The Use Case Scenario-Jenny and the Best Converter App

For my Mobile app project I made a comic strip about Jenny and her experience with my Mobile learning app "Best Converter".
You can find it here

Some background information/Story set up.

    It's Jenny's senior year at high school. She plans to go to culinary arts school to become a chef. 

   Unfortunately, she's not very good at measurement and conversion so she takes some extra math classes to see if they help.
    One class she takes is a little different than the standard boring lecture class. The new teacher Mrs. Hip tells the students that she has a month long bonus project that will help their cumulative math scores and the winner will gain extra credit points. This peaks Jenny's interest for sure. Anything to get her a better GPA will increase her chances of getting into a good school.
    Now Mrs. Hip tells them that they have to play a new game on their phone or other devices for at least an hour a day. Jenny is excited. This has to be too good to be true.

    The game is very interactive and competitive. You have to test your skills against the other students and try to best your own previous score. You can also choose from a number of different 3D strategy games to match your interests. Jenny, of course, chooses the cooking game while her friend Nate chooses a building/carpentry game. They both require measurement and conversions in order to complete the tasks.
   As a class everyone logs into the app with little help required from Mrs. Hip. She gives them basic directions although the app has very easy to follow directions and tips. There not only is a "help" button the students can press to get help from the app, but Mrs. Hip also tells the students they can come to her with any questions. She also tells them that their scores will be sent to her where she will keep track of their scores and times.
    When Jenny starts playing, she only wants to get her time in for the grade. But as she gets higher in level she finds that she loves playing it. And when Nate starts bragging about his scores, she has a drive to beat him at any cost. It is a close race but she stays ahead of him and the rest of the class throughout the month long competition.
   There were times that she got frustrated because the meals she had to create were very in-depth and timed but even though it was hard, she did not want to give up.

    She played during her required time at school and at home and when she had to wait at an appointment.
   In fact, she continued to play the game after the competition was over. She also found that her knowledge of measuring and converting were becoming automatic and she could use it at home when she was cooking. Imagine how helpful it will be when she attends culinary arts school.

   This app is so fun and helpful that she tells other family and friends about it. Before long she is competing against her mom and her Uncle Bob and generally winning. Everyone who tries it has a blast playing it and over time their conversion skills improve as well. It even Helped Uncle Bob with his bird house building project!

   Jenny is grateful that Mrs. Hip had this idea and wishes she had played it before in her other math classes. Hopefully, other teachers will integrate this app into their lesson plan.

Mobile learning apps developement--ITEC

This week and over the next couple weeks our class is creating a new learning app.
Basically this week we had to come up with a problem in learning and explain why it is a problem and then come up with the proposal for the mobile app that we want to create to fix the problem. I like working backwards. You really should know your goal before you begin your journey.
At first I thought about doing something with Geography because most people have trouble with not only other countries but sometimes their own. Like, I have a vague idea where some places are like states or regions but you get too specific and I have to google it.
It is probably good I didn't go with my first instinct because another in my group went with geography.
But even before I saw their post, I had decided to do one on math for older students (adolescent to young adult) I know that there are math type apps. Calculators, converters, etc. but I came up with an idea for a game for young adults. Something akin to the learning and educational games our Kindergarten and early secondary school kids play all the time but something that would not only appeal to older teens and adults but cover some of the harder maths. My idea is that the person should know how to make conversions and know standard measurements (if in America) instead of only the metric system. They should know Ohm's law and Celsius and Fahrenheit  and Basic algebra and geometry or at least the basic formulas for them.
Thankfully, I do not have to actually create the app, I just have to break down the design and details into how it will work and how effective it will be.
We'll see how it goes as we work through it. So far this assignment has peaked my interest.
Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted.

Thoughts on a webquest.

Well, I let myself become busy and distracted from blogging.
Considering this is supposed to be a weekly blog I need to try not to do it again.

Over the last couple weeks my class worked in groups to make a webquest. (And yes, I did end up getting a group).
The webquest seems to be an interesting thing. It reminds me of a powerpoint with the multiple pages of graphics and info paired with a blog hop where you bounce to different but related sites by clicking on the links.
Unlike a blog hop you don't win prizes but you do win learning about the topic.

Overall, it was an interesting web 2.0 tool to use.

Weekly blog-Thoughts about Group Projects

Every week for my class, I am to reflect on the class. Either the current assignment, discussions or a general opinion on the class itself.
For the most part, I have focused on the topic at hand in the class but this week I will hold off on the Web Quest (The current Major assignment) because 1. I don't have a group yet and do not know what I will be creating 2. We will be working on it over the next 3 weeks (therefore plenty of time to write about it) and 3. I feel very strongly about reflecting on something that I have had to do for the past 5 years--Group Projects.

I am not a fan of group projects and never have been. Although there are those that like them and educators will always tell you how great they are for active learning(constructivism) and socialization, I have found that neither of these theories seem to hold true with me. I have been in numerous group activities both in my Face-to-face classes and my online classes and the main thing I seem to get out of them is heartburn and relief when we're finished.

I took some time the other day to go through my memories of previous group projects and tried to recall if I even remembered any details of what I "learned" from the projects and how many of my classmates I remembered well and the answer is--nope. I really don't remember the projects nor the details. And the only classmates I remember are of 2 extremes: The ones that took over and told everyone exactly what they would do and how to do it and the ones that we didn't hear from until the day the project was due. And I'm guessing that the strong emotional response (irritation &frustration) is the reason those memories are more solid. After all, we do make more firm and clear memories when there are strong emotions involved.
Maybe the reason I felt the need to focus on this is because this semester seems to be heavily laden with group projects in all of my classes. I just finished a group project in another class with 2 experienced teachers that used teacher jargon from their ELAs where I felt like the dunce (I have my degree in psychology and am not a full time teacher) so I had to research terms and some of the other things they talked about before I could follow and contribute properly. Thankfully I have taken a few designing your classroom and flipping your classroom classes. After I focused on what I knew, I was able to join in and help. And now, less than a week later I have another one that will effect a major grade and I am off to a less than stellar start.
Unlike other group projects where you are assigned to a group (which works better for online classes-especially within the first couple weeks because you don't know anybody) This one reminds me of an elementary playground--i.e. the students get selected by other students to be on the teams and there is always that one poor kid that nobody picks--and, you might have guessed it. I'm that kid that nobody wants. At the beginning of classes, many had paired off into groups already some even outside of class, and by the time I was able to check back in many of the others had paired off too. There was one student that had posted what they wanted to do and looked available--so, after a note from my teacher about not participating, I edged over to my classmate and asked to be on their team and was rejected. They had been chosen already.
And here I am. The cheese stands alone.
It won't stay that way. Just like in elementary, if the kid isn't picked, the teacher will force that kid into a group that didn't pick them.And I will do what needs done and also participate much more than I might feel like because participation is graded as well. Plus I know that I felt far more irritation for the girl that didn't do anything in that one group project than I did for the control freak. I don't want to be that girl. I don't want my classmates thinking back on me badly.
SO--yeah. Group projects, the place where everybody works together and what you do directly effects your peers and vica versa. Unlike individual projects where you are solely responsible for whether you pass or fail, here in group project land you can work your butt off and if the others are less than great they pull you down. Or if you are not doing your best--you can go to sleep at night knowing that YOU are the reason the project sucked and that you have a group of people that it might be best if you never meet. Neither of these is very comforting.

What about you? How do you feel about Group Projects? Do you prefer to pick from strangers or be assigned? Maybe they can offer 2 different classroom styles. One for those who adore group projects and one for us introverts--what do you think?

Writing Tips Podcast

 

Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction

1. Gaining attention

                Giving learner a stimulus to ensure reception of coming instruction

2. Informing the learner of the objective

                Telling learner what they will be able to do for the instruction

3. Stimulating recall of prior learning

                Asking for recall of existing relevant knowledge

4. Presenting the stimulus

                Displaying the content (Top ten list )

5. Providing learner guidance

                Supplying organization and relevance to enhance understanding (Explain each item)

These are combined

6. Eliciting performance-N/A

7.Providing feedback-N/A

8. Assessing Performance-N/A

9. Retention

                                             Transcript

Hello! I am Heather Chandler. Today I will be giving you some tips for writing professionally.

So, you’re a college student and you’ve taken creative writing classes and now you’re thinking of becoming an author. You’ve taken all the classes and know all about writing, it should be easy, right?

Not really. You do know a lot about the technical aspect of writing but what about the art? What about the Muse? Creative writing gives you some skill, but there is so much more to becoming an author.

    There are so many sites out there today giving so much advice that it’s enough to boggle the mind. Some of its good and some of it—not so much.

    So how do you decide what’s best? Well, that is up to each individual. But…

I can offer you some tips to help you write no matter what method you discover works best for you, these are sure to help you along.

    Here is my Top Ten list of advice for aspire writers.

• Number 10. Read widely, especially in the genre you want to write.

  So many authors, including Stephen King, advocate reading. Do read. Read often. Don’t simply read for enjoyment, but also examine the writing and the dialogue. Why is this book so good? What does the author do?

• Number 9. Never use any intrusive verb other than "said" to carry dialogue. Meaning, don’t have the characters constantly grumbling, snapping or hissing. And also, use “said” sparingly.

• Number 8. Likewise, never use an adverb to modify the verb "said". You’ve probably seen this one often. So and so said angrily or happily said this or that. 

• Number 7. Don't go into great detail describing places and things. Now, you do need to give some detail in order to bring the reader into the scene and to help them visualize it. But don’t bore the reader or spell everything out for them—they aren’t stupid and like filling in the blanks themselves. Show don’t tell.

• Number 6. Cut every inessential, nonconsequential word.   There are so many fluff words and sentences throughout your manuscript. When you start editing and revising you should end up cutting the fat out of at least 10% of your book. As Stephen Kings says: “Kill your darlings”

(These last three can be summed up as don’t write anything that interrupts the flow of the action. Also the “show don’t tell” applies to these. Show the emotions and actions don’t tell me about it.)

• Number 5. Speaking of such—write action or at least conflict. Even humor and romance novels have conflict. The protagonist has to have some kind of obstacle (or two) to get past. If you don’t have good conflict it won’t be interesting. And remember conflict can be external or internal.

• Number 4. Edit. Edit Edit. I cannot say this enough. Edit. Once you finish, put it to the side for a bit. Either a few days or weeks. Separate yourself from it because you are too close and biased. Of course you think it’s brilliant. Get some space and then go back and be objective. Pretend you are seeing it for the first time. And hack it up.

• Number 3. Cultivate beta-readers and critique partners. Beta readers read the book for enjoyment and tell you what they liked or disliked about the story—as a reader would. These are important so try to have a few people to do this for you. You’ll be surprised what they pick up. Critique partners are a little more skilled. They are either editors or fellow writers. They have the experience and skill and can catch technical problems. They’ll see redundancies and improper word uses and will help polish your story.

• Number 2. Edit. Yes. Edit. Now that you have your feedback from your crit partners and readers go through it again and fine tune it. Also, by this point you should know what your genre is and who publishes it. Look at the company or companies you want to submit to and see what their submission guidelines are. What font do they want? How many words? What kind of query letter and information page are they looking for. What do you need to do to your manuscript to make it ready for submission?

• Number 1. Write. Don’t wait for inspiration. Don’t wait until you have free time. Just write. Write for 10 minutes or write for 3 hours. It doesn’t matter. You won’t find time—you have to make time. Everyone who is serious about writing makes time almost every day.

There you have it. Some quick tips to help you out. Remember, Read, reduce adverbs, use said sparingly, keep details short and to the point, cut out fluff, write conflict, edit, have beta readers and crit partners and sit down and write.

1. the rationale for your podcast design-There are many aspiring writer/authors out there and it is difficult to find sound advice that does not contradict other advice. This podcast can help them with a few simple tips that will work for anyone.
   
2. 
   target learner audience-Any age group that is interested in writing professionally. Many people start writing at a young age.
3. the learning objectives-
   a. Be able to  write more succinctly. 
   b. Know some of the pros and cons of word useage
   c. Understand the importance of editing and revising
   d. Have an understanding of basic writing skills
   e. Know that it takes an army to have a good book.
   f. Be prepared to put the effort in and write much more frequently than they normally do.
   g. Knowing the importance of writing structure and of conflict in the story.
4. the overall design and justifications for the design (e.g., why you believe this is an effective way to teach your objective) -Not only is there the written transcript but the audio helps the audience remember key things better. Also, audio is more entertaining and interesting.

---

Learning podcasts--Ohboy...

Here we are folks into the second week of my "Instructional Applications of the Internet" class and we are dipping our toes into Podcasting.
Initially I was like Ahhh!

Then I thought over all of the things that I initially thought would be too difficult to do but after I tried it I was like Yes! I am the boss!

When I first entered into college, I knew some basics to using Microsoft word but everything else was completely alien to me. I had to learn to make PowerPoints, use Excel spreadsheets, make bar graphs, scatterplots, piecharts etc. I learned that Microsoft word had so much more to offer than I originally knew. I leaned how to use Adobe Photoshop Elements and the Creative cloud, And I learned how to make a decent educational screencast.
I learned ALL of this from the ground up and did well at it. And that doesn't even touch the Social media things I had to learn in order to have a good public platform for my books.

And now a simple Podcast is causing trepidation?

I think perhaps I may be overthinking the whole thing.
I learned some very helpful things from the reading and of course Gagne's 9 events to help guide you and help you structure your content and have a more interesting podcast to draw in the audience.

This one is simple and colorful

But this one is a little more informative.

So--I think I've got this. I just need to play with Audacity a little more and by the end I'll probably feel all clever and creative.
If you have any Podcast or other media stories/tips you'd like to share I'd love to hear them.