project report & revisions - 12/1/2006

This past week I have been evaluating the process I used to create this instructional product (with a magnifying glass). The project report covers every minute detail of the analysis, development, and evaluation—it is good, but a lot of work. But it and the evaluation proved to reveal a very silly mistake in the instruction.

I originally designed the instructional for the learning to write checks and balancing your checkbook and then had a practice activity for the two subjects. Then later designed instruction for rounding while you shop, although I followed the same pattern for the rounding section, the students only had a few opportunities to practice it.

What I realize upon evaluating the instruction is that the students need more guided practice to round and shop correctly. What I should have done was have the site ordered with the three instructional pages, followed by the shopping activity that implemented each of the three tasks, and then had the students assessed.

rough draft - 11/18/2006

I have been trying to make each page quality. I have been working with the images so they look good, make increase interactivity with mouseovers with JavaScript- (that took about 10 hours-I probably should have just gave up on them, but I really wanted it.) I have been trying to incorporate more interactivity. I did the recordings in Captivate to capture some needed instruction.

I was finally able to ask permission for the right to use video from “Catch me if you Can.” It’s a dreamworks video, but Paramount owns their non-animation titles so after many phone calls I was able to take to Mr. McCallister over licensing and my request is being possessed.

starving husband - 11/10/2006

I have been working on the site, day in and day out. I have been working on the estimating and final test pages. I enjoy doing it so it doesn’t seem like too much of a chore, but I defiantly underestimated how much time this was going to take. I promise my husband I will make dinner but can’t seem to pull myself away from the computer for another hour… poor starving husband.

creation - 11/04/06

This week has been crazy about twenty minuets after my post on Saturday my computer starting acting up. I was having hard drive problems. The good thing about that is I found a way to post my site and the work I have been doing on the web so if my computer dies, I will still have the html that I have been working on incessantly.

I am right on track; I have the check instruction up. I still need to add video and audio, but it’s coming along well. I have an HTML class this semester. If it weren’t for the things I am learning in the class, I would have never been able to even figure out what to do with the web page.

And here she is: my work in progress

site frame - 10/28/06

Starting to create the actual website has been the most fun portion of this assignment. I created a home site and some of the main pages and have a CSS style sheet that manages all of them.

It has been fun, very addicting, and time consuming. I have to be careful about when I start working with the code because it’s hard to pull myself away. I wish I had a server to up-load the pages I have done so I could link them to this journal!

content analysis - 10/21/06

The instruction I created last week, over-all, seemed to be pretty effective. I made a paper based instructional lesson to give the student; they then had to read and work through the program themselves to learn the content—as they would be doing if the program were on the computer. The students, all of whom had never written a check or balanced a check book before, could write checks and balance a checkbook by the end of the instruction.

There were a few small oversights that were brought to my attention during the analysis. For example, the instruction starts with learning to write checks. The instruction covers what information to write on which line, but nowhere do I introduce how to write the fraction portion of the written amount, i.e. 83/100 for 83¢ or no/100 for no cense.

Some of the students reported that they felt like they learned how to do something valuable and that it was fun to choose things to buy that they wished they had.
I look forward, within the next few weeks, fixing those glitches and actually creating the site for this.

design instruction - 10/14/2006

This week I spent designing instruction for learning to write checks and balance a checkbook. I originally was just going to have a lesson on balancing a checkbook, but I realized that students first needed to know how to write checks.

The instruction starts with an attention grabber that will simultaneously demonstrate the importance of this task. I want to include a check-writing clip from the movie Catch Me If you Can (2002) with Leonardo DiCaprio & Tom Hanks. Then instruct students how to write out checks and balance their checkbook. They will then practice filling out checks and subtracting the amount of the check from their current balance; during the practice, there will be corrective feedback. When they are able to demonstrate proficiency filling out the check and finding the new balance correctly four out of five trials, they will be moved on to the fourth and final step of instruction. They will be tested with the same type of scenario that they had in the practice exercises. This next week I will test the paper based instruction with similar students to those who will use the final product.

captivate vs. camtasia - 10/7/2006

I was able to get special permission this week to download the software onto my IBM school computer to create this math site. The school is viewing the downloading as material that will assist me in instruction. It was the prospect of not being able to use one of these programs that made me change my project to begin with, but I still feel better about the math site then an on-line class organizer.

I have evaluated both programs and have decided on captivate 2. I have an HTML class and a Producing Distance Education Resources class that is focusing a lot on DreamWeaver. Captivate is going to allow me to switch between other macromedia products with more ease.

This next week I will start designing the instruction, it will be interesting to find an effective way to present the material.

analysis - 9/30/2006

This week consisted of gathering information for the needs, leaner, content and context analysis. As estimated, the learners--who will participate in program testing and use--have low if any functional math skills. The students need instruction that will is repeatable and applicable for retention sake.

I plan on using html, css, and flash as my main scripting lanuguages. I also might be able to get permission to download Captivate on my school laptop. This program would provide more dynamic instruction.

the proposal - 9/23/2006

I have spent this week writing a proposal for the functional math program I will be creating. It took more time and effort than I planed. Last time when I got done writing the proposal and working out some of the logistics for the on-line schedule organizer I felt like the project was doomed; I didn't have any idea where to go with it. But at the end of this proposal, I feel like I have a pretty clear view of what I want to accomplish and how I am going to do it. I like that feeling and am glad I took the time to set-up a good plan.

This next week I will get the needs, learner, content and context analysis done. I work in the environment and with the students I will be using to test the program so I have some of the needs and learner analysis done already. I am excited to start designing.

scratch and start again - 9/16/2006

As far as I have been able to tell, Captivate nor Camtasia work on a mac platform. Because I would need demonstrations for the on-line organizational calendar, I decided to create a different project.

I am going to do a math instruction site where low functioning high school students can go and get some math skills requisite for life. This week I started the proposal, I will finish it next week and beable to start on my needs, learner, content, and context analysis.

make a game plan - 9/9/2006

I searched this week for software for my project. I was planning on using macromedias captivate. I looked at the product online to purchase but could find no evidence that the program works on a mac platform. It was Saturday and I called some places to order software, the people I talked to did not know if the program ran on mac either. I know that Camtasia doesn’t so I am kind of at a loss as what to do.