November 29, 2005 Week Fourteen

This week were working on the design approach document for our presentation on Thursday, but after a meeting with Mike today, I feel as though we are back on the same old design a website track. We were under the assumption that we were designing an EPSS to support novice teachers and teachers new to the VAAP design and incorporate lesson plans that are aligned to the ASOL. Today, we were told we should be designing a system to allow experienced teachers to upload lesson plans. They don't require as many supports as teachers who really need assistance with the new VAAP guidelines, so a lot of what we thought we'd be doing is not going to be needed. We will have to include thought provoking questions, and I believe we will add some additional resources.

November 17, 2005 - WEEK Twelve

This week we worked on the task analysis portion of the project. I believe this is where we are finally begining to use the systems approach to designing an innovation for T/TAC. We've conducted two surveys, and various interviews and have some interesting data. But, I don't think our data is conclusive because we don't have a good cross section of users. I think we will probably need to survey users throughout the state to get a better feel as to who our users are. We've been told by the SME's that the majority will be users with less than five years of SPED experience, but our data does not support that.

Based upon the data and interviews we've decided to go ahead with an EPSS to support the users in creating lesson plans that are aligned to the ASOL's. The task analysis of the lesson plan gave us a lot more information or should I say questions to pose to the SME's. Armed with questions we met with Marci Kinas and Mike but i don't think we got a clear answer to the main question. What types of supports do teachers need? This question has not been answered and I believe it must be answered so that we can include some of the supports in the support system.

We will definately have to do another survey, but that will probably have to wait until next semester. We are now working on the design approach for our presentation on Thursday, December 1, 2005.

November 10, 2005 WEEK ELEVEN

Oh boy, we are coming down to the homestretch. Last week we had a team norms meeting and ironed out all concerns from each team member. It went well and I think it uped the level of respect we have for each other. We work well together and are able to get the task done.

This week we completed the needs analysis document. I spent a lot of time on inputting the data and analyzing the data, and creating tables and graphs. Aalaa is a wiz at creating formulas in excel. Thank God, I have not idea how to develop the mathematical computations.

Our presentation went well. We were on point, thanks in part to a session with Kevin that helped us clear up some confusion about our findings and what should be included. Kevin always helps us see clearly where we are going. He has an ability to ask the right questions, so that we can come to the answer. Our team enjoys working with him. We have a couple of changes in organization of the document to make, but otherwise we got the important information in the document and understand why we put in the information we did.

The next step is the task analysis. For us this may take more time because of the nature of our project. Aligning lesson plans to the VAAP manual and scoring rubric. This will require some SME input. I believe we need to have a conference call with one of our SME's to give us some guidance on how to proceed.

Matt and I have been tasked with developing a prototype for our project. I am excited about the project, but what will the prototype be based on. That's the real question. Oh well, next week we will have the answer.

November 5, 2005 - Week Ten

Our team completed and presented its learners analysis this week. We spent awhile working through this document to really get the personas and their needs correct. Each team member was tasked with working on a particular persona and added to sections of the document.

During the past three weeks we visited to schools for an environmental analysis and observed teachers and students. The information gathered during this observation gave us additional knowledge that we used to complete the personas and learner analysis.

It was an interesting process because there are many opinions as to what should be included in the learner analysis such as: name, age, children, etc. In the beginning, our analysis included this type of personal information, but for this project, it was suggested that we remove that type of information. Although, we had spent a lot of time putting together the information, it all worked out in the end.

Working through the steps has been a true learning experience, but I have been suprised at the amount of knowledge that I've retained. I've developed a better understanding of the different teaching methodologies is vary useful in planning a training intervention. I think my favorite is CFH only because it is simple to use and the return on time is a good investment.

I wonder why this program does not include information on the four steps of evaluation according to Fitzpatrick. I think we all should be aware of the steps that are most talked about in T&D.