building CUNY Communities since 2009
Hi All — here are the links that Sonia and I were talking about, that we went through in the Data Visualization workshop.
1. Chatzy link: Chatzy.com/32000292513635
2. Google Public Data Explorer
3. IBM’s ManyEyes:
4. Data Visualization Resources
http://dirt.projectbamboo.org/categories/visualization
5. Digital timeline: http://www.timetoast.com/
Posted in After Class Discussion.
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– March 16, 2012
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– March 15, 2012
Project 1: Femme Collective / Femme Conference Web Presence
Project 2: Activist Art Aggregator
Posted in Assignment.
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– March 15, 2012
Project 1: Wiki for Teachers
Elevator Pitch:
Problem Statement:
Sixty percent of teachers leave the profession within the first five years. Unfortunately, research suggests that quality instruction usually occurs with teachers who have over five years of classroom experience. What can be done to help teachers stay in the profession so that they can be most impactful? Well, one of the biggest challenges that many new teachers face is the lack of instructional materials and access to actual lessons that can be tailored to meet the needs of their students. Finding instructionally sound and free lessons to build upon can be an isolating and time consuming process. Most teachers spend ample time scouring websites to create piecemeal a lesson. Furthermore, gaining access to these lessons requires that underpaid teachers pay subscription fees, and put their computers at risk by downloading lessons that are potentially harmful and useless.
Solution: Each one teaches one. Create a user-friendly wikispace for teachers to upload quality lessons that follow the Understanding By Design framework and workshop model. A list of suggested topics and aims will be posted based on the state’s scope and sequence. Teachers will use a template to input information for different sections. Users will be encouraged to provide a hyperlink for supplementary material needed to execute each lesson. The discussion board will include teacher feedback about the implementation of each lesson.
Personas:
Krisis a highly organized, first year teacher who just completed her Masters of Secondary Education at Fordham University. She has an exhaustive collection of lesson plan templates and general classroom activity suggestions from her education. Unfortunately, most of the saved resources and materials haven’t helped her to necessarily develop an actual unit plan or curriculum for her students. For example, she was asked to teach a daily reading class. Although Kris has a plethora of general reading strategies that she can use in her teaching, the daily struggle to find engaging texts and create an actual lesson is frustrating.
Josh is a second year Teach for America fellow that gets amazing support from his organization. They provide him with exemplar units for all of the core-teaching disciplines. He often shares these materials with his co-workers via email. After his first year, his assistant principal decided that she would like Josh to teach an all-inclusion special education class. Last year he was only responsible for providing in-class support for general education teachers. He has never taught a whole class of students with special needs. He spends endless time searching the Internet for lessons and materials that build upon Teach for America materials. During the larger department meetings, Josh expresses his discontent with discussions that digress from him obtaining actual and practical tools that enhance his classroom practice. He feels isolated.
Michelle is a seventh year Social Studies Teacher. She has collected lessons and materials throughout the years. One of the Department of Education’s mandated initiatives is that teachers differentiate their lessons. Five years ago, Michelle’s would often receive praise about her lessons from her principal. Now, since her school is under pressure to increase student performance, Michelle thinks her lessons are obsolete. Her teaching model does not align with the new models endorsed by the DOE. She is considering leaving the profession.
Use Case Scenario:
Kris logs unto the Teaching Reading section of Wiki. There she is able to peruse actual unit plans that teachers in New York City have used in their classroom. She sees lesson plans, links to reading materials and comments made by other teachers regarding its implementation. She is able to post questions to reading teachers about strategies in her classroom. She presents a summary of these units of study to her students so that they can choose the direction of the course. Kris is able to use these lessons as a foundation and continues to search the net for more supplementary material that she can add to the wiki space.
Josh logs into the Teaching Special Education portion of Wiki. There he finds a discussion board and supporting Ning site that allows him to enter a community of special education practioners. He uploads many of the resources provided by Teach for America and refers his coworkers to this site. He is able to provide feedback to general education teachers who have special need students in their classrooms. Josh becomes an active and contributing member of the Wiki.
Michelle logs into the Teaching Global History section. She sees that each unit follows the Understanding By Design format that requires teachers to backward plan according to state standards and goals. She begins to use these units and lessons as an exemplar to re-evaluate her previous lessons. She realizes that there are missing components to the structure of her lessons. She adapts her lessons and uploads them to the wikispace.
Full Version:
This wiki-space for educators will have multiple templates and frameworks that represent specific state mandates and initiatives for teachers. For example, within the full site, there will be a sub-section for NYC teachers who have to adhere to workshop model template. Different states have different rules for teacher practice. The site will also include a section for discussion, links to reading materials and videos. Eventually, the site will also include a link to teacher videos. I would like actual students to also provide feedback on the lessons.
Scaled Down:
Start with a wiki-space for New York Teachers that can be a model for the full site. Encourage graduate students to upload their unit plans to the site and solicit feedback from actual teachers.
Time Frame:
Full: 1 year
Scaled Down:
6 months
Project #2: Readability App
Elevator Pitch:
Problem Statement: New York City Teachers are often inundated with new initiatives by the state. During the past five years alone, teachers have been expected to differentiate their lessons, align them to the Common Core and use new rubrics to assess the learning of their students. Undergirding each new initiative is the idea that children need personalized learning plans in order to succeed. Despite the seemingly altruistic intent of these mandates, teachers are not provided with the practical tools or resources to implement these initiatives. The push towards differentiation requires that teachers have access to a variety of texts and media tools to appeal to the different needs of students. How can you differentiate texts, when you only have one textbook?
Solution: Over the years, I’ve implored teachers to utilize Microsoft word’s readability tool to determine the complexity of a text and consequently match it with the right student. Perhaps an application that quickly assesses the reading and writing level of written and visual texts would enable teachers to easily differentiate their lessons. An application that also modifies written text according to the preferred reading level of the user would foster more self-directed learners who build comprehension and understanding.
Personas:
Meekay is a fifth year English Language Arts teacher. She often seeks professional learning opportunities on her own. She recently attended a workshop on the Layered Curriculum that has propelled her to dedicate herself to differentiation. She comes back to her classroom to assess her reading resources. Most of her texts are on an eighth grade reading level. She needs to order books that have different reading ranges. She begins to rewrite certain texts, but it becomes too daunting. Eventually, she uses the same text to teach the whole class.
James is a tenth year, high school social studies teacher. He uses primary source documents and multimedia tools to engage his students. Unfortunately, he has never been trained as a reading teacher. Many of his students struggle to comprehend the texts that he presents. James therefore has resolved himself to using secondary sources that are below his students reading level just to get through the lesson.
Evelyn is in her first AP History Class. She is excited about being a student in the class and how it will look on her high school transcript. Unfortunately, most of the reading assigned in her previous social studies classes did not allow her to struggle with complex texts. Evelyn has a hard time finishing her AP readings. Although she finds articles on Wikipedia, the site’s reading level is sometimes difficult for her to comprehend.
Use Case Scenario:
All three users will be able to copy and paste written text unto the ReadITNOw website. The site will then assess the reading level of the text and provide the option of reformatting it to a higher or lower reading level.
Full-Version:
A web application that assesses the reading level of any text or video. It will also reformat written text into a language that is intelligible to the student.
Scaled Version:
A FREE website with copy and paste to determine readability of text.
Time Frame:
6 months to a year.
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– March 15, 2012
PROJECT IDEA 1: Stop & Frisk Reporting Application a.k.a. Talking to the Man App
Stop and Frisk is legally defined as the practice in which a police officer who is suspicious of an individual detains the person and runs her or his hands lightly over the suspect’s outer garments to determine if the person is carrying a concealed weapon.
It is believed that residents from neighborhoods in New York City that are characterized as young, poor, have low educational attainment, and are disproportionately Black and Latino are also disproportionately affected. Recently a group of 5 young people and 3 adults in the neighborhood of Red Hook, Brooklyn wrote a play to help educate other members of their community about these socially unjust and arguably racist practices. These practices have lead to an increase of arrests especially among poor people of color and contributes to on-going poor community relations with the police. The development of the Talking to the Man application would allow the documentation of practices to work with police to improve community relationships. The application could provide the law, send an automatic message to an emergency contact (such as parents or other care givers), and techniques for de-escalating encounters with police.
Below are some sample personas describing characteristics of people who are affected by the stop and frisk practices.
Rosa is 38 years old. She works at a community center and has to walk through NYCHA (New York City Housing Authority) at all hours day and night because she also is attending college and keeps late hours studying and usually is too impatient to wait for the bus. She has been stopped and frisked by the police as a young adult and as an adult a total of 5 times but has never been arrested.
Marcus is 17 years old, shops at the big & tall store, is Black and lives with his Aunt with whom he does not get along so spends most of his non-school time on the blacktop playing basketball. Malcolm has a winning smile and gentle demeanor, but knows the importance of never leaving the house without some form of identification, especially as a tall Black male. He was stopped by the police at 12 and 15 when he was walking to the basketball courts.
Kay is 21 years old in 2 days. She loves fashion and hopes to make a transition from being a fashion student, to working in fashion in the next year. She has a 2 year-old son and is the third generation to grow up in Red Hook. She and her mom have been stopped and frisked twice before she had her son.
Drawing from training at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and nearly 20 years of HIV prevention experience working with vulnerable young people in Austin and New York, Ms. González has a proven track record working with adolescents in sensitive issues such as HIV-prevention and is particularly interested in research concerning young people of color and their social networks, new media and technology and communication.
Among other community involvement, she has co-founded the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition; served as Deputy Director for Love Heals, a non-profit organization focused on HIV prevention among teens in NYC; and currently serves as a Board of Director for the Red Hook Initiative. In the fall of 2009, she returned to school at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where is currently earning a Doctorate of Public Health (DPH) with a focus on Community, Health & Society and is concurrently earning a certificate in Interactive Technology Pedagogy, designed to provide intellectual opportunities and technical training that enable Graduate Center doctoral students to think creatively and critically about the uses of instructional technology to improve teaching, learning, and research. Her training working with communities in NYC and in technology development have prepared her to execute this community-centered application project.
A short version would allow focus on a text message version that allows users to:
The following training and other inputs have been identified to carry out this project:
The full version operates as an application for a smart phone and builds on the current application called Your Rights, which takes information from the American Civil Liberties Union to convey some of the information on how to interact with the police, for example.
The full version of Talking to the Man would include 2-3 scenarios of people interacting with the police in which, they could select different movements to help their avatar navigate an encounter with the police that could simulate how different responses either de-escalate a situation or could have them be arrested.
The following training and other inputs have been identified to carry out this project:
PROJECT IDEA 2: TRUST THIS: An App that talks about Sex for Real
HIV incidence in youth. Of the more than 1.7 million estimated people to have been infected with HIV in the US, new HIV infections are highest among Blacks and Latinos. Young people aged 13 to 29 accounted for 39% of new HIV infections in 2009, the largest share of any age group, primarily via sexual transmission.
Youth utilization of messaging. As researchers struggle to find ways to curb HIV among Black and Latino youth, an important and innovative area that is understudied and may offer new and innovative techniques to prevent HIV and other sexual and reproductive health (SRH) negative outcomes is the use of text messaging and instant messaging services via social networking sites (collectively referred to as messaging). These may be particularly relevant given that these modes of communication are ubiquitously used, especially among youth: data from a 2010 report found that 96% of 18 to 29 year olds and 75% of teens owned a cell phone, 88% regularly and consistently text message and 73% use social networking websites; however, it is unclear how cell phone ownership among Black and Latino urban young men and women is different from a broader sample and the potential for making inroads in HIV and STI prevention.
A leverage point for HIV prevention in Black and Latino youth? There is a dearth of knowledge about how young Black and Latino young women and men use these platforms specifically for SRH needs, if at all. While texting and use of social networking sites are widespread among young people, and especially popular among young people of color, there is a gap in knowing whether teens might be open to using these modes of communication for HIV prevention, and other sexual and reproductive health issues.
Application Implementation. TRUST THIS application would provide reliable and accurate sex positive information to young people, including proper condom use, and factual information about symptoms to be aware of for the most common sexually transmitted infections such as chlamydia, gonorrhea, and Herpes. It would also allow users to connect to a youth friends sexual and reproductive health expert.
Below are some sample personas describing characteristics of the people who might use TRUST THIS.
Dora is 16 years old identifies as heterosexual but, in her words, “messes around” with and “talks to” i.e. has sex with both men and women. She usually uses a condom, but not always. She will have a daughter by the time she is 20 years old. Her family life is complicated: when she turned 15 years old, she was expected to contribute to the family income, and that was more important than going to school.
Miguelito aka ITO is 17 years old has a steady girlfriend since he was 15 years old, but they have an open relationship and both always use a condom with other people, but to demonstrate their trust, they usually do not use a condom with one another. His home life involves getting high with his family including mom, an older sister, two younger brothers and his mother’s boyfriends, who never contribute to supporting the family in productive ways. Most of the time the boyfriends are battling drug abuse and expose the family to mood swings and intermittent drug use/abuse. ITO and his girlfriend will be pregnant when he is 23.
All of these young people live in geographically isolated areas where trains and local buses are not close and are unreliable, there by increasing their time walking through the neighborhood and being exposed to neighborhood drugs and violence, which is higher than see in wealthier neighborhoods.
Drawing from training at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and nearly 20 years of HIV prevention experience working with vulnerable young people in Austin and New York, Ms. González has a proven track record working with adolescents in sensitive issues such as HIV-prevention and is particularly interested in research concerning young people of color and their social networks, new media and technology and sexual health communication.
Among other community involvement, she has co-founded the Young Women of Color HIV/AIDS Coalition; served as Deputy Director for Love Heals, a non-profit organization focused on HIV prevention among teens in NYC; and currently serves as a Board of Director for the Red Hook Initiative. In the fall of 2009, she returned to school at The Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where she is earning a Doctorate of Public Health (DPH) with a focus on Community, Health & Society and is earning a certificate in Interactive Technology Pedagogy, designed to provide intellectual opportunities and technical training that enable Graduate Center doctoral students to think creatively and critically about the uses of instructional technology to improve teaching, learning, and research. Her experience working with vulnerable young people in NYC and training in technology development have prepared her to execute this community-centered application project.
There are many existing programs that could be used to build from including Text in the City and the Department of Health Condom locator application. Most notably is the development of the Chat About That application, with input from peer educators from the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which currently provides:
This version operates as an application and builds on the current application called Chat About That
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– March 15, 2012
Posted in Uncategorized.
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– March 15, 2012
The Problem
Whether you’re a new teacher or a seasoned faculty member, the way we teach lessons is an evolving process. Trying to determine how we should best teach lessons to students of different levels of learning should be a collaborative process. Teachers that have had success with certain lessons can impart useful tips to new teachers or to teachers that have previously encounters problems conveying certain concepts or controversial material. I would like to build a Wiki for educators to collaborate on lesson plans and teaching techniques that have proven successful in classrooms across the country.
Personas
The New Teacher: Perhaps he does not know how to structure his lesson plan, or is having trouble coming up with examples to aide in comprehension. He would like to appeal to senior faculty members, but finds that he is not receiving a good variety of approaches. He would like to see what is available on the Internet, but finds that resources are scarce or unreliable.
The Seasoned Faculty Member: She has been teaching for over twenty years and has figured out several successful methods to teaching difficult content to her students in a simple, easily accessible way. She would like to share this information so that newer teachers may learn from her, but she can’t find the appropriate outlet. For lessons that she’s always had trouble with, she would like to collaborate with others to determine how she can help herself and others to move past the difficulty in conveying the material to students.
The Engaged Student: He enjoyed the lessons prepared by his teacher and has developed a sincere interest in a particular subject. Since the class is moving on to new material, he feels as though he cannot pursue any further discussion in class. He wants to find out more information about the particular topic, and would like to engage with another teacher (expert) to gain new perspectives and more information. He wishes there was a reliable site he could visit that would enable him to participate in discussion with other teachers, while also learning more about a particular subject from different perspectives.
Use Case Scenarios
The New Teacher: When he is referred to the Wiki, he can peruse different lesson plans and methods for conveying material to students. He can post questions to the forum and receive multiple responses. The material on the Wiki is reliable, and has been tested by teachers with a variety of backgrounds and a variety of teaching experience. He feels as though he can find several solutions for his lesson plan problems, and can reference examples from other educators.
The Seasoned Faculty Member: When she visits the Wiki, she sees that many other educators have already shared successful methods for conveying the material to students. She feels that she can add to each of these methods, and also contributes her own lesson plans to the discussion for feedback from others. She can search through discussions, techniques and lesson plans for any material that she has consistently had difficulty teaching.
The Engaged Student: When he visits the Wiki, he is pleased to see how other teachers have interpreted the material, and what points they emphasize in their lesson plans. He can post questions to the forum, and peruse the material provided by a variety of faculty members. As a student, he can remark upon what learning has been like, and what methods his own teacher has used that he, as a student, has found to be best.
Full Version
Since this is an open project, I would have to build a Wikipage with WikiSpaces. Perhaps it can eventually be integrated with Wikiversity, though I would initially like it to be its own separate page for educators.
Full Timeline
I think this could probably be built and implemented in a couple of months. I would have to learn how to build a complete Wiki, but I think I could learn how to do it in a two-month time frame.
Reduced Version
I think the full version is about as reduced as I could get.
Reduced Timeline
Probably the same amount as the full version.
Posted in Assignment.
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– March 14, 2012
The Problem
The burgeoning availability of digital research material – course e-reserves, digital journals/publications, e-books, digital archives, digital library loans, digital readers such as Google books, and many more – has created a new and exciting way to conduct research. One is able to download or view content on several different kinds of devices – public and private computers, iPads, e-readers, PDAs – and this enables users to access material anywhere they are, at any time. Moreover, users can highlight and write notes in PDF files, write reviews, and write helpful notes to themselves on each of these devices too. While this creates a novel approach to doing research, a problem arises: how does one keep all of their content in one place? Specifically, how can a user ensure that their PDFs, eBooks, reviews and notes are all accessible with the device they are currently using?
I would like to develop a personal digital archive for researchers. This archive would enable users to keep all of their digital research materials and notes in one place that would be easily accessible from any internet-capable device. Moreover, the materials would be modifiable from any of these devices too – this enables a user to add new notes to a file, or create or download a new document or PDF on one device that is seamlessly picked up by another. Users can also download their entire archive into hard storage for offline work.
Personas
The Digital Student: She has a laptop, an iPhone and an iPad. Her professors provide e-reserve readings and digital downloads for their courses, and she takes all of her notes on her computer or iPad. She would like to be able to access her course notes, reading notes and research materials on all of her digital devices, but gets frustrated by the lack of fluidity between them. She downloads several copies of PDFs so that she has one on her computer and her iPad, but she finds that it’s difficult to keep her notes organized around her research materials because they are only accessibly through separate apps. She would also like to be able to work offline on one device, and pick up and continue her work on another device at a later time.
The Digital Novice: He has a desktop machine and a full library of books. He would like to keep up with the latest research, but increasingly finds that the best way to access them is through the Internet via digital journals. He downloads these journals, and prepares digital notes about the readings he has completed in an older word processor. He would like to be able to organize the digital publications he downloads and keep his notations with the publications for easy retrieving, but he can’t find an easy or intuitive way to do this.
The Frugal/Thrifty Researcher: She has an e-reader and relies on public computers for any heavy writing. She relies on these public computers to load content onto her e-reader as well, but must constantly swap the publications she can carry with her because of her hard drive size limits. She stores these replaced files in her email so that she can still access them through whatever computer she is currently working on. All of the notes she writes about her readings are also stored in her email. While she is able to frugally maintain digital storage, she find that she has trouble searching for and retrieving certain readings or notes because of her email provider’s limited search options. She would like a more intuitive program that will store her content – readings and notes – on the Internet so that she can still access them on different devices, and she would like to be able to search and categorize them with tags, a system she is familiar with through social networking and commenting on blogs.
Use Case Scenarios
The Digital Student: When she logs on to the site for the first time, she knows exactly what to do. She begins to upload all of her digital files to her new online digital archive – readings as well as notes. She finds the system of organizing her readings and notes intuitive for later retrieval. Most importantly, because her files are all stored in one place in the cloud, she can read and notate on her iPad early on in the day, and in the evening finish up in the exact same place on her computer. She can update her content seamlessly between all of her devices, and she no longer needs multiple copies of PDFs and notes.
The Digital Novice: When he first logs on to the site, he is a bit lost. The FAQ page is easily accessible and helps him navigate the uploading process. He discovers that he can write notes on the site itself and no longer needs his older word processing software. He soon finds that he can categorize his notes under the same headings as the readings themselves; this enables him to pull up his notes alongside the reading without having to open several different applications.
The Frugal/Thrifty Researcher: She is happy to transfer all of her research files out of her email and into a separate site. The upload process is easy for her and, to her delight, she finds that she can mark readings and notes with the same tag – a tag that she creates, that is named appropriately for intuitive searching. She is happy that every time she searches for that tag, her readings and the relevant notes are retrieved. Moreover, she is able to add new content to the site through a blogging feature, so she doesn’t need to open a word processor to write research notes. Her blog posts can also be tagged intuitively.
Full Version
The full version would be a site that each user would have an individual login for. Each user would be provided a certain amount of free storage, with the option to purchase more at any time. The site would be set up through a WordPress build, and each user could modify their ‘desktop’ – their home page – so that the site is more conducive to an individual’s organizational preferences. The user would be able to create their own personal digital archive of research materials and notes.
The material can be tagged however the user sees fit to provide intuitive searching and grouping. The tags would be the same types of tags used in WordPress.
The user will be able to interact with any material that is uploaded; so, in the case of an article, the user will be able to highlight bits of text within the digital file.
The user will also be able to generate content through the site’s blog interface. This will enable users to make quick notes, or full reviews, independently of any word processing software. The blog posts can also be tagged for easy retrieval.
Since it may be difficult to get a free digital copy of everything that is needed for research, the site could potentially have the capacity to directly import purchased digital files from Amazon.com or something like that. The site will also have an import feature for material taken directly from hard storage.
User content would be stored on the site’s server, with the option for periodic hard backups to a computer that allows a user to work offline and upload the new content when a connection is reestablished.
Full Timeline
I would have to learn how to build all of the features in WordPress, and be able to build them correctly. This will probably take me several months. I will have to purchase the initial server space, and perhaps write a few grant proposals for funding to keep the server space once my personal funds have dried up. I will quite possibly have to integrate a content storage manager (like DropBox or OpenDrive) into the WordPress build, and research how to do that. I assume that will take several months as well.
Reduced Version
Using a combination of WordPress, DropBox, Adobe Reader, DocAs and Elements, I think I can do all of these things. WordPress enable me to write notes on a computer for retrieval on another device. All of my content could be stored in DropBox. I can use Adobe Reader on my computer and iPad to read PDFs and any word processor documents. DocAs enables me to highlight and notate on PDF files on my iPad. Elements enables me to write notes on my iPad that are automatically stored to my DropBox account.
Reduced Timeline
Figuring out how to streamline all of these apps to work together might take a little bit of time, but I think I can get some version of this system up and running by next semester.
Posted in Assignment.
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– March 14, 2012
Abstract
The Public Health department within the Graduate Center is only 5 years old, and is comprised of mostly full-time working people. As such, there has been a lot of organizing among the student body to find ways to unify the students and create a greater sense of community. We used Google Groups in the first few years to share information (eg, jobs, advice about classes, etc) and then transitioned to Facebook (46 out of over 100 have joined). “Buddy Groups” were created as well, to facilitate communication and information sharing on a more “first line of contact” modality, and was organized through email. “Interest Groups” based on research interests have also been created and is organized through BlackBoard. All of these attempts were made in response to student requests, but to date there has been limited activity. We have an amazing APO who has done wonders in bringing us together, fostering these opportunities and keeping us abreast of the ongoings of the department. But because of the nature of our program, there are still many challenges to finding common meet space/time to interact. This brings us to Public Health on the Commons, a portal housed in the CUNY Commons that allows for students, teachers and staff to easily connect, share and come together as a community. Ultimately, this would also get professors to switch to the Commons for course management/discussion purposes, as currently many GC public health courses use Blackboard and more and more we are hearing about and experiencing the rigidity and clunkiness of Blackboard.
Personas
* New public health grad student works full-time as a senior program officer and is taking 1-2 courses a semester. He wants to quit his job and be in school full-time but isn’t sure how to handle that. All of his classes are at night, so everyone rushes off to go home afterwards, and there have been few opportunities to meet other students and talk about the work/life/school balance. He’s also interested in finding other students with similar interests — to possibly collaborate, share advice, or just to get to know.
* 3rd year public health grad student is in school full-time, working on her proposal, and is trying to find students to start up a dissertation writing group. She’s feeling the isolation of being a doctoral student as the majority of her fellow students are not around at the GC during the day and she’s done with coursework.
* Professor X is a DPH faculty member interested in trying to integrate more out-of-class discussion into his classes. He tried using Blackboard as a place for students to post discussion questions, but there was very little interactive conversation — mostly just students posting questions which were later read in class.
Use Case Scenario
During the new student orientation, students will be given information about the Public Health on the Commons site and encouraged to register and join the group. On the website, students can see the profiles of other fellow DPH students, connect with new and current students who share similar interests, locate information about courses, professors, exams, find upcoming relevant events, and post information of interest.
Full Fledged
The full version would incorporate both student- and teaching elements. Students can create profiles, post events/information, find resources and information, ask questions about course sequencing, etc. Teachers can also create profiles and interact with students, but also (learn how to) create course websites, post syllabi, generate discussion, share documents, etc — and make certain elements available to students not enrolled in class (eg, syllabi). Students can thus easily access basic information about all relevant past and current courses, as well as department-related information (eg, upcoming meetings, student updates, etc). A wiki of some sort may also be useful (eg, FAQ), given the newness of our program. This version would be able to pull in current information already stored in Blackboard (eg, exam guidelines, student resources, etc).
These would both entail installing WordPress and BuddyPress.
MVP
The MVP version would focus on the student elements and developing a platform that’s useful to new and current students. This would include the WordPress, BuddyPress, calendar of events, and wikis.
Time/Skills
6 months to develop the full fledged; 2 months to develop the student-centered MVP. I’d have to learn how to create wikis within a WordPress site, and see if there’s a way to connect Facebook with the WordPress site.
Posted in Assignment.
rev="post-389" 1 comment
– March 14, 2012
Insider New York City Tour
Project #2: Ria Banerjee
The Elevator Pitch
People are never tired of the city, especially when that city is New York. Every year, tourists flock to midtown and parts of Brooklyn, and visit the same big name shops, restaurants, and sites. While those are not to be missed—who in their right minds would discourage eating at Katz’s Deli?—there are gems in every New York neighbourhood. This website and mobile phone app positions itself in the perceived gap between tourist websites and actual people who want to “know” the city in some ineffable way. It focuses on neighbourhoods not ordinarily covered by the guidebooks, and offers insider perspectives on local sights, delis, cafes, restaurants, and historic districts from the people who know and love these places every day.
The Personas
The Use Case Scenario
When Zeta and Eta and child plan their trip to the city, they stumble upon this small non-touristy site to plan their travels on. The site offers them a wide range of functionality—both the nuts and bolts of what to do, where to go, and how to get there, but also some historical information, some local flavour, some high-minded gossip (“Did you know Zora Neale Hurston held her rent parties in that brownstone?”) and a strong, amiable set of local voices. They can choose to take one of Theta’s day trips in and around the city, or Iota’s Ghostbusters Tour. They like that the site looks like it’s a small operation, and they also like that their money is going to real people instead of a faceless corporation. Since they are reserved around strangers, they enjoy the convenience of a site that acts as a virtual tour guide.
All the Bells and Whistles
Time-line
Set-up, coordination, and recording of tours: 1 year
Researching and building the app: 6 months (or no time at all, if I do my previous proposal first!)
Set up website, build pages, ensure online privacy and security: 8 months
Bare-bones Version
The simplest version would use text where the full version wants to use a combination of text, audio, and video. It would be set up as a simple blog, and would have few or none of the customisable options. It would still offer a hi-res pdf map which would contain text blurbs giving some of the information that the mobile app provides in the full version.
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– March 14, 2012
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