Update

Talked with someone today about the possiblility of doing technology trainings through Pattan. She said that at this time it would probably be difficult to set anything up. She also suggested that I come to the next PESDHH (Pennsylvania Educators of Students Who are Deaf and Hard of Hearing) convocation planning meeting and offer ideas for sessions. I doubt that a training would be possible but at least it would be possible to talk about how things like video or vlogs/blogs could be used to support literacy.

Finished the first part of the information piece I am writing for my boss-what a blog is. Now I have to write the part about how they can be used to support literacy. I also got the wiki set-up now I just have to learn how to enter new pages and content.

What Have I Done Now?

I had a meeting with my boss today to discuss the department web page. What is currently online is very cut and dry-a standardized page that follows the same boring format as every other department. Because we are shifting to the online IEP Writer program for IEP's, we can't make any changes at this time-the webmaser is very busy ironing out the glitches and trying to get caught up on other jobs. While we are waiting we will start creating the content that we want to present. In order to do that I am going to set up a wiki that specific people can access to edit the written content of the site.

After that we continued talking about other concerns I had related to my job. In previous years he has requested staff submit monthly lesson plans for him to view or profile a student. This year he decided that he wants to change what we are doing. For the first submission, we are supposed to write about how we support literacy with our students. As a full time sub I have a very difficult time writing anything to turn in and he agreed it would be difficult.

As we continued talking I showed him the PowerPoint version of the ABC Fruit and Vegetable game which the preschool teachers said I should show all of the teachers (I will be doing that in December.)

Literacy came up in the discussion and I mentioned how blogs are being used to support literacy. He has heard about them but didn't know much about them. He suggested when I show the game that I also talk about blogs. His next thought was that that would take care of the information I am supposed to submit about literacy. Instead of writing what I am personally doing he wants me to fill him in on blogs-what they are, etc and how they are being used to support literacy. Now I have to start researching the information so I can write and submit it by Oct. 1. Rather than just emailing my report to my boss I think I will post it in my blog and email a link to my blog.

Tomorrow I will be going to an interpreting workshop and I will have the opportunity to talk to someone about whether or not it would be possible to do technology trainings on a statewide level specifically for teachers of the hearing impaired.

ABC Game Feedback and Other Development Thoughts Part 2

I spent a lot of time on the game today. All of the sign/fingerspell/word videos are ready for buttons. I took my button feedback and decided I didn't want any of them. I have two choices now just simple text saying play the video again or a green button (the favorite color) that says play video again.

After getting feedback from Rosemary about part 1 of this blog post, I have decided to include a menu page. From there it will be possible to access any letter and also go to the directions instead of having them in the game timeline. I like this much better. The front page also has the option of going straight to the game (for the kids) or to the menu.

Each page has a button to take you home (the menu.) I have also created two versions-a plain written text button and a green button with a graphic of a house on it. The pages continue to have a full page button for the children to go to the next page. Right now I have the buttons at the bottom but I think maybe I should put them at the top so if the teacher is using an interactive whiteboard the children will not hit them accidentally.

Letter A is set up as text only links and letter B uses the button links. Please check out letters A and B and let me know which way you like best.

At this time the menu is not complete but what is there is in black ink. The directions are in blue as are the text only button links (which puts a blue play text button onto the black text menu page.) I'm still deciding whether I prefer the blue or the black text. Not sure if one is easier to read. Maybe the black.

I'm keeping the letters for the preloader and will save numbers for the next game:) which will be some kind of counting and or math concepts game. More about that later after I think about it some. I also wonder if I should include the words "Please wait while the game loads" on the preloading screen.

I also have a grammar question. I wrote "For each letter there is a series of slides." I'm wondering if I should change it to "...there are a series of slides" I think "is" is the right choice but I'm not sure because I'm using "a series" which I think is singular.

Somewhere along the line I want to figure out which National standards this correlates to and create a lesson plan. Also when we did the first trial with the children I had them take turns trying to trace over the letter. I'm thinking about including tracing letters for when teachers use this with an interactive whiteboard they could demonstrate how to write the letter. Not sure if I want to do that totally separate or if maybe on the page with the fingerspelled sign I could put the font that shows the arrows of how to write it or maybe I should just include this idea in the lesson plans that I hope to create.


Started studying for the Praxis test. I have to take that to prove I can read, write and do math before I can get my certification for Instructional Technology Specialist. I need to call and schedule it sometime so I have a target date to keep me on task.

Cool Literacy Site

I discovered a cool literacy site. There is a teacher site and a student site. The site comes out of the UK. It is divided into different themes including dragons, Halloween spells, Renaissance etc.

What is really neat about the place is that there is a heavy emphasis on writing. Students can read stories some of which are choose your own adventure stories (multiple endings and the students choices determine which one they end up with.) They are also able to write stories to be posted online. One part includes discussions about dragons that students can participate it.

There is also a part called Adventure Island that really set me to thinking.
"Adventure Island is a web-based tool for classes, schools and groups to create an interactive online island that other people are able to visit and explore. You can create descriptions for each area of your island, and these can be written in either the style of a story, diary, guide or game, as you wish. You can include on your island areas that will trap an unsuspecting visitor, and force them to start again, as well as including four clues that, once found, will allow the visitor to escape from the island and get back to civilisation." (from the website)

Video can be included which makes this really ideal for deaf students. It would allow them to create their information in video format in their natural language and then caption it into English.

I wonder if I could create a site that would be specifically for deaf students. I would want them to be able to provide video, pix, written text.... I don't want to steal the idea of Adventure Island so I would have to think ........

I have it Time Travel. The students could do something based on the time period they are studying in social studies. They could come up with how they ended up back in time and then find a way back to the present possibly by traveling forward in time through additional time periods?????

More to come as I think about this.

ABC Game Feedback and Other Development Thoughts Part 1

Read this after trying the game first. Go to the game.

Feedback
1. The words yes and no are difficult to see at the end of the game. I need to check and see if it is a different shade of blue than in the game part because the blue in the other part is clear. or maybe it is the size? Whatever, I can change it to a lighter shade to make it more visible.

2. No button to play a video again.
I can add a button to the video and if I move the button layer to just above the video layer in the flash file I think it will work. I won't know for sure until I try it on more than one section and go through the whole game and check things out.

Click here to provide feedback for the best button choice. (I'm no longer taking button feedback here.)

My other thoughts:
Do I want to keep it so that the children can touch anywhere on the screen to go to the next frame or do I want to change it to go buttons?

What about the directions? Is it better to put them on the webpage? where they are now? or maybe a button you can hit for the directions?
A lot of games use the last one. I think I am leaning towards one of the latter two ideas. The children that would be playing can't read the directions-maybe I should have videotaped the directions in sign language for them. I'm also wondering about including teacher information-lesson plan or correlation to standards information. I'd have to use national standards since this would not be linked to a specific state. And of course the question is where should I provide it?

What about a menu page? This would be useful to teachers when they are teaching a specific letter. If I put a menu page in where would I put it? How would the teacher get to it?

Do I want to keep the ABC preloading screen or do I want to change it to numbers. The only problem is that I can't count to ten in that font because it only goes up to 9 on a computer keyboard. If I change it to graphics then the preloader would need a preloader:)

What else do I need to consider?

ABC game day 5

I have finished the first trial of the game. All the letters are working and I added the ending. I couldn't make the little guy sign wait liked I hoped so instead I used the gallaudet font to do the alphabet. I'm not sure I want to keep that. I thought I would use the alphabet, since it is an alphabet game, but I may change it to counting to 10. I put out an email requesting feedback from some friends and Rosemary. After I get that back I will decide what other changes need to be made before the final version goes online.

This is the current version

ABC game day 4

I now have all of the videos linked into the game along with the fingerspelled letter and the fruit or vegetable graphic. I just need to do the letters for the matching game. I also need to look at each page and see if I like the placement of everything or if I still need to adjust them on the page. I also still need to do something about preloading.
Here is the most recent.


First attempt with a preloader. Not very pretty just trying to see if I can do it. I think I did. Now to make it better. I wonder if I can make the little guy sign wait........hmmm have to think about that and see if I can draw it.

ABC game day 3

I figured out how to stop the videos from disappearing. I had added a frame after the movie and put a stop command on the last frame of the video, but it didn't work. Next, I tried a go to and stop command telling it to go to the last frame of the video with writing on it and that solved the problem. Now the video stays on the word until you click to go to the next frame.

Loading time is still a problem. I have been looking at preloaders but have come to the conclusion that I don't know enough about flash to understand how they are done. I will keep searching though.

I just made another discovery that solved another problem. If the child picked the wrong answer the little guy signing "wrong" would appear. The problem I had though was that if you clicked on it before it was done signing it would flash to the game and then back to the little guy. It turns out that the button to return to the game that was in the little guy's file was not set until the final frame. I moved it to the first frame and now it works fine.

Here's the latest. (letters A and B)

ABC game day 2 of working on it

I tried changing the quality of the movie. I found if I changed it to 90% it still looked pretty good and resulted in a much lower file size. It still runs a little slow on dsl. Dial up would probably be awful. Here it is. (still just the letter A)

I have been googling and checking the forums for some kind of a preloader that would let me load the video on the first frame of the letter and then play it on the frame it belongs in. No luck so far. I was going to talk to someone at work but he is so backed up that I can't even talk to him about our department's website until October let alone something I am doing on my own.

In the mean time I have a meeting with my supervisor next week to discuss our department website and the actual content. I also plan to show him the game since the preschool teachers think I should show it at a staff meeting. One of the teachers has also asked me to help her with video projects (she got a camera from a grant) once she gets her new computer.

The ABC game

One thing I didn't get to do while I was on my internship was put the game online. Because it was in PowerPoint the videos would not work online so I am going to put it into flash. I did fool around with it a little while I was on the internship but things weren't going right.

Today I sat down and started working on it again. I started from scratch and solved some of the problems. I figured the best way to do it was to storyboard it while I was doing it so I would know all the actionscript I used.

I have only completed the letter "a" so far but it seems to mostly work right. I have two problems that I need to address. First, at the end of the videoclip of the signing the video ends and leaves a faint impression on the screen of the word. My second problem is the video itself. I posted it online (letter A only)to see what would happen. It begins to play before it is loaded so it is very jerky. Once I finish figuring out the template it will go pretty fast for the rest of the game. I am wondering if I should make a file for each individual letter and then load and unload them separately into the final version. I'm thinking it might load faster that way. But that thought is on hold while I try to solve the other problems.

Tomorrow I will have to look at it more. I also need to convert all of the video to 320 X 240 since they were originally in large files.

Where do I go next?

I left my internship planning to look for a job in instructional technology during the coming year while I go about getting my certification. I'm now being pulled to stay in my current job. I was asked if I would be interested in managing our C-Print program next year. It blew my mind. The person who asked me has already talked to the director of special ed who thought it might be a good idea since I just finished instructional technology. It's definitely a temptation-job security for sure.

I have already been asked to familiarize myself with the C-print software and networking of the computers and my first foray into troubleshooting was a failure. At the same time the c-print captionist and I spent several hours with two of the tech people at work and they also had problems before finally getting the network going. And they are not exactly sure why it works this way either. Oh the joys of technology.

I am still interested in changing my job. I have even looked online to see if there are jobs anywhere but I haven't seen any. I can't help but wonder though if I will stay where I am just because of my comfort level. The last few summers I said I would look elsewhere at a school for the deaf for a job but I didn't do it. This year I did send my resume while I was fully involved in my internship but I never filled out the job application they sent me and they never called me. To go some place I don't know is threatening. I am worried that my tendency to doubt myself and preference to stay in my comfort level may keep me from changing.

I loved this summer. I think of all the things that can be done with kids that isn't happening now and I want to show the teachers what they can do. (one on one not in groups:) I referred to using a Smart board when showing the game to someone and much to my surprise I had to explain what it was. (She had just finished her master's in education a year ago at a university affiliated with elementary and high schools that use them so I was really surprised she had never heard about them.)

If I don't change jobs the idea of taking over the C-print management is also intimidating. The person in charge now runs meetings and while I am comfortable with technology working with groups of adults is scary. and I don't even do C-print.

On the positive side -although maybe still threatening
I showed the game to some of our preschool teachers-none of them use sign language with their students but they were impressed. They asked if I was going to show it at a staff meeting and I commented that anyone could learn to make games. They are interested in learning. Don't know where it will go yet. My supervisor was not around at the time we were discussing this so I don't know what he will say.

Day 30

The End
I finished what I could on the Qwizdom training and managed to do another software evaluation for the TecEds software review.

In the afternoon, Rosemary and I discussed my evaluation. She made a list of my strengths and weaknesses. It pretty well correlated with what I know about myself although I really don't think in depth like that unless I am forced to (I don’t appreciate it either Rosemary.)

Strengths:

• Has extensive knowledge of current and cutting edge technology-thanks Rosemary for getting me more up to date than I was.

• Able to integrate technology to educational environment

• Is a quick learner

• Follows through with projects-the ABC game probably required the most follow through of anything I did. It required more time than anything else did just to get it working right. We videotaped several times to get the video perfect and I felt uncomfortable part of the time doing it. The teacher was wonderful that I was working with, but how exactly do you tell the expert that you want it done different?

• Adapts projects to meet the needs of the students or clients-this time was a starting point and I have begun thinking as I read the different blogs I now follow how things could be adapted to the student population I am working with. That’s probably one of the greatest skills I have learned during my internship. I don’t necessarily have to have new and creative ideas. There are plenty out there I just need to find them and adapt them to what will work for me.

• Works well with teachers and staff-not hard since they were all great people

• Has a positive attitude-this was one of the best vacations I have ever had.

• Is very comfortable in using and learning about a range of technologies-Qwizdom was a little stressful because there was so much to it and I was trying to create a training at the same time. But Smart Boards/projectors and Elmos were great.

• Is open to a variety of suggestions and ideas-considering who I was working with how could I not take suggestions? I went to the best so I would learn the best. If I was not open to things then it would have defeated the purpose for being there in the first place.
  

Weaknesses:

• Needs more experience training adults-well I approached someone about doing training based on some of the things I was doing this summer and other things I saw when I went to the International Symposium on Instructional Technology for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The whole concept is terrifying considering who I approached but the things I have been exposed to can be so useful for our deaf and hard of hearing kids.

• Needs to believe in her ability to create projects and trainings-I don't think I doubt my ability to create projects as much as trainings. I have lots of ideas for projects that I don't have the skills for (mostly drawing-not very good at that) Trainings are another story. I know Rosemary-I can do it. I really have always preferred working with children but technology has pulled me in and I am having to stretch and it's not comfortable. I feel more comfortable working one on one showing someone how to do things. It's the getting up in front of a group of adults that bothers me. Doubting myself is a tendency I have-not in the concrete things-I know I can do the technology end. It's the less concrete, the things I don't see myself doing so I can't tell how well I am doing them. Maybe time and practice will build up my confidence? Writing handouts isn't hard just the standing up and thinking what to say:)

• Needs to reflect more on the "why" as well "what" and "how"-Have I reflected enough? I know it’s not all “why” there is still a lot of “what” and “how” but it’s a start.

Oh yeah, I’m trying out the new add-in for the Word tool bar hopefully it will work. Well I had to make a few changes but it mostly worked.

Day 29

One day left :(
I found a couple more links for the curriculum resource web and then Rosemary asked me about revising the training (maybe because I told her that was a weakness of mine when she asked what I saw as my strengths and weaknesses? I hate it when people ask me that. I don't do depth and self-evaluation very well.)

Anyway we discussed the hook and decided to make a presentation using Qwizdom and then a game to check if they paid attention. I spent the rest of the day working on that. The target was 25 questions so they could play Quandary (like Jeopardy) I'm not there yet-need about 5 more. Hopefully I will be able to finish it tomorrow before I leave.

Day 28

I spent the most of the morning with Bill. He showed me some of the things he does and how he uses the Help Desk to track jobs. He also got a request while I was with him so we went to the library and installed a program on a computer. Bill also introduced me to their online IEP program. It served two purposes-one to show me and the other to refresh his memory since he will be helping with a training for it next week. I found it very interesting since we are going online with our IEPs this year and I am scheduled for training next week at home. He also showed me samples of training materials he has done.

For the rest of the day I looked for additional curriculum links while Rosemary created a website for the links.

Day 27

Well, I lived through the practice training. Once I started getting everything ready the nerves left. The handouts were fine. I should have started with a hook and explained the concept of the program before explaing the how to. Also, I thought this morning that I should have had files prepared for them to use while working but it was too late to do anything when I thought about it.

The critique afterwards pretty much said the same things I was thinking as I was going through the presentation. (Some of the thoughts came because of the questions I was asked during the training and they made me realize what I should have done different.) As per normal, things went wrong with technology and I had to work around the problems, but that really didn't bother me.

I spent the afternoon editing the video for the game. I also changed the transitions. It is done (I think) with the exception of still needing one more copyright free picture. I have a list of sources for public domain photos and I have been going through them searching. I went through the game checking links to make sure they all link to the right slide. I also fixed the problems that were noted during the last trial. Next I want to try it on another computer and make sure the fonts transferred properly, that all the videos work, and all the links are working. Then I will declare it finished and burn it to a CD.

Tomorrow I will spend time with Bill shadowing him to see what he does.

Day 26

I started the day reading through a printout of the Qwizdom training handouts. I found numerous changes that I wanted to make - some to make it more easily readable, some arrows didn't show up very well so I had to make some changes there, and I didn't like some of the wordings so I made more changes there. That's done until after the training tomorrow when I may make changes after I get feedback.

I set up to show the ABC game and made sure it was working properly. When the children came it turned out that all of them were hearing. There were 10 of them. Rosemary took notes, while I was going through it with the children, as to any problems that appeared. She made note of the videos that needed to be redone, and on the title page fruit was mispelled. I want to change the transition for moving from the fingerspelled letter to the video because it takes too long. It was a fade so I will change it to no transition.

Sometimes the slides were a little slow changing but we think it was because I was playing it from a CD. I also had to remember when talking about the slides that it was set to tap one time to go to the next slide. Using the Smart Board I had to be very careful when I pointed not to touch it or the PowerPoint would go to the next slide before I wanted it to.

After the game I began making some of the changes that were noted until it was time to videotape.

Only 7 of the videos needed to be redone. Almost all were done in only one take. We looked back through them after and decided which still needed to be redone again.

In the afternoon, there was a meeting of the three Instructional Technologists about the trainings for the fall. They decided to only do one large group training a month and then do multiple small groups that focused on the team/departments. They also plan to send out an email newsletter with interesting sites/tech ideas.

I spent the time left running through the steps for tomorrow's training to make sure I don't forget anything.

Tomorrow I have to set up for the training in the TecEds lab. Wednesday, I'll spend the morning with Bill, and Thursday Julie wants me to help her troubleshoot the sound on the video conferencing equipment. She has it working now but it doesn't sound right.

Day 25

I finished the training handouts for Tuesday's Qwizdom training. I began walking through in my head what I want to remember to mention during the training. Monday I need to hook up the base to the computer and photograph it to put into the handout.

Since the ABC game will be placed online I went online and researched video release forms and created one for the teacher who is in the videotapes to sign. She will be in on Monday to do some more taping. Rosemary also set up a session with the day care preschoolers for Monday to play the game and see how it is running.

On Monday there is a meeting to plan the fall training sessions.

Day 24

Never did get up to publishing to troubleshoot. I spent the day working on the handouts for Qwizdom. They're almost finished. Rosemary went over them and we discussed them and her suggestions for change and why. I have just a few changes to make. I still have to do the part about actually playing the games, but all the set up part is pretty well finished.

Now I have to turn my mind to the actual training. I will be presenting in their lab using the large Smart Board. Each participant will have a computer to follow along with and create some of their own slides. I have some thought about that part that I need to check out and see if it will be possible to do it that way using the software and discuss with Rosemary if it is a viable idea.

I discussed with her how the handouts should be done - exact to what we do in training or a more general version. She brought up the point that in the case of their trainings most of the workshops are presented in sign-no voice. That means that the people will basically be watching and doing along with the trainer without referencing the handout until later, so it needs to be more general. In this case the learner characteristics have a serious impact on the trainings. The learner's are visual learners. While they probably won't read the handouts word for word the screenshots will jog their visual memory. Learning how to do them has been very helpful during my internship.

The learners also come with varied computer skills and motivations. I have had to make sure that I have created a task analysis that does not miss any steps. I went through each step and wrote it down. After I typed them up and added the screenshots I went through doing the steps as I read them to make sure I didn't miss anything.

There will be no formal assessment. The results will be seen in how many teachers use Qwizdom with their students.

I finished up the afternoon doing a software evaluation and putting it into the TecEds software review. I did talk with Rosemary to make sure I was on the right track with the first one before entering it. With these not only is it important to look at the software from the standpoint of is it user friendly? is it interesting? does it run smoothly? install easily? but I also have to consider how deaf and hard of hearing students can use it. How crucial is the sound in it? What is the language level?

Tomorrow I expect to finish the handouts and think more about the training itself.

Day 23

Rosemary read yesterday's blog so we started the day by discussing my stress level. I told her not to worry because one thing I regretted was that there were no training opportunities this summer. I also told her that I prefer to teach kids but I knew when I got into this that it would involve teaching adults which I have done before. I think it is probably more the fact that they are all experienced trainers that makes it more stressful. I also told her that last year when I was down for the workshop and we had to present out projects I was very nervous.

We discussed the training and decided to aim for an hour and a half so that we could go through all the parts. At this time Rosemary doesn't know if it will be a training that will be done after school, which would be full length, or during team meetings and would need to be shorter. Afterward, we can all discuss it and see what needs to be changed. We scheduled the practice training for next Tuesday morning and Rosemary emailed Julie and Bill about it. Julie said she knows some other people who may be interested in coming. I told her I would get back to her about that.

Points to consider about the training:
Will everyone have a computer? Yes
Everyone will be making a trial game-how will I handle that? Playing everyone's games? Content for the games? Bring their own? Provide materials? I will need to think about that.

I spent most of the day working on the Qwizdom training handouts. The first part is ready for Rosemary to check over. I'm putting the middle on hold for now while I think about what needs to be included. I started writing the last part and doing the screenshots.

I finished the day working on a software review for the TedEds website. It was very helpful that I had done them in class before and I was able to draw on that prior knowledge while doing the evaluation.

Tomorrow, Julie invited me to go up to publishing and troubleshoot with her. Next Wednesday morning, I will be job shadowing Bill to see what he does.

Day 22

We met with Wilson and Sydney about the databases and posting online a way for teachers to search the software available and request it. Wilson will have his part done next week. Rosemary also talked to Sydney about setting up WordPress multi user for blogging. She and the principal would like there to be a principal's blog on the first page of the school's website that will discuss what is happening in school. After discussing things with Sydney it was decided that the blog has priority over the software check out.

I started writing the Qwizdom handouts today. The first part was easy but when I got to the games it became more complicated. Rosemary said I don't want too many pages because no one will read them. I started looking at the games and almost everyone is set up different which would mean approximately 7-10 pages just to explain the games. When I started looking at how to explain them I understood why their training manual didn't go into exact details. It's overwhelming.

Rosemary told me to think from the trainers end too. She asked if they were shown it once or twice would they be able to do it. Mostly I think so. There are a few screens and comments I think should be made for each game but overall the game setup screens are self explanatory-dare I say that? They want teachers to input team names or number of students, etc. I think the teachers would be okay later if shown that during a training.

There are two things I do have a concern about and at this time I'm not sure how to address them. One is the scoring method. Some of the games ask the teacher to choose a scoring method. They provide an explanation on the choice page but it is still confusing. The other is how to show the correct answer during the game. The games do not show that and there are several different ways to do it depending upon the game. It wasn't even explained in the manual. I figured it out for myself.

Rosemary's leaving it to me to figure this out. When I am done she wants me to try it out with her and Julie and maybe Bill. That will be stressful to say the least since they are experienced trainers. Afterwards we will evaluate it and see what needs to be changed.

This will be the biggest challenge of the internship. Although I was previously confronted with deadlines on the video projects they were something that I have done extensively at work and felt quite comfortable with. Even the game while different was easy to do, just time consuming. This training is pushing my skills to a higher level. I hope I succeed.