and.....DONE!

I just sent my final report off to Dr. West.   I think I did pretty good.  I ended up with 5 participants.  I was a little nervous along the way what I might end up with.

Here is a copy of the evaluation I did if anyone is interested.

Years of experience in Adult Education	3 Responded 0-3 2 Responded 12 +
Have you used Wiggio Before?	4 Responded No 1 Responded Yes
Did you find Wiggio easy to use?  1= Difficult  5 = Very Easy	3.8 Average
Would you use Wiggio in the future?	5 Responded Yes 0 Responded No
What was your knowledge of the technology skills necessary for the GED® Test prior to this activity? 1 = No Knowledge  5=Very Knowledgeable	2.4 Average
Was your knowledge of the technology skills necessary for the GED test improved? 1 = Not Improved  5= Greatly Improved	4.0 Average
Would you recommend using this system for content training for the GED Test?	4 Responded Yes 1 Responded No
Did you find the item sampler useful? 1= Not useful at all  5=Extremely Useful	4.8 Average
Did you fid the post of others helpful? 1=Not helpful at all  5=Extremely Helpful	3.6 Average
Did you find the resources helpful? 1=Not helpful at all  5=Extremely Helpful	4 Average
Do you recommend using Wiggio for Provider Groups?	4 Responded Yes 1 Responded No
Do you believe this was a good way to learn this material? 1=Not at all  5=Very Much	3.8

FYI:  Provider Groups are face-to-face learning groups that we are really trying to move online.

I know this isn't a very big group and participants were only chosen by those interested, but I think my results indicate a need to look a little further under the hood of Wiggio.

Working on My Final Report

As I reported in my last post, I ended up with enough users.  They all published their recommendations and tool for others to use.  

Today I did an informal evaluation with them based on a questionnaire I put together to figure out their satisfaction with Wiggio.  No surprises really.

If I were to expand this project, I might have them create a Pinterest page with their recommendations for others.  That seems like a natural extension of this assignment.

Got My Users

I made a heartfelt plea for users at my conference session and have the users I need now.  I didn't even have to resort to bribery like Tammy suggested!  They have their initial postings and I am waiting until Monday to send them their evaluation to see what they think about the way that Wiggio worked for this assignment.

My initial reaction is that Wiggio seems like it would work well in a larger group than in a small group. It is better built for conversation and sharing.  If you factor in those who will be lurkers or minimal posters (I have been both before) more people = more interaction.

Users are Flaking on Me: More Coming Onboard

Well, I had six users lined up after the southern conference and felt pretty good about everything.  I thought at least four would come through for me.  As of today I have 2 that have begun the training.  Not much discussion can happen between two people.  

I am at another conference today (do you see a pattern here?) doing some training.  I have three sessions that I am doing tomorrow that will have at least 40 people in each session.  The first session will be full of people that will have high interest in the topic of my project, so I am going to put out a shameless appeal for participants.

The difficulty I can see with my chosen project is that to get the kind of communication that I think I need for this to truly be a good learning activity I need larger numbers of people than I am able to do in such a short time.  Basically I am creating a space for a learning community on a particular topic.  You need to have a critical mass of people to get it to take root and for in depth conversation to take place.  I am not there yet.  

I still think the format that I am using is a good one and that Wiggio is a good tool for building such a community.  I see the difficulty in the early stages of growing such a community though.

Progress is being made

I made some good progress on my project in the last few days.

• I created my group in Wiggio which was very easy to do.  I am doing a little exploring about the different privacy settings.  While I am not so much worried about someone wondering into this project, I could see using this tool for a closed group of people in the future.

• At first I had a bit of a chicken and egg thing going with the creation of guiding documents for my group.   I created the documents first and published them and realized since I hadn't recruited students yet I was only posting to myself.   Wiggio works much like Facebook.  Only those in your group see your messages.  No one in your group = no one sees your messages.  I went ahead and made the documents and posted them.  When I recruit group members they will be able to see the documents.  Sort of like how people can see things already posted on your  Facebook wall.  

• Speaking of recruiting learners... I am at a conference in Southern Illinois and did four presentations today.  I was able to recruit some potential students for my learning activity from the folks who attended my session today.  I am excited about that.  Some of them I only met today, I think that is a plus. 

• I am already in progress on this assignment as I outlined it.  After reading other's final assignments, I already think that a Pinterest Board might have been a worthwhile addition to this project.  It seems like a good way to gather the resources that users post.  Next time I suppose.  

I am feeling pretty good about where I am right now with this assignment.  Frankly past creating the group it is mostly up to the learners to create the content that creates the majority of the content.  

Final Project Proposal Fleshed Out

I thought I would flesh out my final proposal here to see if anyone has any ideas on how they might be able to make it a better project.  I know some of this information will be repetitive from my first post, but one document is required by Dr. West, so I thought this would be just as good a place as any.  

I know most of you don't know a lot about the GED Tests, but you do know about good instructional design, so any pointers you have, please feel free to let me know in the comments.  It would be appreciated.  


Title:  
Informal Guided Learning Preparation for the 2014 GED

Topic for your Learners:  

The technology skills necessary for test takers to take the new 

General Goal(s):  

The learners will discuss the technology skills that will be necessary for GED Test-takers and what tools that they might use to get test-takers to gain these skills.

Specific Learning Outcomes:

By the end of this lesson participants will be able to:

1.  Find and complete the Science Item Sampler created by GED Testing Service.

2.  identify the technology skills necessary for test-takers on the 2014 GED Tests.

3.  recommend at least one resource to help teach test-takers these skills

Characteristics of your Learners

My learners will be GED instructors from Adult Education programs in Illinois.  Adult Education programs in Illinois are very diverse.  Many of the teachers do not have the best technology skills themselves.  In past face to face training I know that some instructors have been very concerned about acquiring the skills for themselves.  In this small project I will try to identify teachers from divers programs from across the state.  

Required Materials, including Web 2.0

Participants will be required to belong to Wiggio and join the group formed there.

Participants will be required to sign up for and complete the Science Item Sampler.

Introduction to the Activity

The GED^® tests are becoming a computer based test in January 2014.  At that time it is also being aligned to Common Core Standards.  The items on the test are taking a dramatically different look and feel.  GED Testing Service has released an item sampler and Assessment Guide for educators to help educators understand the layout and function of the new test.   Unfortunately because of the part-time nature of Adult Eduction providing professional development to prepare teachers for new curriculum is difficult.  

My proposal for my final project is a pilot utilizing a Wiggio group that would be a guided learning community.  To limit the scope of the project, the final project will concentrate on what is necessary to teach the new technology skills necessary for students.  Participants will work through the item sampler for one section of the test, create a post about their thoughts about the technology skills necessary for students and post at least one resource that will help prepare students with the proper technology skills.   Participants will also be encouraged to comment on the post of the other participants.  

Step-By-Step Procedures (This should be very specific steps!)

1. Participants will be asked to join a newly created Wiggio group that has been created for this project.
2. If they do not already have one, they will create a Wiggio profile.
3. They will be asked to view the item sampler for the Science test and to record their thoughts about the technology skills necessary for test-takers based on the items in the sampler.
4. They will then share at least one resource they either created or found that will help in training participants with others in the group.
5. Participants will also post a follow up reply to at least one post from one of the other members post.

Assessment

 Assessment will be done via an emailed survey that will be sent to the participants asking pointed questions concerning how the training helped them understand the skills needed by their students and provided them tools in order to help teach them.

The project will also be assessed on whether participants followed through on participation in the project.  While it is difficult to understand motivation for completion and such a small number of participants could possibly skew the results, I think it important to try to measure how many would complete such an activity based upon 

Conclusion

An analyzation of the assessment will help me determine whether to expand this project to include more participants in this portion of the training and whether it seems worthwhile to expand this type of activity to the content areas of the test.  

My Final Project Proposal: An Informal Learning Group of GED Teachers.

The GED^® tests are becoming a computer based test in January 2014.  At that time it is also being aligned to Common Core Standards.  The items on the test are taking a dramatically different look and feel.  GED Testing Service has released an item sampler and Assessment Guide for educators to help educators understand the layout and function of the new test.   Unfortunately because of the part-time nature of Adult Eduction providing professional development to prepare teachers for new curriculum is difficulet.  

My proposal for my final project is a pilot utilizing a Wiggio group that would be a guided learning community.  To limit the scope of the project, the final project will concentrate on what is necessary to teach the new technology skills necessary for students.  Participants will work through the item sampler for one section of the test, create a post about their thoughts about the technology skills necessary for students and post at least one resource that will help prepare students with the proper technology skills.   Participants will also be encouraged to comment on the post of the other participants.  

This project will be treated as a pilot.  If it proves successful in providing the necessary skills and professional development it will be possible that it will be expanded to include more participants and similar discussion of the content area changes.