Design
What do you want users to be able to do when they visit this site?
They should be able to create a personal page that displays some of the best of what they have done in the last year in regard to integrating technology into their science curriculum.
They should be able to either comment on wiki pages or collaborate to create their own for each break out session (this may vary by the type of break out session and how much time is available to wrap up).
They should be able to contribute all together to a page that provides a list (by grade level) of great examples of how technology can be used to raise the bar on how students are thinking in science classrooms.
Is it a recurring effort, or a one-time project?
This would be used for one week of professional development. If it is successful, it will likely be adopted for PD both small and large. It will depend on the feedback that we get from the teachers on how helpful the wiki was.
Analysis
Who are your users?
The wiki would be created for use during a week of professional development right before the beginning of the school year. The professional development is for middle school science teachers who are part of a grant called ESETT (Enhancing Science Education Through Technology). All of the teachers have a good deal of familiarity with technology, but are more familiar with computer applications than web applications (with the exception of Moodle) that are 2.0ish. They frequently use the Moodle, Office Suite, ComicLife, Inspiration, iLife, the web, etc.
What do you want them to be able to do as a result of using your web site?
I want them to be able to do the following:
- Have a personal page where they will share some of the ways that they integrated technology into their curriculum that were most effective at getting student’s brains to work at a higher level. They could post video, images, etc. (These personal pages will be perused by others in order to nominate individuals for awards such as Rookie of the Year, King/Queen of Moodle, The Adventurer, etc.)
- A place for group reflection on breakout sessions. (Each break out session will have it’s own page in the wiki. This is where the agenda will be posted with all of the resources, but groups will also work together to edit a page that offers suggestions on how the topic covered in the break out session could be useful to 6th, 7th, or 8th grade science. Maybe instead of having a separate page, I will use PB wiki and have teachers post comments to the page. How could it help raise the bar in student thinking and achievement?
- The wiki front page will have an agenda for the week and link to useful resources.
What have others done that is similar?
I have been to trainings and presentations where the wiki was used as the presentation tool and also as a resource for teachers in the training. For example, Will Richardson uses his wiki for presentations and provides links to all of the resources he will use in his presentation. Also, I have seen Mark Wagner do something similar in a training on PowerPoint. But in both of these cases, I don’t think that participants were expected to contribute to the wiki. In the wiki for our professional development, teachers would be participants in making the wiki meaningful.
What performance drivers might prevent them from learning with this tool? (skills/knowledge, motivation, environment, incentive)
Skills/Knoweldge – Although teachers are pretty tech savvy, wikis will be new to most of them. However, since most of them are familiar with editing in Moodle, the interface will be similar. Navigation will be the main problem. I will need to make sure that the navigation bar is clear and will probably need to have links back to pages built into pages they navigate to.
Motivation – Motivation is often difficult in professional development. Teachers are often full from all that they are responsible for and busy with. They don’t need more poured in (especially if it is perceived as irrelevant or unhelpful with what they are concerned with). I think that motivation will be enhanced given that the wiki will add another element of participation and activity to our PD.
Environment – I don’t think there should be any problem here. We will be meeting in our brand new Edtech Offices that have an excellent set up for both hard wiring and wireless in the training room. The teachers wil bring their own computers, and if they forget, they can borrow one from the department.
Posting this, even though I think I am changing my project. See the next post for the new project. 
Who are your users?
The users of my final project will be any or all of the following:
- World War II veterans interested in sharing their story or reading about the stories of others
- The family of World War II veterans interested in sharing stories or reading about the stories of others
- My family – who will either be interested in reading the stories shared by our family members, adding their own memories related to the stories of our own family, or will be interested in reading what is shared by others
I don’t have any students currently, but I could see students using this site in order to see actual video of veterans years later reflecting on their experiences.
The users will vary quite a bit in regard to how computer savvy or web 2.0 savvy they are. The majority are likely to be fairly unfamiliar with computers and web 2.0. It may be important to have explicit directions for how to post or add content.
What do you want them to be able to do as a result of using your web site?
I want them to be able to read and share stories that are related to World War II. I want the page to be an archive of memories. I also want them to be able to comment on the stories of others.
What have others done that is similar?
I know there are many sites where people have shared the stories of their own family or information about World War II. Most are static web pages. Here’s a blog that has World War II events by day. Here’s another one that has World War II resources. Here’s a podcast of veteran memories from PBS.
None that I have found are vodcasts uploaded to a blog for user comments that tell the story of veterans, at least not yet.
What performance drivers might prevent them from learning with this tool? (skills/knowledge, motivation, environment, incentive)
Right now I am working in the Educational Technology Department in San Diego Unified. I think I have the best job in the world because I work with science teachers to help them to integrate technology into their teaching through a grant called ESETT (Enhancing Science Through Technology). I also get to help provide Moodle support for the district and a few other odds and ends. Each time I’m in the classroom of another teacher supporting them in some way, I long for my own classroom again, so someday soon perhaps I’ll be back.
My experience with blogs, wikis, and podcasts is limited, but I’ve got some experience with each. I’ve had several blogs but none that I’ve kept up with. I think if I had a classroom blog I would see a real value to keeping one up, but with my other blogs I don’t think I’ve had enough to say to keep posting (time is another factor). I’ve got lots of experience with Moodle wikis but those are very limited compared to other providers like wikispaces and pbwiki. I’ve definitely played with those and gotten to support teachers who’ve used them in their classrooms. I made a Moodle Minute podcast last year, but unfortunately I only made about 5 episodes and then got too busy to keep it up. Here’s a link to the Moodle tutorials page where you can subscribe to it http://moodle.sandi.net/course/view.php?id=1192 – you have to scroll down until you see the cow picture. In order to learn about things and also to have fun I’ve subscribed to lots of podcasts. I love Ask a Ninja. I also subscribed to Coffee Talk Spanish to try to learn Spanish on my commute, but I alwyays felt silly talking to myself in Spanish while I drove.
For my final project what I would like to do is set up a blog with a video podcast to complement the website that I started in 541. I made a website about World War II that I never had a chance to finish because it involved interviewing some of my family about their experiences in World War II on video and then posting the video. I had been trying to do it through flash but it was very time consuming. I think it would be awesome to post the videos to a blog so that people can leave comments. I think it might also be cool to have a companion wiki sight so that if other people have war experiences they have to share, they could create a page in a wiki. Here’s the link to the website I made: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~beezley/worldwar2/intro.htm and you can see that the video is conspicuously absent and the sight is incomplete.
Hosted by 