Prompt, Week 6: Post a blog reflecting on the feedback you have received from your partner and your client. What changes will you make before implementation? Why? What did you ignore in the client’s feedback? Why?

OK, So I just posted my updated document. It has been finished for a week, but I have been working on the materials to go with it and lost sight of the fact that I needed to post the document for review. So I don’t have any criticism/suggestions from my partner. I do, however, have some feedback from my client. So I will discuss that for now.

• She is excited about this approach and thinks it might be a good way to get teachers to do some tech learning.
• We have decided that the simplest way to go with this for now is to post it on our email client. That way, all teachers will be able to access the materials easily. Teachers are also fairly comfortable with using the email interface, so she believes that will increase their comfort level. Since these activities are directed toward reluctant technology learners, that is an important consideration.
• I had originally thought that we could get feedback through Survey Monkey, or creating a form in Word, or PDF form. But, teachers would be less likely to be comfortable with Survey Monkey, and I don’t know how to make a form in Word or PDF. That’s sad to admit, but true. I’m sure I could learn, but right now there are LOTS of things I am learning, doing, working on, so in the interest of time– rapid deployment– it is best to find another way.
• Luckily, one of our IT people can (and is willing to) create forms within the email client. It will fit right in with the way we are doing things. The learner can click to open the survey, then the responses will automatically and immediately be emailed to my client (the ed-tech coordinator for the school). So the pluses: easy for learners, immediate results, fairly quick and easy to develop. The minuses??? Unlike an app like Survey Monkey, there will be no automatic collation of data. My client (or I) will have to do any data crunching necessary. However, I think the most important part of our data will be anecdotal: what the teachers (learners) report about their experience with the learning materials, and 2. Keeping stats on how many people access and use the materials, which wouldn’t really be benefitted by data crunching in Survey Monkey.
• Did I mention…If this is implemented through our email client, we will also have access to the history of the materials, so we will know who looked at them. We will be able to compare how many looked with how many did. That should tell us something about how the learners perceive the materials.
• Since we know who looked compared  to who engaged,
  AND since we also have a fairly good idea about which teachers in the school are comfortable with technology and which are not,
  THEN, we should get at least a rudimentary idea of whether or not we are reaching our target audience.

My client found some good materials from Miguel Guhlin about podcasting for schools, and we looked at those. I decided not to incorporate them at this time. These materials are more about how to create podcasts, and how to post them. The lesson we are focusing on at this time are more rudimentary than that. How to use iTunes to find, subscribe to, and listen to podcasts. While Guhlin did have some interesting info that we could have used– some ideas to incorporate into our introductory podcast, for example– it seemed that rewriting the script for that would delay the project. And right now, we are working to get it deployed quickly.

Also, after discussion, we are cutting back on the user feedback that we will solicit. While we want to get info, we do not want the teachers to feel like they are guinea pigs, and we do not want to overload them with stuff to do. We want this to appear to be simple, and quick. We want to create a pleasant, non-threatening method for learning something new about technology. We also hope that this will be a model for other self-study units. So, we want the first one to seem more fun, inviting, and non-drudgerous (is that a word?).

That’s all for now!