Final Project

Group 5
Briannon Keydeniers
Clair Obrien
Terry Jordan
LTEC 3440.020
August 2, 2010

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS QUESTIONS
1. What is causing the frustrations Georgina and her students are facing?
As a group we discussed the lack of communication and miscommunication going on between Georgina and her students. This is very evident in the emails Georgina is sending her students and their responses to her. Georgina feels the students should be able to find the answers through the website. We discussed how we noticed the students seemed to be having trouble navigating the material and determining due dates on the website. The website layout has many broken links and advertisement pop ups which are equally as frustrating.
2. Develop a flowchart of Georgina's site as it currently exists. Develop another flowchart with your recommendations of how to solve the current problems.
Please see attached power point slides.
3. What other improvements would you recommend for the existing pages in order to decrease student frustration?
The layout of Georgian’s website is very confusing and has no logical flow to it. As a group we discussed the fact she doesn’t follow the three click rule of web design. We had to keep clicking different links to get to where we wanted to go. The flow was very broken and choppy.
We also noticed when you click on the active links there would be advertisements that would pop up. This just adds on to the growing frustration the students are already experiencing. As a group we would suggest Georgian double check her website links to make sure there isn’t anything that would pop up that shouldn’t.
We noticed there were many broken links and some of the links were not active. It would be a good idea if she used Microsoft Expressions to double check her website. She might also want to check her website in different browsers such as Firefox.
The website is fairly boring. We suggested maybe using some graphics like the school logos or school colors. We also suggested she consolidate the website more. Georgina doesn’t need to have each slide on a separate link. She can incorporate the slides onto each chapter link. We also thought adding a calendar link would be a great resource for the students so they can access due dates without having to ask Georgian when things are due. She might want to incorporate a FAQ’s link so her students can look there first before they email her with questions.
We also thought it might be easier if she had the “email me with questions” linked to Microsoft Outlook. This would be more convenient and less frustrating.
4. As design experts, how would you work with Georgina to fix these problems?
As a group we discussed sitting down with her and have her go through her website with her students in mind. We also thought it would be best if we worked with Georgina by showing her the web page step by step. We talked about how we could explain to her how what she sees may not be what her students see. We would stipulate that if the students have to click several links to get to weekly material there is more likely to be connection interruption, frustration and confusion on how to get to the material. Hopefully by making a few simple changes to the website Georgina will find that her class submits assignments more timely and she will not have to answer so many questions.
5. What options are available for salvaging this course at this point? Which course of action do you recommend?
We discussed that Georgina can salvage her course, but she and the students must work together in order for this to happen. She may start by offering a statement of empathy for the students, and in turn, also ask for patience. We recommended that Georgina reformats the web page and updates students of the changes via e-mail or instant message. Or, if she has a discussion board, announcement page or instructor’s corner she can post updates there.

group project

our group is getting together in a live meeting to finalize our group project. got everything set up and we are meeting tomorrow night. can't wait to meet them.

Listen! Listen!

although I do enjoy listening to the podcasts. I really would rather read the information. It is easier for me to refer back when I need to. I realize that you can "rewind" podcasts but for me it usually is more trouble than with text.

three videos

Three Videos Essay:


I enjoyed all three videos but especially the Sir Robinson video. He has an interesting sense of humor. His stories were both entertaining and educational. It seems to me that today we seem to have a condition for everything and a drug to cure it. Maybe if we spent a little more time, as the doctor in Robinson’s video did, maybe we would find that most children don’t actually have a problem but instead just don’t fit into the mold that our education system has created for them. I taught in the discipline center where I live for a year and found that most of the kids that are sent there are actually not bad kids. They are just treated like bad kids so that’s how they act. The same thing can be said about kids who are labeled as having a learning disability. If they are treated like they are dumb, they will act dumb. I think our education system is so rigid that we cannot accommodate those kids that learn differently. This is what we need to change. The use of technology is one solution to this problem. Kids today are enveloped in technology. Facebook, texting, email, the internet, are all daily routines for them. Today’s technology enables us to accommodate all of the different ways of learning. In the video A vision of Students Today by Michael Wesch the students pointed out how much time they spend using technology every day. Our classrooms need to take advantage of these things to optimize the students learning opportunities. One example would be utilizing short video clips in the classroom. Students are used to sites like Youtube and getting their information in short chunks. If we used these in the classroom we could also make them available through podcasts etc. and the students could download them to their cell phones. This is only one example of the many ways we can utilize these new technologies. Technology is constantly changing as the video Web 2.0 points out. The internet is no longer static. Text, video, graphics are all dynamic. They change to fit the users’ access. Our classrooms need to be just as dynamic. We need to create curriculum that can change with the students’ needs as well as the changing technology. The future of the classroom is exciting and I can’t wait to see what’s next.

Works Cited
Technology, L. 3. (n.d.). LTEC 3440 Intro to Instructional Technology . Retrieved from LTEC 3440 Intro to Instructional Technology : http://ltec3440.blogspot.com/

I found this video on Youtube. Lisa Short, a middle school teacher, is demonstrating an interactive whiteboard for a hearing on the Future of Learning. very cool!!

I really liked this video. The speaker was entertaining and the message very interesting. I agree that our education system needs to be updated to keep pace with todays technology. Everyone does not learn in the same way so there should be several different methods to teach each subject. Todays youth and the rest of us for that matter, are enveloped in technology. We should utilize it in any way we can to accomodate all learning methods. It seems to me that we as a society are too quick to label someone with a disability just because they do not fit into a predefined mold of who we think they are. If given a chance and a larger toolbox I think most of those people we have labeled would surprise us. In my experience this has more often than not been the case.

Mind Mapping benefits

Mind mapping is a very good tool for organizing thoughts and ideas on a project. It is also very useful for use during a meeting while brainstorming to document everyones thoughts and then narrow ideas down to those that everyone agrees on. information in a mind map is easily seen and can therefore help you see areas that need more work or that need to be deleted. During a presentation a mind map provides a visual reference of the ideas discussed so it is easier to comprehend, and it shows how subjects relate to one another in the overall scheme. so to summerize, mind mapping benefits are:
1. organization of thoughts
2. brainstorming
3. easily read information
4. visual so easier to comprehend
5. shows relationship of subjects