Studio 6200 Project - MovableType Training Modules
View the completed project -- MovableType Training for Athens Academy Faculty -- which includes eleven video simulations, print manuals, and links to faculty's blogs demonstrating "best practices."
View the completed project -- MovableType Training for Athens Academy Faculty -- which includes eleven video simulations, print manuals, and links to faculty's blogs demonstrating "best practices."
Please see the attached plan: Download file
Here is the website for the online training portal:
http://www.athensacademy.org/library/MovableType/index.htm
The prototype is linked on the website under the Video Simulations heading and titled "Logging On."
The major categories for cost on this project are:
1. Consultant hours (the bulk of the expense):
Preparing video demos (including recording audio): 11 modules X 3 hours = 33 hours
Gathering teacher examples: 3 hours
Creating the online portal: 10 hours
Alpha and Beta testing: 4 hours
Total consultant hours: 50 (at $100/hr.) = $5000.00
2. Captivate software purchased through CDWG = $175.00
3. Disks to reproduce the simulation module as CD-ROMs and photocopying expenses for surveys/evaluations = $100.00
4. Future subscription to SurveyMonkey for collection of evaluation data: $25.00 per month X 3 months = $75.00
5. The simulation will be available via the school's network, so there won't be any web hosting expense.
Total cost of project: $5350.00
Learner Characteristics and Resource Analysis (Hardware, Network Access, etc.)
The Learner Group consists of 130 professionals at Athens Academy, a co-educational, independent, day school that runs from Pre-K to Grade 12. 110 teaching faculty and 20 administrative faculty are required to maintain MovableType blogs on the school's website. Most of the blogs function in an instructional capacity, facilitating the transfer of information within academic courses, but several of the blogs provide information regarding athletics, clubs, and school events.
The Learner Group, all with undergraduate degrees and many with advanced degrees, functions at a high level of technical expertise. Applying information and technology skills is an integral part of instruction at Athens Academy. Technology supports learning activities in the Media Centers and in the classrooms. Students are involved in instructional activities that require computer and media literacy.
Athens Academy began the Media Across the Curriculum Project in 1990, in partnership with the Bertelsmann Foundation, and in the ensuing years, has pursued the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning, utilizing evaluation to inform these developments.
The rationale for the infusion of laptop computers focuses on creating a “toolset” that can be effectively used in almost every curriculum area and can be used anywhere, anytime to facilitate writing, communication, visualization, resource use, and productivity. The laptop initiative at the Academy is predicated on the belief that computing has become an essential tool for thinking, problem-solving, and learning in the 21st century.
With this in mind, it is easy to see why managing their "webs" is important to the facilitation of classroom instruction and school administration. That is why the client has identified this training as essential.
Age range: 25-65
Median age: 35
Educational level: All with undergraduate degrees, half with advanced degrees
Motivation: All faculty and staff are required to maintain MovableType web logs for instructional, administrative, and informational purposes.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills: Learners have been using individual laptops for seven years, use email daily, have created web pages, and are thoroughly trained in the use of all Microsoft Office products.
Facility with a computer: See above.
Familiarity with the web: Learners use the web for professional and personal purposes, accessing information, purchasing equipment, maintaining class discussion board and web pages.
Typing ability: Excellent as a result of laptop use
Resources
Access to computers: All have school-issued laptop computers (most IBM Thinkpads, some Acer 230/290 TravelMates). The units have fast processors and enough RAM to accommodate the module easily. Units have CD/DVD drives.
Access to web: School has a wireless network and a T1 line for fast access. The school's web is a portal for instructional and administrative use of the internet.
School Network: The school maintains personal network folders for teachers and students, public drives for sharing files, and administrative drives (business, development, academic records, etc.).
Achievement of each of the following lesson goals (noted in bold below), requires mastery of the tasks listed below the goal.
Managing the MovableType Account:
Login, Changing Password
Structuring the Blog:
Creating Categories and Sub-categories, Modifying and Deleting Categories
Populating the Blog:
Creating New Entries, Modifying and Deleting Entries, Re-dating Entries, Modifying Text Style, Adding Links, Adding Email Links, Uploading Files, Uploading Images
Updating the Blog:
Rebuilding Files
Project Title: Hands-On MovableType Training Simulation Module
Learning Goal: To train faculty and staff in the procedures for maintaining instructional and administrative blogs through the MovableType program
Audience: Faculty and staff at Athens Academy, an independent, co-educational, college preparatory, day school in Athens, Georgia
Client/Motivations: The Media and Technology Department is responsible for training faculty and staff to maintain their MovableType blogs featured on the school's website. The department produced a training manual and offers small-group and one-on-one sessions with faculty, but follow-up on the hands-on sessions is difficult to schedule, given the demanding nature of the workday. Therefore, the department would like to complement the other training available by offering a hands-on session teachers and administrators could work through on their own. This would reinforce the other training methods employed, and it would accommodate the busy schedules of the people working at the school. The audio/visual/kinesthetic nature of the new module would appeal to a broad spectrum of learning styles.
Instructional Methods Selection: As noted above, the client would like to complement the other training available by offering a hands-on session teachers and administrators could work through on their own. This would reinforce the other training methods employed, and it would accommodate the busy schedules of the people working at the school. The audio/visual/kinesthetic nature of the new module would appeal to a broad spectrum of learning styles.
Scope of the Project: If successful, the client would like to develop training simulations for faculty/staff, including more advanced use of MovableType, use of digital video editing software, and use of the school's information management systems. The client would also like to develop training simulations for classroom use, including training students to develop blogs/webs for classroom presentations.
Skills Needed: Training on Captivate software
Benefits of Implementation for Client and Audience: Obviously, teachers and administrators will improve their ability to communicate via the school website, positively impacting both instructional and organizational processes at the school.