Group Leadership Project - FINAL

Our group has finally completed a video tutorial demonstrating how to use Vyew, an online meeting, discussion, and collaboration tool. As a group we chose to create a professional development tool about Vyew because it is a free online tool comparable to Adobe Connect without the associated costs. As we ourselves were learning to use the program to facilitate our group meetings, we felt it would be an awesome resource to share with our colleagues.

In our brainstorming session all group members agreed that we would like to teach about Vyew. We also agreed that we wanted to use a video to do so. At the time, three of us were familiar with Jing and felt that Jing would be an awesome tool to record a presentation on Vyew. As a group with complex and limiting schedules, we agreed that the easiest route would be to divide up the topics for the video and each record short two and a half minute segments that could be compiled in the end. However, we were not aware that Jing does not provide a way to combine the videos into one longer video. We turned to our TA Chuck for help and he suggested using Camtasia to compile the videos. I immediately downloaded the program (as did Brian) and I was very excited to see all of the options that Camtasia provided. During a group meeting it was decided that we would use Camtasia to compile the videos.

Once I downloaded Camtasia and began to use it, I now understood why we were asked to explain title slides and transitions in our storyboard assignment. While Jing is a great and simple way to record videos, these things are not an option. In Camtasia however, you can record using the program and then add in title slides, sound effects, transitions, etc to spruce up your video and allow it to flow between topics better. I experimented with the title slides and adding sound effects. I also liked how I could use the zoom option to zoom in on a particular button that I was pushing, to better show our audience exactly what they needed to know. Brian seemed equally (if not more) excited about Camtasia and he volunteered to do the final compilation and final edit of the video. He took all of our inidvidual videos and made one final, complete video. I must say, he did a great job!

I have learned a tremendous amount through this project. First and foremost, I have learned a lot about two new software tools that I can use in my classroom. I love the options that Vyew can give me to help students in my class collaborate. I was very excited about all of the editing options in Camtasia. It was easy and fun to use. As I was editing my video, I truly did not feel as though I was doing class work. I plan on inquiring about purchasing Camtasia for my classroom. I think it is truly something my students would be excited about using.

Secondly, I also feel that if I ever decide to make videos to help train teachers in my building (like I am doing in my Wicked project) I would love to use Camtasia to do so. I would even love to teach my colleagues about Camtasia. It is something that I am considering purchasing myself. (Maybe I can even write it off as a classroom expense.)

Finally, I have learned a lot about troubleshooting with group members through this project. Schedules and communication were sources of stress for me during this project, especially when I was on the road and out of town. But I told myself not to let it stress me out and to do as much as I could do during the short times that I could do it, and it all worked out in the end. I think I worked harder and with more focus while on the road than any other time during this class. I have learned that I am capable of working around whatever life throws at me.

I also have learned that trying things out with group members ahead of time can solve a large number of problems down the line. For example, before our first group meeting to brainstorm, Courtney and I met in a Vyew room to try things out. At that time Courtney was unable to click buttons in the room or add to the room. We weren’t sure if it was because she has a Mac or if it was a problem with the settings in the room. After trying everything we could think of, she and I also tried out other online collaboration tools. Those also proved to be unsuccessful or have too many drawbacks. Later on I was able to find an article in the Vyew help section for Courtney to update her flash and that solved her problems. I remember that feeling of accomplishment and it will serve as a reason not to give up too soon. Looking back, I wish that we had done that same trial with Jing as a group before deciding to use it. We discussed using it, but we did not try to link videos together, with live chat and feedback going on. I think if we had, we could have solved that issue a lot sooner and we could have avoided lost points and having to do revisions on our storyboard blog. I now have both a positive and negative example of why live collaboration can be so helpful.

If I were to do a project similar to this in the future, I would definitely insist on trying to accomplish technology tasks during a live session. In an online class, group meetings in person seem out of the question. But live meetings where members can talk and/or chat, can save a group a lot of time and effort. Had we done so with Jing, we could have spent more time on perfecting the video instead of struggling to put it together. I would also ask group members to download and try all new software/programs before scheduled meetings. I would also provide links to tutorials and help centers about the program to help alleviate as many problems as possible before the meetings. I would also push to use an online calendar to better coordinate group members. Brian had set one up in his Vyew room but he and I were the only ones to use it because group members could not access his room without hi there to pull them into the room from the lobby. I think I would create one in Google and also set up an easier way to share documents (like our PowerPoint storyboard) using Google docs.

Below you will find our video "Getting to Know Vyew". If you are interested in Vyew, you can sign up for a free account at www.Vyew.com.

Part D: Wicked Problem Project – Findings and Implications

To recap, my Wicked Problem Project has focused on training other teachers in my building how to use the Compass Learning program and answer some of their frequently asked questions. For my partial implementation, I had created a PowerPoint that covered how to add a student to a Compass Learning class and how to make sure they were assigned the proper assignment and presented it to my colleague in the classroom next door to me. He had given me positive feedback, so I decided to offer the same presentation to the other teachers in the building that use Compass Learning. I had two teachers show up for the second training and they also had positive feedback. By the time that I had held the second training, I was able to add arrows using the shapes menu in PowerPoint to point to the different menus and links for better clarification. I also printed out the slides with room for notes so teachers could jot down their own reminders.

For the most part, the project has been implemented as planned. I did have to scale back how much information I put into the PowerPoint, but as I have stated before, I will continue to add to the document. I plan to keep adding to the PowerPoint or maybe create a PowerPoint for each individual topic as resource document to submit to my district for use in the future. The one thing I did not plan on was the amount of questions following the second training. Since I had only focused on one topic, the teachers that came naturally wanted to ask questions about other problem concerning the program. To address this, I used the Demo tool in my Vision program to demonstrate more solutions to the teachers. I just recently learned how to use the Demo tool in Vision. It works great for showing learners (whether it be students or fellow teachers) exactly what menus, links, etc they need to click on to accomplish a certain task. Unfortunately, I do not have a to record these demos on the school computers. There is no record function in the Vision program. I even tried installing Jing on my teacher’s computer at school. Downloading programs is not permitted. I have submitted a request to the technology department and I am waiting to hear back if they will install Jing or not. I have also requested to get a microphone and speakers. That is also still in limbo.

I feel the project so far has been quite successful. The teacher that did attend the training have expressed that it was very helpful and that they understood the directions better than when the company representative had come in when we originally purchased the program. Like the original training, the teachers expressed that they understood my directions better, because I used simple, short steps with familiar terms and language. One of the teachers also expressed that they were happy that I gave them a print out that they could add notes to as well as refer to later. They expressed they would rather refer to that document before picking up the telephone to call me directly during class. This was my original goal and I was ecstatic to actually hear my colleagues acknowledge that I might need a break from all of the phone calls.

If I were to approach another project of this type, I think I would approach it with less skepticism. I have to admit that I went into thinking I would not be able to make it work given the lack of technology. I was very skeptical that I would find a way to not only present the training and find a way to easily distribute it in the future. I had originally wanted to create videos using Jing, but once I took a step back and thought about it, I was able to come up with the solution of using PowerPoint instead. I also think I would not underestimate the teaching staff either. I truly felt that if I created the Jing videos, teachers would not know how to play them using their older computers in their classrooms. I did not even consider that they might be willing to access the videos at home and watch them there. Finally, I think I would also start off with a better idea of how much information I can prepare in a short amount of time. I originally wanted to cover much more material than I had time for. This experience has taught me to be careful about not biting off more than I can chew. I have learned to start small and add to a project instead of being overly ambitious and causing myself to get overwhelmed with the task.

I also feel that others might learn the following from my experience:

• You can make a difference in your own building.
• Districts do not need to hire expensive trainers if someone is willing to put in some time and effort – a true cost saver.
• There is a way to make the technology that you have work, no matter what the constraints. Don’t look at it as limiting. Make what you have work for you.

As stated before, if I were to do this project again, I would change the following things:

• I would create demonstration videos using Jing for teachers to access at home.
• I would complete different topics about Compass Learning in smaller, more manageable chunks. Not only would this help me achieve the goal, it would make the training more manageable. I could do a series of short trainings and not keep colleagues after school too long.
• I would like to find a way to create a video to add into PowerPoint. I can see that PowerPoint will allow me to insert a video, I just have not been able to figure out what videos it will allow me to insert.
• I would like to purchase (or have the district purchase) USB drives to save the PowerPoint documents and videos on for teachers to access.
• I would like to get the technology department to add the files to the Shared drive for the district for easy access.