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

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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

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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.

How would you approach researching and optimizing your students’ learning output as an instructional designer?

EdTech 503 Home Page

In Jordan we have minor ethnic groups, all people in Jordan even the refugees from other neighboring countries share with us the same language, religion, history, values and tradition with few uncounted minorities here and there. So for this assignment I choose to stretch myself and do my research on other cultures using the resources in CultureGrams  & Wikipedia to investigate on Madagascar.

I wrote an imaginary email request form The American School of Antananarivo and started my research:

Honestly I know nothing about Madagascar except its geographical location ! So I started my research journey that aims to approach different culture context  by analyzing the culture and climate of both the performance and learning contexts, and prepared myself that my future instruction process might be affected  or influenced by the school or instructors culture . Below is my initial research sketch. There are a lot of missing information in this scenario, because I still need to speak with the school principle, but it will be ongoing process to analyze the performance during and after the training

• I need to investigate first about the general atmosphere in the country, language, religion, internet access….
• Create a profile for the instructors, background, academic level and organization vision

My Initial analysis on Madagascar cultural climate – click on the image for full view

After analyzing the general atmosphere in Madagascar I found how hard to initiate virtual e-training, due to several factors:

Learning environment

• Internet access is very low(.3%) and not equally distributed in the rural and urban areas which might affect the connectivity during the e-training workshop if done
• With this low internet penetration it’s most probably that there would be no internet access in homes of the faculty members, especially who lives in rural areas.
• Electricity penetration is 9.5% and couldn’t find any data about smart phone. Mobile and landline penetration is 30%

Recommendation:

• I don’t recommend digital training, the training should be face 2 face with hands out material or computer centered training in the school lap or private YouTube channel for the training material.
• The school should also think of the best way to integrate the training during the school time, its most probably will be the best place to held the training

Learner digital profile

45% of the stuff are US citizens who have completed their higher education in the US (Cambridge, Madison….). I assume that they are somehow digital bridged, with no digital inequality (gab in the digital skills). The problem is with the other 45% of the Malagasy stuff who completed their whole education journey till the end in Madagascar. Madagascar educational system is traditional and not using technology in any stage, Malagasy instructors in the American School will have a problem in integrating technology in their daily instruction for sure

Recommendation:

The school should use one of its local IT guidance who will support the whole stuff training program that will be sent by me, I will offer full help desk and adjust instruction as required from the initial phases till the end. No matter what training style the school might choose, it should be leaded by instructor not facilitator (the best pedagogy that will suit Malagasy culture and background).

The role of the organization is to encourage instructors and create a motive for learning, clearly the principle of the school wants to integrate technology and he wants to help his stuff, especially the Malagasy people as I understood for earlier emails .  The trainer should also understand that some  US instructors might skip some sessions if they show fast proficiency in adapting technology

Note:The training guidance should use formal English that don’t have any jargon to enable Malagasy to communicate

Learner social profile

In my cultural “lenses” while analyzing Malagasy community I could see many similarities between my society in the Middle East and their society with few minorities especially in the religion side. For example: Malagasy community and family are tighten with well-maintained relationship, Marriage is highly regarded in Madagascar and is seen as a status symbol, fathers are provider and head of the family. The mother is the homemaker.

Recommendation: The school need to consider the time of the training especially if there were Malagasy women among the faculty. Training should not be done in the weekend, because it’s a holy day for their extended families to gather and women should be with their husbands.

How could I overcome the issue of digital inequality for my class in Madagascar? Is there a better way to implement technology in an area with limited resources?

In limited resources areas you need to understand that you should make the best of what is only available! For the training I’m designing I only have: Principle who want to use LMS, school with internet access and computer lap/ iPad and students/ stuff from different cultures.

What I can do is to focus on my duty by designing activates that will promote participation and interaction. Madagascar learning atmosphere don’t use collaborative group work, so Malagasy people will feel more comfortable in learning a lone, we should encourage this participation in different format.  This will help bridging the digital inequality faster and more effective by sharing information. This can be achieved by:

1. Creating well-designed instruction that will break the ice between learners during the workshop and with their trainer. Creating comfortable environment will  promote sharing information among (The US & Malagasy stuff)
2. Create Asynchronous activities in discussion board or email or through the most common used social media among all learners that allow the Malagasy & US stuff  to reflect on their experience freely  especially shy learner (mainly women), ask question and suggest what they want
3. Creating more effective learning environment in the time of training by creating different groups , this will enable all members to see the value of group work , how it will affect their deeper understanding for the material and at the end the efficiency/productivity of such approach will speed up the learning process and gaining new skills
4. The content of course should be chunked in an easy absorbed manner. It should organize the content in a way that understand all reader type (visual, text, image), and how they absorb information better

Reference

Larson, M. & Lockee, B. (2014). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design. New York: Routledge.