Assignment 2

Project Proposal

Each college within the HCT system has a Library and Learning Centre, which provides resources that support the curriculum and services that develop and foster independent learning and information literacy. I would like to design a website for the Diploma foundation students in our college that will focus on enhancing the independent learning skills of the students. Make them more efficient & confident learners. Enhance their skills in using all the Library resources that we have.

Diploma foundation students are very new to the college environment and also very new to the concept of independent learning. Their level of English is very basic and they are required to learn the language skills and also get accustomed to the new college environment which is very challenging for these ladies. Though the level of English & their skills are very basic when they enter the college they all have very expensive Mobile phones & IPODS with them and are technologically savvy in using these mobile players.I would like to make use of this facility which is a common gadget available with most of the students and since majority of them tend to favor learning by listeningI would like to create podcasts that will have a description of each area of the Library & how it could be used. If students could download these on their IPods they could listen to it again & again. Since we will have students with different capabilities these podcasts could help them revise what has been learned.

What skills will be focused on

• How to search the Library catalogue & locate books on the shelf
• What is general collection, Reference collection & Periodical collection?
• What are the resources that could be borrowed
• What are the different areas of the Library ( ILC – Independent Learning Centre & ELC – Enhanced learning centre)
• How to request books from another college
• How to place a hold on an item that has been borrowed
• Check their Library record to find out what is on loan to them

How will I do this?

• Get space on the college Podcast server to host the podcasts
• I would like create the podcasts using Audacity
• Make bookings for the audio recording room to create Podcasts
• Create a website that will have links to the podcasts

Issues to be considered

• Some students might not have IPOD’s, in that case purchase some IPod’s for the Library that could be loaned out.
• Finding time to create these Podcasts
• The Library is 100% wireless and is well resourced with computers hence using internet to download the podcasts is not an issue at all.
  

Who will work with me how I want it to be evaluated?

I would like to work on this project with the Librarian who is always in contact with these students and who understands better what skills are required by the students and also get advice from the Team Leader of Diploma foundationsI would prefer a formative evaluation of this project as it is being developed. Once the project is running I would adopt a qualitative evaluation as suggested by Patton (2003) and would attend some classes to find out what the student’s reaction to the course is and how well it’s being received. I would prefer to have some face to face chats with the students to get their personal opinions about this course. I believe getting personal feedback will help identify the best practices and see if there are any problems being faced. The staff will also be asked to give a periodic feedback on how the project is running.

Reference:

Patton, M. (2003) Qualitative Evaluation Checklist. Retrieved Dec 30, 2007, from http://www.wmich.edu/evalctr/checklists/qec.pdf

Wimba Session

I attended a Wimba session on Dec 11th. It was really interesting to use different conference tools. I have used Elluminate before and I found Wimba very much similar and easy to use.
http://www.wimba.com/products/collaboration/
This was the first time I was using Wimba. I didn’t have any problem downloading and installing it on my computer. The setup wizard checked audio. Most of the participants were from UAE. Initially the sound was not that clear. All the participants had microphone hence it was nice to talk to everyone. Peter checked with us about the progress of our course. How we are doing with our assignments. About our facilitated page and also what project have we decided for Assignment 2? I have decided to create Podcasts for a description of different areas of the Library as most of the students here have IPods. If students could download these on their IPods they could listen to it again & again. Since we will have students with different capabilities these podcasts could help them revise what has been learned.
Peter also asked what difference we have noted between Elluminate and Wimba. Joyce said that the there was no control on the order in which the names of the participants were listed as they were jumping up and down based on who had raised hand to talk .
Peter also made us draw something on the board. Write names where we came from and talk about weather conditions at our place.
Joyce was the google jockey in this Wimba session. This was the first time I was experiencing the google jockey. It was amazing how quickly she was bringing all the relevant links to the Wimba conference.
I felt more confident about the course after speaking to Peter, hoping to complete all the assignments during the holidays.

Too busy to concentrate

I have been very busy at work.

I have understood exactly what I am supposed to do but my busy schedule is not allowing me to concentrate on my studies. Hopefully I will be able to do something over the weekend.

Things I need to do

• I have to facilitate a page
• Make contributions to other pages
• Invite others to contribute to my page
• Create my progress report

Not very clear what I am supposed to submit for the project proposal. I am hoping to complete the readings over the weekend.

Things are becoming clearer now

Slowly I am getting a clear picture on how to start working on Assignment 1

Peter’s Check list was very useful. I can navigate easily in the Moodle environment now. I know where to find things. I have edited my profile so that I get a daily digest of email messages and also I have set Forum Tracking to Yes to keep track of posts that I have read,

I still don’t like the look of Knowledge Garden I would have preferred it with a better interface but I have realized that there is wealth of information on it.

I have created my user page and created a link on FET8611 course page and added an Avatar. I have started using Shoutbox in KG. I was happy to see Peter respond to my question immediately.

I have created my Blog and I intend to add to it regularly.

Done my posting for Discussion 1.2.

I have understood how to facilitate a page now. Still not clear what topic to choose to research on I shall finalize it by tomorrow.

How I am finding FET 8611

I have just completed FET5622 and started a new course FET8611 without any break. FET8611 has a different environment compared to the previous courses. Hence everything is new - the course environment( Moodle), the course content, and the Knowledge Garden (KG).

I had registered on knowledge garden in my previous course hence I was saved from the hurdles of registering on it. But I had never created my user page using KG.
Read the instructions on the course and postings on the forum and learnt how to do it. Finally I created my user page and also added a link to the course page but wasn’t happy as I couldn’t make it look more fancy. I have a passion to work on the design of the page. But looking at user pages created by other members looks like I won’t be able to do much.

I have to sit down and clearly make notes of what I am supposed to do. I read the introduction and also the assignments and I feel we have to do many things right now. Work on the user page, work on assignment 1, work on assignment 3. Invite others to comment on my KG page and comment on some one’s page. I am over whelmed right now.