Blog 4

Reflections

Most of the needs assessment part was already developed before we began the team project. Matthew Ligon met with the coordinator of the SC Department of Education, to discuss which subject he would like for the workshops and how we should approach them. There is a need to inform teachers about Google Apps because as technology becomes more important to the education system there is a growing need to have technical skills. These Google Apps could help assist them in the classroom and outside the classroom. Many teachers don’t make use of new technologies especially those that derive from the web 2.0 technologies. My module focuses on the subject of Google Picasa and Google Talk. Since we switched the models some we need to clear up who’s now doing what in the models. I will be working along with Christopher Lambert on either of the two Apps and help develop a story board. Picasa is a great photo and image manager that will help aid teachers who use a lot of visual aids. Google Talk will create better communication between teachers and students with real time talking abilities that rival that of Skype but without the phone service. I think the best thing about Google Apps is that Google offers these Apps free of charge, which is really great because of the bad economy.

For the design phase we talked about the method on how we are going to produce screen capturing with CamStudio on virtual machines, if necessary. We also did some reconstructing of our original scheduled tasks and rearranged them to better subsidize the modules. The Nicenet website will allow us to construct our own working area similar to that of blackboard for teaching purposes with the ability of discussion boards. The screen capture videos will probably be hosted on Youtube for easy access and service free solutions. I personally never performed any screen capturing in order to help teach someone how to perform tasks and for informative purposes. I will gain insight and observation on what maybe my weaknesses and strengths in this style of teaching. It can allow me to help people by giving videos demonstrating tasks and solutions to computer problems.