Week # 6: Final Project – Components, Blocks, and Debugging

EdTech 534 home page

This week assignment was for revising our component designer and check setting, code behaviors of our final project app in Block Editor and debug the codes of app behaviors of our final project

app in Block Editor based on the feedback we’ve received from classmate. In addition to answering few questions about our final app:

1. What you plan to have your app user do with this app (namely–purpose of this app)?
A story app will help users to record their stories in work/life/learning or any situation that need deep thinking, some time we solve issues better when we summarize our thoughts and hear it back or share it with others

2. How you expect your user interact with this app using this interface?
I have tested the app with 2 testers so far and I could see that they were able to work with the idea/buttons of the app fast

3. What you like about designing app interface with Component Designer?
Its simplicity and fast results

4. What you want to do but can’t do with Component Designer during your design?
I wish if there was fast live view inside the component designer (like DW) without the need to connect to emulator or AI…..It’s time consuming. The emulator is not reliable and disconnect fast

5. Describe what you have learned from the feedback, the fun part, and/or the questions/difficulties you might have encountered

Use your scanner to test the app or click on the QR-Code to get the file .apk

when debugging own apps ?

Feedback: So far I’ve received positive feedback from 2 of my classmate and no criticism or improvement suggestion. So I will keep every thing the same way it was developed

The fun part: I enjoyed developing what I want based on the ideas that I think can add value for general use

Difficulties: It’s very easy to suggest and imagine any thing in the planing stage, but when it comes to real work I was challenged with my junior ability

to develop advanced app ideas

Week # 5: Evaluation Proposal-Response to RFP

EdTech 505 home page

This week assignment was brand-new one for me. I never wrote response to any request for proposal (RFP) and I’m happy to do this before graduation. Our task is to submit a 5-6 page evaluation proposal in response to the Request for Proposal (RFP) from Far West Laboratory (FWL) for Educational Research and Development. An RFP is a request for potential organizations to submit proposals to do the work. The winning organization is given the evaluation contract, so our task in this assignment is to get that contract by providing full detailed documents that represent my evaluation plan. We had to use our imagination to complete the missing information in the provided RFP & in writing our proposals (e.g., I pretended in this proposal that I own my evaluation firm (IEF)). The budget for this RFP cannot exceed $50,000 and we had to stick with it and try to find a way to get 30% profit. Overall I enjoyed this assignment a lot, because I learned many stuff while preparing this documents and it gave me an introduction on how should I write my final evaluation project. I think this kind of assignment should be implemented in all of our EdTech courses, because it will expose us to new job opportunities we never thought of before.

Final Project – Webquest assingment

EdTech 502 Home Page

This is my final project in EdTech 502 which I enjoyed a lot and put all my effort to create something unique, never done before and challenging at the same time. It’s very easy to create a simple website, but when you intend to add odd items this means more work, bugs and pitfalls you never expected to face . As summer approach I decided to create a bulletin board website full of sticker with multiple shinny summer colors, this is not my taste in general, because I tend to use formal styles, but this time I chose to do odd website for a change and apply all what we’ve learned in coding and styling. Using fluid grid layout was much easier this time when compared to mobile learning project. The biggest challenge in creating this project was actually creating the content for the pages (once again daily struggle for nonnative student). We were asked to create webquest activity that take learners to “higher levels” of thinking on Bloom’s Taxonomy and this took a lot of planning and revising of what I’m doing step by step. I decided to create an activity that I will doing soon for myself as graduation approaches in EdTech 592, which focuses on executing our final e-portfolio for graduation. I don’t know what or how this course is going to be, but I tried my best to create activity that will resemble what we are going to do in that course. In terms of the coding for the webquest, the most challenging part for me was making the Evaluation Page, because it included a table that should be seen across desktop, tablet and mobile devices, but finally I managed to execute it and all my projects parts the way it should be.
Here is a link to my final website in 502 ” Electronic Portfolio WebQuest Activity” and below you can see screen shot gallery for each page in this website

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Virtual Field Trip web site – Turkey Unlimited

EdTech 502 Home Page

This week assignment in EdTech 502 we had to create a multi-page instructional website, the web pages should be linked together with a navigation menu. The website should host guided tour to a virtual destination. I chose to take my learners in a virtual tour to Turkey which was one of the best places I had the chance to visit in 2013. I enjoyed each part of this assignment, because we had the chance to implement almost everything we’ve learned so far about HTML5, CSS3 and Dreamweaver. In addition we had to implement multimedia resources over the internet (audios files, images, videos) to enhance the virtual field trip experience and bring it alive to learners. We had to include educational activities and questions for the student to make it more engaging.

This week’s assignment was a very enjoyable experience, because I felt that I was really creative in using all the knowledge I’ve acquired over the past few months. One of the best elements that I enjoyed preparing was the interactive Google map, manipulating my images properties in Fireworks and audio file.

Below is a screenshot of my website

Click on the image to view vtour to Turkey online

Digital Divide/Digital Inequality

EdTech 501 Home Page

I have been conscious of the digital divide and digital inequality since I started my e-educational business officially back in 2012. I have prepared my business plan based on countries in the Middle East who have widespread access to internet and found out the huge gap between neighboring Arabic countries. The reason for this gap can’t be summarized in few lines, but the obvious reasons for any observer that this gap is due to difference in economic situations, culture, stability and wise management.

In my startup I realized the huge gap between the digital skills of the instructors I worked with, but didn’t knew that all what I have dealt with back then refer to the soul definition of digital inequality. Digital inequality is not the reason of digital divide if you think that they are the same, digital inequality is explained as the inequality among Internet users in regards to the amount of benefit they actually receive from their use of Internet technology (DiMaggio et al, 2004).

Though the issues of digital divide and digital inequality are completely separate problems they have a push-pull relationship with each other. As an entrepreneur and now educational technology learner I feel that solving digital inequality issues become more critical than digital divide, everyone is concerned about increasing access to internet, especially to developing countries and I’m afraid that while we work to narrow the digital divide we will inadvertently be widening the threat of digital inequality.

I decided to continue my master degree in educational technology not only to improve my personal skills and knowledge, but also to polish my project with the information I’m introduced to. Digital inequality is one of the main issues I had in the past with the instructors I worked with.  and we should work on bridging this inequality, the use of technology will enable instructors to promote the development and appreciation of critical thinking . In the near future when I complete my degree I intend to create another digital project  for instructors who wishes to go online, the purpose of this project is to offer support and information on how to:

• Create quality content
• Merge technology in their daily life to improve their productivity in work/life
• Transfer their knowledge and practices to others

digital divide and digital inequality sketch – click on the image to view full size

This is my digital divide & digital inequality presentation created using voice thread , YouTube and Google document, creating a presentation in these two programs helps you to brain storm ideas on what to include: text, images and narrate. The process of creating such presentation require a lot of planning on what to include, especially in designing  your narrate script, because you want to engage all your audience senses with your presentation without the um um. I’m not English native so the process is more complicated for me, I don’t consider it as an excuse, but a motive for me to improve my skills in expressing myself in another language

I think this assignment would be more interesting if we were asked or have time to dig more on major EdTech initiatives in the developing countries that helped bridging digital divide and/or digital inequalities, it would be great to know how can simple individuals or entrepreneurs make a change in this world. For the time being I hope you enjoy my presentation and I will be more than happy to hear your comments or
suggestions.

EDUC 763 COURSE SYLLABUS

EDUC 763 Home page

The syllabus is my contract with my students

Instructor Information  

Instructor Name:

Noura Saad

E-mail: nourasad@u.boisestate.edu

Skype me on: Tadreesna

Join my network in Linkedin or Twitter

Part 1: Course Description

This course will introduce instructors to ways that will help them to create an online course store, using online collaborative discussion, available web2 tools, online reasources and other reading materials, the instructors will learn different paths to apply what they have absorbed.

Prerequisite

·         Past experience in teaching

·         Ability to recognize and investigate different learning style for students

 Textbook & Course Materials

Required Text

·         There will be different links to reading materials, videos and SlideShares.

·         Other additional resources will also be available

Course Requirements

·         Internet connection

·         Previous knowledge and usage of Google+ Hangout and Dropbox  

Course Structure

This course will be delivered entirely online through my blog; you will have online lessons, course materials, and resources. At designated times throughout the course; we will participate in a blend of self-paced and group-paced activities using OnlineInstructor Group community and Google+ Hangout. Activities will consist of creating syllabus, learning guide, discussion forums, creating your own online course objects, import internet resources, email, switching feedback, Diigo collaboration in online for educators group and webhosting.

Important Note: This syllabus, along with course assignments and resources, are subject to change. It is the student’s responsibility to check for corrections or updates to the syllabus. Any changes will be clearly noted through email notification.

Part 2: Modules Learning Objectives

Module 1: Getting started for online course

Course Objectives

·         Analyze why should you be an online instructor now

·         Define what is an online course?

·         Identify why should you have an online course?

·         Create your own competency check list  before starting your journey as an online instructor

Module 2: Plan your course

Course Objectives

·         Know what is smart planning and what value you will get by using it?

·         Illustrate your objectives, activities and rubric that you will be using in your course

·         Generate a plan on how are you going to organize your offline content

·         Assemble your syllabus and learning guide

Module 3: Build your course

Course Objectives

·         Identify what do you need to create your own engaging multimedia course

·         Choose related multimedia objects in to your online course

·         Develop your own multimedia course content

·         Assemble your own multimedia online course

Module 4: Publish your course

Course Objectives

·         Identify best free/paid hosting places to publish your course

·         Use one hosting place  and list reasons for that

·         Examine  your online course after being online with collected feedback

You will meet the objectives listed above through a combination of the following activities in this course:

·         Reading provided materials and make your own research

·         Participation

·         Completion of assigned homework’s for the final project

Part 3: Grading Policy

Points                       Description

40                             Participation in Discussion and Hangouts

50                            Delivering assignments

60                            Final project

150                          Total Points Possible

 Letter Grade Assignment

Final grades assigned for this course will be based on the percentage of total points earned and are assigned as follows:

 Letter Grade     Percentage                     Performance

A                             93-100%                           Excellent Work

A-                           90-92%                             Nearly Excellent Work

B+                           87-89%                              Very Good Work

B                             83-86%                              Good Work

B-                           80-82%                               Mostly Good Work

C+                          77-79%                             Above Average Work

C                            73-76%                             Average Work

C-                          70-72%                              Mostly Average Work

D+                          67-69%                             Below Average Work

D                            60-66%                            Poor Work

F                              0-59%                              Failing Work

Late Work Policy

Be sure to pay close attention to deadlines—there will be no makeup assignments, although it’s a free optional course your duty is to stick with the assigned deadline dates that will be sent to you via email with the Calender of this course before it starts. You can also find the syllabus of the course provided on the blog when the course strarts.

Build Rapport

If you find that you have any trouble keeping up with assignments or other aspects of the course, make sure you let me know as early as possible. As you will find, building rapport and effective relationships are key to becoming an effective professional. Make sure that you are proactive in informing me when difficulties arise during the course so that I can help you find a solution.

Complete Assignments

All assignments for this course will be submitted electronically through Dropbox and email, unless otherwise instructed.

Commit to Integrity

As a student in this course you are expected to maintain high degrees of professionalism, commitment to active learning and participation in this class and also integrity in your behavior in and out of the classroom.

Course Outcomes

Learning Guides