Mobile Learning

I joined www.classroom20.com and Cell Phone in Education group. See my response on Cell Phone Use in Education below:

www.classroom20.com

I really enjoyed exploring many mobile technology tools especially the applications for iPod touch and iPad since our group will be presenting on the Use of Mobile Technologies in Elementary Education.

I tried many applications for iPhone and iPod touch for elementary kids. I have downloaded a few of them for my son to play with.

I really liked the Poll Everywhere survey. My supervisor and I were talking of how we could it with our international students or department administrators. I think it could be used to check if they understood the material that was presented to them in a workshop.

In my work environment, if some new technology is implemented, we always see a challenge of enforcing everyone using that technology. 

Poll Everywhere

I really liked the Poll Everywhere survey! I sent the poll to my co-workers and our student workers.  I also posted it on Twitter and Facebook. Total 15 people replied to my poll. A few of my colleagues stopped by my office and asked if the poll was supposed to be longer. Then I had a chance to explain what Poll Everywhere was.
In this particular poll I was asking "How would you prefer to learn a new language?" Since I am planning on creating a language tutorial for small children, it was interesting to know how adults prefer to learn a new language. 40% answered: taking language lessons, and 40% said all of the above which is variety of learning strategies.

Neringa's poll

Group Leadership Project: Part B Story Board and Script

My group's storyboard and script for Mobile Technology: Uses in The Elementary Classroom can be found at. It is complete with visuals and detailed script.
Script and storyboard









We used Google Presentation to create a storyboard and script. We all worked individually on our parts. Colin will be doing the introduction and talk about specific digital storytelling application using iPad. Dessa will be talking about how to use iPod nano in the elementary education (stories, activities and other assignments). And I will be talking about specific applications for elementary school children that will help improve their reading, spelling and writing skills. I will also show short videos of each application I will be talking about.

Our final presentation will be presented using Prezi. Each of us has a section in Prezi therefore we will lay out our final work in our assigned area. We will each record our tutorials and post them on Prezi.

Part C - Implementation - Part 2

Short video showing how to log in to the INSZoom system:
http://www.screencast.com/t/m4aYTLolovk

More pictures:
 

In this screen shot department administrators see how the home page of their INSZoom portal looks like after they log in to the system



To choose any employee, department will click on employee. Here is the screenshot which shows them where to click

This is the screen shot showing the list of all employees. Department administrator will need to click on the name of the employee whose details he/she wishes to view.

Part C - Implementation - Part 1

To listen to podcast about this posting, click here

My goal for the Wicked Problem Project was to implement an effective training plan that will help MSU department administrators to learn to use the INSZoom foreign employee tracking system. One part of my project implementation was to survey all MSU department administrators. The purpose of the survey was to help me find out the preferred methods of learning of surveyed department administrators and to see how many departments are actually interested in learning the system.

I prepared INSZoom survey and emailed it to 129 department administrators. Department administrators had 3 days to respond to the survey. About 26 department administrators responded to the survey the first day. I sent out a reminder email the day the survey was due and total 55 department administrators responded to the INSZoom training survey.

I was very pleased with the survey results:

• From the description of the INSZoom department interface, 76% of departments said they would be interested in learning to use the system.
• 45% of the department administrators thought that this system will make their job easier when preparing H-1B petitions and/or tracking H-1B employees.
• 33% said they would prefer video/audio or screen cast training, another 33% said they would prefer group training and 18% percent would prefer just a handout.
• 53% of the department administrators are actually planning to use the INSZoom interface and 40% are probably going to use the interface. Those 40% are probably employing no international employees or just one international employee and feel there is no need to use the system.

Based on the survey results, my supervisor and I decided to first prepare A Log In Request Form to all department administrators with explanation on how to obtain a log in ID and password from OISS to log in into the INSZoom system.

Since not all MSU departments are employing foreign employees, not everyone will need to use the system. A mass email will be sent this week to all department administrators requesting to fill out “Department INSZoom Authorization Form” and mail or fax it to back to OISS to request log in information.  We will also have this form posted on our website.

Surprises: The planning process turned out to be more detailed than I expected. There are so many details and people involved in the planning process.

I have never thought about how departments were going to request log in information, therefore the first form I had to create was “Department INSZoom Authorization Form”. In this form I also included a paragraph about confidentiality since department will be accessing foreign employees confidential information.

Unexpected Bumps on the Road: I have to get an approval from my supervisor on everything I am doing on this project (sending mass emails, have all the forms checked before posting them on OISS website). Since my supervisor was absent the first two weeks of April, it slowed down my implementation process. I was not able to get approvals for having form proof read and I was not able to email “Access Request Form” to our department administrators. This will be done this week.

Delights: I was very delighted with the survey results. I expected about 30 responses and I was very excited when I received 55.  I have about 50% of all training slides created.

I think I am making a very great progress of preparing a training manual which will be posted on OISS website and it will be emailed to all department administrators who request the log in information.
The in-person training will be scheduled for later in the fall semester. The training will be a part of our annual H-1B visa training workshop.

INSZoom Survey.



INSZoom Log In Request form.

INSZoom Training Slides which will be combined into E-manual
 



INSZoom Log In Page.



Group Leadership Project: Part A - Brainstorm

All group members are present and participating in the session:

Since the first session did not go well as planned, we had to arrange a second meeting (last Wednesday). We decided to use Vyew again.  Everyone used audio to communicate. There was a lot of echo in the background. I found it very frustrating. As I start talking, three seconds later I could hear myself in the background which would make it difficult to finish my thoughts.

A technology chosen to be taught:

As a group we chose to talk about Educational iPod and iPad applications  in the Elementary classroom to further literacy and numeracy learning.

A technology is chosen to facilitate the learning:

We decided to use Prezi to present our tutorial. We will also use Jing for screen casting. We will embed some videos and also screen shots of different apps.

Technical aspects of how the work will be completed is discussed: 


We also have created a Google doc which we used for brainstorming. Collin had started a Prezi presentation. He invited Dessa and I to collaborate. In the Introduction we plan to talk about pros/cons of using iPods/iPads in the elementary classroom. Then the three of us will concentrate on our specific areas that we picked.


A timeline of who will be doing what is created and agreed upon:


We agreed that Collin will talk about the pros of using iPod/iPad in the elementary classroom. He will also concentrate on digital storytelling.

Dessa and I will concentrate on specific applications and will be giving tutorials on how to use these applications. Dessa will talk about the use of iPod Nano in the classroom and I will demonstrate tutorials on vocabulary / reading or language learning.

Screen shot of our web conference

Web Conference Video

Web Conference Video

PART B: Application of TPACK

What is the TP knowledge for the solution?

I am planning to use Jing as the technology that will help me best to facilitate the INSZoom system training. I will take screen shots of many different screens of the INSZoom system and write explanations at the bottom of each page. I also plan to do a few screencasts either with or without my voice in the background demonstrating to department administrators how to log in the system or how to run different reports. The training slides and videos will be posted on the Office for International Students and Scholars Website and/or it will be emailed to all department administrators. The use of electronic tutorials will give all of the department administrators access to the information and resources that they need to learn to navigate the INSZoom system on their own and at their own pace.  Having tutorials posted on the website gives an opportunity to all department administrators to go back to the tutorial if they’ve forgotten any information or need to learn something new.  For in-person INSZoom training, I plan to use Prezi to present. Prezi is an effective and dynamic teaching and presentation tool. It is eye catching and grabs and hold viewers attention. I believe that department administrators will retain more information after watching Prezi and not Power Point presentation. How do I know what type of training will work best? I have set up a survey, which was emailed to all department administrators on Tuesday April 5, 2011. I asked everyone to respond by April 8, 2011. In the survey, I provided departments with a brief explanation of the INSZoom department interface and asked them how they preferred to learn to use the INSZoom system. 33% percent said they would prefer to refer to an online manual, video tutorials and other 33% percent said they would prefer to have a group training. Based on the survey results I will most likely start with online tutorial implementation followed by group training where everyone probably had a chance to log in the system and ask more detailed questions at the group training.  INSZoom Survey to Department Administrators

What is the TC knowledge for the solution?

The technology I chose for the solution to my wicked problem is Jing (for online manual) and Prezi (for in-person training). I like Jing because I can take very clear screenshots and I can write an explanation on the screen shot. It will be very easy to understand the information when it is visually presented to the learner. There are many tabs and many screens that will need to be navigated through the INSZoom system; therefore having a visual manual with instructions is going to be very helpful. I believe it is very important for the adult learner to have the visual instruction. I will also capture short videos that can be easily be attached to an email or uploaded to OISS website for viewing. The videos will teach department administrators how to log in to the system; how to find an employee and his/her case in INSZoom system and how to run some visa expiry reports.

What is the PC knowledge for the solution?

Department administrators will learn how to navigate the system either on their own at their own pace or in-person training. When there is a need to access the system, department administrators will be able to read the INSZoom manual online or watch instructional videos to learn to navigate the system. They will also be given a choice to either schedule an individual meeting or attend a group training meeting to learn to navigate the INSZoom system. They will also be provided a handout with detailed instructions about the INSZoom system; log in instructions, how to send/receive emails, check case status, and upload documents. There will not be any planned collaborative learning. Mostly, department administrators will be learning at their own pace individually or during in-person group training.