and determined the functionality of every element visible to the user.

I started by reading a little history. Here’s an excerpt…

“While ease of use is a worthwhile goal, it doesn’t get to the heart of the matter. Moreover, it’s well known that many network operators hate the supposedly easy-to-use, mouse driven interfaces on today’s products.”

Herman, James (August 1995). Let’s Focus on Content, Not GUIs. Business Communications Review, 52-55.

Good thing the network operators didn’t win out.

I managed to find several promising books that cover this realm, but found little in the way of articles. I’m hopeful that my first meeting with my AR mentor will help improve my search skills. I’m just becoming familiar with EBSCO Host and the like.

My next AR reading blog post will be more robust.

BP3_Diigo Group

Here is the screen shot for my AR Diigo group. I've added a few bookmarks to get started. Critical friends are pending.

BP2_iGoogleScreenShots

Here are the screenshots of the four tabs on my iGoogle page. I prefer clean design, so I did not add any themes to my page. Google got it right with their home page aesthetic.

Home tab

FSO tab

AR tab

ETC tab