Congratulations! You've just been given a fun, new assignment!
You've always been on the techy side, so your peers have made you the de facto tech person. You've been really good about helping trouble shoot little problems, but this is an entirely new level.
First, let's get a bit of information about you, before we get started.
Just so we don't feel like total strangers this whole time, what's your name? [[Enter your name |Name]]
Here are the people that still need your help:
(unless: (history:) contains "Nope")[
*Mark:* Mark found a new piece of technology he wants you to look into.
[[Help Mark]]]
(unless: (history:) contains "Success")[
*Sally:* Sally has a problem that she thinks you might be able to help with.
[[Help Sally]]]
(unless: (history:) contains "Instruction")[
*Fred:* Fred mentioned that he had something to run by you that he claimed would be a "quick win."
[[Help Fred]]]
Who would you like to help?
(if: (history:) contains "Nope" and (history:) contains "Instruction" and (history:) contains "Success")[
You've done some good work here today. Why don't you head on back to your office and grab a cup of coffee and relax for bit.
[[Why not grab a donut too? | The End]]]
"Hey $name, I've got something for you!" Mark hollers at you as you enter his office.
"I've found this great new technology called Gryzzl that I think would be a great fit here! What do you think?"
[["Sure Mark, set it up!"|Mark Yes]]
Mark is a smart guy...he probably knows what he's doing. Let him run with this.
[["Uhh...I might need a bit more information."|Mark Info]]
Gryzzl might be helpful, but you would like to learn a bit more before committing to anything.
You head over to Sally's office. You've heard she has a problem you might be able to help with. You pop your head in, and Sally seems happy to see you.
"$name, just who I wanted to see!" she exclaims as you enter the room. "I really need to be able to work with my students simultaneously on some projects that they're developing. Do you have any ideas?"
[[Tell Sally that she's on her own | Sally Nope]].
"That's a good question," you say. [["Let me do some research | Sally Research]], and I'll get back to you!"
As you head down the hallway to talk to Fred, you actually find him walking to come see you.
"As our new, semi-official tech person, I've got an easy project for you, $name," he says. "I want my students to create videos for a project they're working on. I just need a camera. Can you hook me up?"
[[What could go wrong? | Fred Fail]] Break into the limited budget you received for technology projects, and get Fred a camera.
[[Let's plan this out first | Fred Plan]]. Sit down with Fred and put together a strategy.
You tell Mark to go ahead and set up Gryzzl, and more or less leave him to do his own thing. Mark spends a bunch of money, and gets Gryzzl up and running.
But...it turns out Mark didn't really think things through. He never thought about the problem that Gryzzl solves. Gryzzl is all flash and no substance, and doesn't improve learning or teaching in any way. It also ends up being a bit of a pain to run, so nobody other than Mark ever uses it. The whole thing is a bit of fiasco.
Maybe getting some more information would have been helpful...[[Help Mark]]
You've never even heard of Gryzzl, so you decide to ask Mark some questions and investigate things a bit.
[["So why Gryzzl?"|Mark Why]] you ask. "What does Gryzzl do, and more importantly, how will Gryzzl improve learning and teaching?"
[["How do you plan to implement Gryzzl?|Mark How]] What does the rollout for Gryzzl look like?"
[["What kind of support will be available?|Mark Support]] Is there going to be any professional development, and how can students get help?"
On second thought, Mark's a sharp guy. He's probably got everything under control. [[Give Mark the green light|Mark Yes]].
(if: (history:) contains "Mark Support" and (history:) contains "Mark How" and (history:) contains "Mark Why")[
[[Tell Mark there are some issues with this technology |Nope]]]
Before you're even able to finish your question, an excited glimmer appears in Mark's eyes and he breaks into an enthusiastic sales pitch.
"Well you see, Gryzzl is the cloud for your cloud! It fixes everything! As a company, they have a great 'can do!' attitude, and have a philosophy of not saying no."
[[Sounds good to me!|Mark Yes]] Tell Mark to make it happen!
[[Hmm...let me asking another question|Mark Info]]. Get some more information.
(if: (history:) contains "Mark Support" and (history:) contains "Mark How")[
[[Tell Mark that Gryzzl seems to be a technology in search of a problem|Nope]]]
You ask Mark what a Gryzzl rollout would look like. He kind of shrugs and responds "well it's all cloud based. Gryzzl pretty much just has to switch it on, right?"
[[Yeah, that sounds about right.|Mark Yes]] Go ahead and set it up!
[[There's no way it's that easy.|Mark Info]] Ask Mark some more questions to learn more about Gryzzl.
(if: (history:) contains "Mark Support" and (history:) contains "Mark Why")[
"There's definitely more to it than that," you say. "And that's a bit beside the point, you don't have any sort of educational strategy in place. Look into some proper instructional design, and let me know."
[[Tell Mark he's missing an educational strategy |Nope]]]
You ask Mark about support and professional development. He waves his hand in the air to dismiss your concern.
"Support is a non-issue," he says. "Gryzzl is so user friendly that we won't need to do any training. If everyone can all figure out how to catch those Pokemons on their phones, I'm sure they can figure out Gryzzl."
[[That's a good point.|Mark Yes]] Tell Mark to call Gryzzl and get this going already!
[[This isn't my first rodeo.|Mark Info]]. Support will be necessary. Ask Mark some more questions.
(if: (history:) contains "Mark How" and (history:) contains "Mark Why")[
[[Tell Mark he needs to work out a support structure |Nope]]]
You wouldn't really do this to Sally, would you? Come on, be a pal and help her out.
[[Fine...| Sally Research]]
You decide to do a bit of research to see what might be out there to help Sally collaborate with her students in real-time. There seem to be three options.
[[Froogle Docs]] seems to be one possible option.
[[PicoSoft 360]] is another possibility.
[[Pear iDocuments]] is the only other real contender.
Which option would you like to learn more about?
The good news is that Froogle Docs successfully meets all of Sally's requirements. The bad news is that there's a couple of major catches.
1. Everyone needs a Froogle account to access Froogle Docs. Froogle accounts are free, but there's no guarantee that everyone has one.
2. Jim down the hallway would go on an hour long rant about Froogle privacy invasion if he heard about this. The word "FERPA" crosses your mind, and you shudder.
[[No big deal | Sally Reject]]. Take this to Sally.
[[One second thought... | Sally Research]] See what else is out there.
Turns out that email client you use everyday is part of this thing called PicoSoft 360, which includes a bunch of other tools. Your organization already has a license with Picosoft so everyone has access. Even better, PicoSoft WordWriter has collaborative online capabilities.
[[This is it! |Success]] Take your findings to Sally.
[[There's probably still something better out there | Sally Research]]. Do some more research.
You do a little research in Pear iDocuments, and it does fulfill all of Sally's requirements. However, there is one major drawback. iDocuments only works on Pear devices. While Sally has a Pear iBook Pro that she uses, there's no guarantee that all her students have one.
[[So what? | Sally Reject]]
[[This probably isn't going to work. | Sally Research]] Check out some of the other options.
You take it to Sally. She doesn't seem to pleased. She shakes her head and says "this just isn't going to work for me. Maybe there's something else?"
[[Go back to the drawing board | Sally Research]]
You take your findings to Sally, and tell her about PicoSoft 360. She seems pretty thrilled.
"This is exactly what I needed!" she says. "I owe you big time! Could you help me work this into my curriculum correctly so that I know my students will be successful?"
You take this opportunity to talk about backwards design, and tell Sally you would be happy to help...it might just have to wait until next week. Right now you have other people to help!
[[See who else needs help |Pick Quest]]
You get Fred a camera, but he obviously hasn't really thought through all the details. Students don't really know how to use the camera, the videos don't really have anything to do with the overall project, and student's don't really learn anything. The project completely fails.
If only Fred had done some [[planning... | Fred Plan]]
You're more than happy to get Fred a camera, but this needs to be thought out first to be truly successful. Time to engage in some good old fashioned backwards design.
You ask Fred, "What is the main educational outcome you expect students to take away from your project?"
"Wait, this has to be educational?" he responds. "I thought the whole idea was to get everyone outside for a little bit."
[[Yeah, that sounds about right. | Fred Fail]]
[[You're joking, right? | Fred Objectives]]
(set: $name to (prompt:"What's your name, friend?"))
Great, thanks, $name!
So as I was saying, you've always been a bit on the techy side, and your peers have decided that you should handle all the new technology stuff that comes along. A few people already have some projects and technologies that they want you to look into.
[[Let's get to it! |Pick Quest]]
Fred laughs nervously.
"Ha, no...of course not! No...students need to demonstrate knowledge of the scientific method in their video, and must walk through and explain all of the steps."
[[Boom! Nailed it! | Fred Fail]] Nothing else needed!
That's a good start! [[How will you identify quality work? | Fred Assessment]] What does that actually look like in student work?
"Success in this assignment is all about identification and description," Fred responds. You commend Fred on his expert use of Bloom's Taxonomy action verbs. "Students will be successful if they are able to identify all six steps of the scientific method. Students will also need to accurately describe what happens in each of those steps, and how they relate to the other steps."
[[Crushed it! | Fred Fail]] Fred's got it down. He doesn't need you any more.
[[Great, but what about some prep work? | Fred Practice]]. Students need to have a chance to practice these concepts first, and receive instructor feedback before the final project.
"That's a great point," says Fred. "I should have students write their script first. Then they can get together in groups and give each other feedback. After making corrections, they'll be ready to step in front of the camera!"
[[By Jove, I think he's got it! | Fred Fail]]. Give Fred a camera and let him at it.
[[What about the background information? |Instruction]] Ask Fred about his plans to introduce the material.
"So how will you introduce the scientific method to students?" you ask. "Are you going to lecture? Have students read a book? What kind of instruction are you going to provide for the students?"
"Oh yeah," responds Fred. "I'll have students first read about the scientific method, then we'll have a class where we discuss it a bit more, and I can weave in a bit of lecture. But I want to make sure students are involved and engaged. I don't want to just stand up at the front of the room and lecture at them like every 90's high school movie ever."
Woo! Sounds like Fred's got it! [[Who else can you help out? |Pick Quest]]
Ahh..that's a good donut.
You lay out your concerns to Mark.
"You don't seem to have a legitimate educational need for this technology," you say. "This is a technology in search of a problem to solve. Plus, having support for new technologies is paramount. Maybe work on a more thorough proposal and get back to me."
Although he's obviously a bit disappointed, Mark seems to understand.
[[Who else needs help?|Pick Quest]]