- Conducted a Performance Analysis with team members
- Co-wrote PA document
- Created PA presentation with team
- Co-wrote Design Document
- Worked with team members to make Design Presentation
- Conducted weekly workshops with team to guide design and development of game prototypes
- Devised weekly workshop lesson plans both individually and with team
- Designed activity sheets for workshops to gather input from students regarding prototypes
- Communicated with MML programmers and graphic designers to guide development of baseball prototype and character
- Co-designed team website
- Communicated with MML web-designer to guide development of team site
- Built new personal portfolio site
- Conducted formative evaluation and usability testing with team members in weekly workshops
- Worked individually and with team members to write final design document
- Cooperated with team members to create and present our final presentation
May 2007
Immersion has officially ended. our final
presentation took place on May 10th. I must say I'm
proud of what my team accomplished considering many of
the obstacles that we faced, as well as the fact that
we were novices. Our team site is attractive and user
friendly and contains all information pertinent to our
project. We followed the five phases of ADDIE and
didn't lose site of the importance of research and the
target audience. We delivered on all three parts of our
proposed solution and offered practical and achievable
recommendations for future growth of the project.
This practical experience has equipped me with the
knowledge and tools I will need to be successful in the
field of instructional design. i am confident that I
will be capable of performing the duties required of me
in an actual work setting because of the skills I've
acquired throughout the past year of immersion.
April 2007
The importance of an adequate amount of time to work
with the target audience in order for PD to be
effective has become abundantly clear. The hour design
workshops are really only 45 minutes once you take into
account time for transitioning from the first portion
of the program, which is homework help and snack, into
design. I also feel that the students are losing
interest, or feeling disappointed in the game we've
developed. The lack of programming capabilities is
making the game a bit more basic and less interactive
than the students would like as well. The level of
difficulty of the content embedded in the games, which
follows SOL standards, increases quickly which is
frustrating for many of the kids. I wish we could've
had different grade appropriate levels to accommodate
their abilities and avoid frustration.
On a more positive note, the usability testing and
formative evaluation that has taken place during the
design workshops has allowed for intuitive features
that meet player needs to be incorporated as well as an
attractive look. The turn around time for revisions to
the baseball prototype has decreased since another
programmer has started working on our game. The timely
changes have really helped us fine tune the look and
feel of the prototype.
I've also recognized the importance of
communication. There are so many people involved in
this project on some level that getting everyone on the
same page has proven to be almost impossible.
Everyone's motive for involvement is different as well,
which makes decision making, cooperation and compromise
hard to achieve.
Our team site continues to be tweaked as decisions on content and aesthetics continue to change. I'm quite pleased with the way it looks and have gained a much better understanding of what you must consider when designing a website.
March 2007
A couple of project changes have been made based on
team capabilities, resources and our timeframe. We've
decided that we will have two game prototypes to
deliver to our client at the end of the semester,
instead of just one. It's also been determined that
Jason will head the design and development of the
basketball game while Rhonda and I will be responsible
for the baseball game. Doing it this way will allow
Jason to fulfill requirements for non-immersion classes
he's taking. While Rhonda and I will use our knowledge
as well as input from the students at the weekly design
workshops we've bee conducting to design the look and
feel of the baseball game, programmers from the Mason
Media Lab will develop it. The instructional content
that will be embedded in the games will be math only.
After meeting with a SME it was decided we would focus
on fractions.
The design approach we're taking is called
Participatory Design and it involves the end user in
all levels of design and development to ensure the end
product (the games) will meet their wants and needs, so
it will be worthwhile and usable. While this approach
is ideal, seeing as it takes into account what we've
discovered from our research, we're struggling to fully
implement it. We conduct design workshops with students
in our target audience for one hour on Thursdays in the
Educational Technology Center at HMSA. This is not
enough time to gather the most thorough and insightful
feedback for revisions for both prototypes as well as
teach about game and game design elements and
principles. We're also having trouble getting the
development and design y're full time undergraduate
students. We're also having trouble finding a
programmer who is capable of making a fully functioning
prototype. with our team site with the help of MML
though. The student who is working with us has offered
extremely helpful advice and works quickly. We are
continually revising the design for the site as we
realize what is not only possible but also
sensible.
Zodie, who is Dr. Clark's doctoral research
assistant, and Shelton, who is a past immersion
student, are working on the project as well. Zodie is
using the fall research on implementation models, as
well as research she's found, to choose after school
program models that may work for our client, while
Shelton is gathering and organizing capacity building
and sustainability resources. he is also conducting the
one hour technical workshops on Tuesdays to equip the
students with knowledge of computer application and web
features.
February 2007
The analysis for our project was concluded in the
Fall, providing the foundation for the design,
development, implementation and evaluation, which will
take place this spring semester. We will begin actually
creating the games that we think will help us
accomplish our goal of increasing STEM motivation. From
our Fall research we discovered that the number of kids
capable or wanting to work in these field is
decreasing. Also, from our Fall analysis we found that
the interest in digital games across all ethnic
backgrounds and socioeconomic status is extremely high.
Taking the advice of many educational researchers, we
chose to change the traditional context in which STEM
content is being delivered, and instead embed it in a
more fun context that will meet the needs of the
learners of today. For the design and development of
the gaming prototype, we will be conducting workshops
with a group of students, hopefully in our target
audience (determined to be third through sixth grade
students) to allow them to guide the framework and
design of features within the game.
I'm eager to begin, however I do have a few
reservations. The size of my team has decreased from
four members in the fall to only three now, while the
workload has increased. It also seems that we may not
have an adequate amount of time to work with the
students to get the type of information we'll need for
our project. We're also being asked to learn Flash (on
our own time) to assist in the actual creation of the
game, which seems a bit unrealistic, considering the
time frame, as well as design and build a new team
website. I'm not overly concerned though, because from
last semester I've learned that expectations and our
plans are bound to change throughout the semester.
- Created weekly meeting agendas for September, 2006.
- Kept meeting minutes and wrote status reports for
October, 2006.
- Webmaster for November, 2006: Updated site
- Communicated with client for December, 2006
- Client Presentation-9/26/2006: This was a team effort. We worked together to write all parts of the presentation, as we were just gaining an understanding of the ADDIE process. I presented the slides that explained the ADDIE model and the definition and steps of the Performance Analysis.
- Client Presentation-10/23/2006: I was responsible for the gaming portion of this presentation. I also collected and compiled the slides.
- Client Presenation-12/11/2006: Created and
wrote text for Introductory slides, parts of the
performance solution, all gaming related slides,
design recommendations, and closing slides (slides
3-6, 12-13, 19, 27, 37, 38-41, and 44-46). I
presented the design recommendations and closing
portion of the presentation.
I contributed significantly to the revision and editing of the presentation. - Briefing Report Document: I was responsible for all sections related to "Digital Natives" and gaming as an educational intervention. I also contributed to the drafting, revising, and editing of a large portion of the document. I was responsible for compiling the document and creating the title and client information page.
- Treatment Document: Partnered with team member (R. Hopkins) on the Task Analysis. I was responsible for all parts related to today's learners and gaming and compiling the Design portion of the document. I also contributed significantly to the drafting, revising, and editing of a large portion of the document.
- Gaming and Achievement Powerpoint Research Presentation for Client
- Gaming and Achievement White Paper
December 15, 2006
Our final presentation was on December 11. I'm so relieved that it's complete. My team really struggled to compile and organize all that we'd done throughout the semester, and present it in a logical, understandable order. It was really frustrating and exhausting at times...I'm hoping that we can figure out to make the most of our team and individual time in the spring.
October 27, 2006
We presented our briefing report presentation this
past week and completed the briefing report document.
We had quite a few obstacles along the way but the end
product was thorough. My understanding of the ADDIE
process continues to grow as we are learning about it
and putting it to use simultaneously.
We've been discussing what we'd like to do once we've
finished this program. Most of my team seems to have
some sort of idea of how they'll use this degree, but
I'm still not sure...
September 26, 2006
Over the past couple of weeks, my team has
accomplished quite a few things. Our team vision,
mission and goals are FINALLY complete, and we've met
with our client twice and have constructed a timeline
for the semester.
Our client is really excited about the project, which
is motivating for me. Knowing that what we are working
on is real and will serve an important purpose and
(hopefully) make a difference is incredibly exciting.
We had an online discussion instead of a face-to-face
class in EDIT 732 last week. It was very time
consuming, but I know that I have a much clearer
understanding of the theories we were discussing.
Participating in the face-to-face classes is hard for
me when I haven't had enough time to digest the
information and form my comments and/or questions.
Listening to input from those around me is certainly
helpful, but reading what they had to say proved to be
more so for me.
September 7, 2006
My team really made a lot of headway this week.
We've determined our project vision, mission, and
goals. We also decided on our roles and norms. I felt
good about the way we worked together. It was a very
easy atmosphere to share and voice our opinions and
ideas and we were able to build on one another's
thoughts.
We are still deciding on our team vision, mission, and
goals. We felt a little pressed for time knowing that
we wouldn't be reconvening as a team until next week
but we had to have those items posted before then.
However, it is a "work in progress"; so I know that we
can revise whatever we post.
I'm looking forward to meeting with the client and
getting a better idea about what they want so that we
can really begin gathering data and setting a timeline
for ourselves.
September 1, 2006
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed as the first week of
immersion comes to a close. I am an avid reader, but an
avid “pleasure” reader, so the amount of text that
needs to be read, comprehended, processed, and applied,
is a bit unnerving.
We are still trying to figure out what “roles” each
person will fill. There is only one of us who is
comfortable/capable of creating web-pages (at least in
a timely fashion), which has me a bit nervous seeing as
the final goal of the Hoop Magic project is to create
gaming templates. However, the other three members of
my team, including myself, have set individual goals of
increasing our tech abilities so I'm sure we'll be
successful, and not have to rely too much on one person
for that responsibility. Also, the Hoop Magic project
is in the very initial stages, so I'm not sure how
involved in the designing of the actual gaming
templates we will be.
I suppose that next week we will really focus on
creating team norms/visions, and setting up our project
web-site.