Thursday, June 01, 2006

Project Planning

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6 comments:

  1. Dreamweaver allows you to generate excellent menu items, either using CSS or Flash buttons. What experience do you have with DW? You can email me content if you don't want it on your blog, or I can review and comment on it through your blog as needed. I might need access to WebCT if you're building it through there. You mention an announcement feature. WebCT has a nice announcement module built in. Let me know when you help with code, designing the IM presense, etc. I can save you some time there.

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  2. June 5, 2006 chat:


    Show Recent Messages (F3)

    Janie Santoy: hi
    Rich Rice: hiya
    Janie Santoy: was having problems logging in, sorry
    Rich Rice: no worries
    Rich Rice: I've reviewed your blog. What questions do you have or which issues are you having getting started?
    Janie Santoy: i just realized in going over the 7000 docs that I set a reading schedule for the UDL book
    Janie Santoy: did not set
    Rich Rice: ah
    Rich Rice: might send me a Locke a new syll when you have that
    Rich Rice: I'm posting your syll through my Web site now.
    Janie Santoy: Questions that I have--
    Janie Santoy: one of my issues in the planning stage is setting up collaborative activities
    Rich Rice: nods
    Rich Rice: an online class...
    Janie Santoy: I don't want to be tied down to the particular LMS capabilities
    Janie Santoy: but I'm not sure that I can avoid them
    Rich Rice: will there be a synchrounous component?
    Rich Rice: or just asyn?
    Janie Santoy: asynchronous...
    Rich Rice: will students be keeping some sort of profile in WebCT or a blog....?
    Janie Santoy: I was thinking of a blog...
    Rich Rice: could ask them to write some sort of journal entry or first assignment that says what they want to get out of the class and why, and then have them respond to one another...
    Rich Rice: remember--blogs are a lot of work for teachers if they read them all
    Rich Rice: and most feel compelled to read them all
    Rich Rice: hard to grade
    Rich Rice: if not graded, unless they're grad students usually, they won't be done
    Rich Rice: if you want to use blogs, need to integrate them in...
    Rich Rice: perhaps as reflection writing
    Rich Rice: brainstorming
    Rich Rice: collab
    Janie Santoy: right i definitely agree about the importance of grading or at least giving feedback...
    Rich Rice: will you use groups for peer revision?
    Rich Rice: will the groups be kept the same throughout the course?
    Janie Santoy: I like the brainstorming and reflecting; much more informal
    Rich Rice: perhaps the first thing students should do is tell what their interests are in some way so as to select groups or aid the teacher in selecting/assigning groups...?
    Rich Rice: what do you think? Ideas?
    Janie Santoy: groups, yes, for peer revision; same groups, yes
    Janie Santoy: i've done that before group them by interests; the problem I faced was the disintegration of groups when students dropped...
    Janie Santoy: but I guess I can deal with that when the time comes; still a good idea
    Rich Rice: you could provide some sort of set of prompts or template for students for their first blog...
    Rich Rice: something with blogs, too, is make them routine, from the get go of the course
    Rich Rice: you'll get a higher response rate if they're due every Monday, for isntance
    Rich Rice: another collab idea....
    Rich Rice: is to have them work in a group to do a webquest of some sort
    Rich Rice: find a site that explains grammar well
    Rich Rice: or a site that says why writing is important in the real world
    Rich Rice: something like that
    Janie Santoy: i agree that students need consistency and specific set of expectations
    Janie Santoy: as a way to get started working as a group...good idea
    Rich Rice: nods. Grad students are different, of course, than freshman.
    Rich Rice: other questions?
    Janie Santoy: have you read the book which discusses the UDL principles?
    Janie Santoy: you mentioned you were working on something with UDL ...
    Rich Rice: no, I haven't. I'll pick up a copy.
    Rich Rice: I've read other UDL materials.
    Rich Rice: you mentioned some specific 7 step categories in you blog you want to follow
    Janie Santoy: well i've found the UCD and UDL merge; alot of the same user center principles
    Rich Rice: nods
    Janie Santoy: the main difference (at least as I see it now) is that UDL comes out of ADA and UCD comes out of web design/marketing/...
    Rich Rice: that makes sense
    Rich Rice: you mention you'd like to use those 7 stages. In what way?
    Janie Santoy: UDL concentrates on applying principles to students versus UCD all users...
    Janie Santoy: ultimately the same I think
    Janie Santoy: I am thinking of using UDL (not only as Robbin Zeff argued in terms of assignment design) but also for ELL issues
    Rich Rice: nods
    Rich Rice: well you frame the syllabus around it then?
    Rich Rice: each learning unit?
    Rich Rice: include in goals?
    Janie Santoy: i want to frame each unit and then each lesson using the principles;
    Janie Santoy: do you mean goals for the course or the design?
    Rich Rice: don't know--curious if you want to use it in the course or just in your design
    Rich Rice: might confuse students if in the course
    Janie Santoy: UDL i think applies more to how I will be delivering the materials
    Rich Rice: ah, k.
    Janie Santoy: so my next step is to begin designing the course both in terms of general navigation and then specific look of pages...
    Janie Santoy: need to make sure to integrate as many UDL principles to accomplish my goals
    Janie Santoy: does it make a difference to design in frontpage vs dreamweaver; what is the main difference?
    Janie Santoy: don't have dreamweaver yet; can get it from school I think
    Rich Rice: dreamweaver does CSS better, as well as menu items
    Rich Rice: better nav bars
    Rich Rice: graphically, DW is much stronger
    Rich Rice: good to learn
    Rich Rice: if you can get it for free through your school, I'd recomment you use that instead of FP for your 7000
    Janie Santoy: I'm not sure how the design will import into WebCt
    Janie Santoy: have you tried doing that
    Rich Rice: yep
    Rich Rice: let's talk about that
    Rich Rice: one strategy...
    Rich Rice: is to use the collaborative tools of WebCT
    Rich Rice: like the announcements
    Rich Rice: like the gradebook
    Rich Rice: like the discussion board
    Rich Rice: but then auto forward pages to a design that isn't in webct
    Rich Rice: you use a metatag to do that
    Rich Rice: see this, for instance
    Rich Rice: http://www.bsu.edu/classes/rice
    Rich Rice: the code there is what you'd use, basically, to auto-forward from WebCT to the site you're building
    Rich Rice: we do this with our current 2311 online
    Rich Rice: benefit: you could run multiple sections of your course but have a common syllabus that could be changed (single-sourcing, in a way)
    Janie Santoy: metatag and auto-forward new terms for me...do you mean on webct you provide the link to the outside page/web?
    Rich Rice: go to the site above, the BSU site, and before it forwards, do a View > Source
    Rich Rice: look for "metatag"; you'll basically copy that code into WebCT and it will autoforward through WebCT.
    Rich Rice: Let me show you an example...
    Rich Rice: 1. http://coursecompass.com
    Rich Rice: 2. login instructor
    Rich Rice: 3. XXX / XXX (login/password)
    Rich Rice: 4. click 2311
    Rich Rice: 5. not the syllabus that comes up. It looks like it's in Blackboard. It's not. It has been autoforwarded. It exists on a TTU server instead.
    Rich Rice: ...
    Janie Santoy: ok i'm a little slow; let me catch up...
    Janie Santoy: ok
    Rich Rice: make sense?
    Janie Santoy: yes
    Rich Rice: so, you'd store your files off-line, but autoforward to them through WebCT...if you wanted.
    Janie Santoy: more flexibility
    Rich Rice: benefit is you could make changes to the one syll which would then be included in multiple sections
    Rich Rice: or you could important the pages into each class as needed
    Rich Rice: but that is ultimately more work, and it leaves instructors open to changing things considerably without telling you, which might be problematic
    Rich Rice: not standardized
    Janie Santoy: well this is something which currently will be for my use so I don't have to worry about control; not yet
    Rich Rice: up to you then. Trick, then, is to use a color scheme in WebCT that you like, and then match the color scheme with your site.
    Janie Santoy: one thing I want to do (which webct can do for me) is track the pages students access
    Rich Rice: so that webct and your site appear integrated
    Rich Rice: makes sense. So, if you include a series of handouts, you could see which are being used, etc.
    Janie Santoy: so which UDL prepared info do students access more...which students access which ones....
    Janie Santoy: i can do that outside of webct?
    Janie Santoy: more complicated?
    Rich Rice: could, but it'd be easier in WebCT--that would help you determine effectiveness of certain pages, perhaps, or where energies for sustaining the content should go
    Rich Rice: also...
    Rich Rice: if students writing still seems riddles with comma-splices...
    Rich Rice: and there's not a lot of people going to the handout on commas-splices...
    Rich Rice: then more integration of that handout in the assignment set itself would be needed
    Janie Santoy: I guess what I want to do is design the content outside (maybe one unit) and then figure out how it will work on WebCt Vista which is the system we are moving to
    Janie Santoy: no sense in designing the whole thing and then not being able to do what I want
    Janie Santoy: so I need to go back and include the tracking issues in my planning chart...
    Rich Rice: k. I think that's a good component, but it's not a priority. Something to consider.
    Rich Rice: other thoughts as we get started?
    Rich Rice: Dr. Carter will pass around your proposal and in the next few weeks we'll have an official yes or no.
    Janie Santoy: ok
    Janie Santoy: for next week
    Rich Rice: what would you like for next week?
    Janie Santoy: discuss the first 2-4 chapters of Teaching Every Student...
    Rich Rice: nods
    Janie Santoy: 2 or 4 don't want to overwhelm you...
    Rich Rice: what can we do in an hour?
    Janie Santoy: well, it depends
    Janie Santoy: do we want to discuss the theory or apply what I (we) see as relevant to the course?
    Rich Rice: I think what you see as relevant
    Janie Santoy: for the theory we would need a chapter a week but we don't have enough time
    Rich Rice: (I've reserved the text from the library just now)
    Rich Rice: let's look at application
    Rich Rice: we can move through it quickly
    Janie Santoy: it's available completely online if like reading the screen...
    Rich Rice: I saw that in your syll. Might be useful, too.
    Rich Rice: thanks
    Rich Rice: let's look at Chapters 1-4 (practical application).
    Janie Santoy: ok so 4 chapters next week; can continue if we don't have enough time; I've read the whole book already anyway
    Rich Rice: figured
    Rich Rice:
    Rich Rice: okay, what else?
    Janie Santoy: my daughter just walked in to tell me to get to; we are going on an all girl trip...
    Rich Rice: I think the blog will work nicely--I'll offer notes there as well
    Janie Santoy: should be fun...
    Janie Santoy: that is all for now I think
    Janie Santoy: thanks
    Rich Rice: okay. I'll post this chat in your blog too
    Rich Rice: have a nice day
    Janie Santoy: thanks...
    Janie Santoy: see you in the MOO...
    Rich Rice: waves

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