Analyzing Scope Creep    

Scope creep is an uncontrollable variable within our personal or professional projects. The standard definition of scope creep is, “the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project’s output as the project progresses” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p 436).

Analyzing past personal or professional projects with what I know now has allowed me to learn from the past to create effective and efficient projects for the future within my personal or professional settings. In addition, being able to learn from expereince will onl strengthen my characteristics as a team member and/or project manager. I have thought about two opposite situations of projects that I experienced first hand with scope creep.

Scenario 1

Planning my wedding (July 18^th, 2008-July 25^th, 2009)

Our goal was to have the major aspects of the wedding to be booked as soon as possible considering that I would be teaching and getting ready to transfer to Pittsburgh after the wedding. This part of the planning was simple. On the contrary the smaller activities such as decorations, getting the briadal party together for fittings and duties, party favors, and etc. seemed to be an effect of scope creep for a few reasons now that I look back on the planning. First of all, the planning and timeline was done by memory. This could have been avoided and effectively planned with the model ADDIE, in addition, going by a timeline and budget. Dr. Stolovitch’s video program, “Monitoring Projects” he discusses numerous monitoring techniques for the project manager to follow to produc e a effective and successfully completed project (Now, do not get me wrong, my wedding was a blast and I would do it a 100 times over again, however, the planning process was extremely stressful with some scope creep because of the planning by memory). A timeline and budget would have eliminated many of these stresses. In addition, maybe identifying the risks of dresses not being available, party favors, cake designs and etc. “ Assessed risks can then be responded to effectively, as part of a comprehensive risk management plan” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p 396).

Scenario 2

SES (Supplemental Educational Services) 2010-2011 vs. 2011-2012

SES is a federal program that is determine by the results of standardized assessments. Each year public schools are starting from 3^rd grade to 10^th grade are adminstred standardized achievement test to determine mastery of certain skills that have been chosen by subject matter experts (SME) with a variety of multiple choice and constructive response questions. After these assessments are adminstered, they are sent to be graded by a series of graders. The results of proficiency are provided based on various criteria from the state. If you school is below the Adequate yearly Progress report (AYP) , then your school is put on probabition. If this continuous for the next few years, then the school will receive federal money (NCLB Act) for children of free and/or reduced lunch for supplemental educational services.

My center participated in these services last year for the first time. Everything was done without any sort of ADDIE model, preplanning or timeline. Therefore, we did nothing or align any type of process to what has been learned in this course. Now, our center was bought by a very successful company that has went through the design process and constantly designs for effectiveness and growth with the SES services. I will be the project manger for this project for the 2011-2012 school year. My plan is to go through the ADDIE model, prelanning process, establish the timeline and budget, and identify the risks involved with the school districts as well as the students. Also, following the advice of Dr. Stolovitch for monitoring projects and knowing my roles as a project managers with my main focus being the timeline, budget, and clients’.

Resources:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project Management:Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Video Program: “Monitoring Project” with Dr. Harold Stolovitch.

Communicating Effectively

Communication can take presence in three different ways: written text (email, memo, & letter), as audio (telephone), and as video. Using the various forms of communication, the recipient may interrupt the message in many different ways according to how the message is sent.  I watched three forms of communication of the same message where I thought about the content and tone of the message. In addition, I reflected on the interpretation of the message after watching, listening and reading each modality.

Email

Reading the message via email created a very negative affect for me. The line, “Because your report contains data I need to finish my report, I might miss my own deadline if I don’t get your report soon.” I interrupted this in a negative way where I feel like I would be the one being blamed for a possible deadline being missed when it is not my responsibility for that person’s procrastination. Emails can be formal but, I feel that they are more informal where it is a form of communication that “occurs as people think of information they want to share” (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer, Sutton, & Kramer, 2008, p. 357).  

Voicemail

Listening to the voicemail regarding the message of needing a report as soon as possible so that person is able to make their deadline was much better than the email for a number of reasons. First of all, the listener is not reading between the lines and misinterpreting the message and tone of the email. However, if this was the only way of getting ahold of the person, then I believe that using the voicemail is the best option for communicating the need of the report. I would not have let the message as the person did but, I would have state the understanding that the person has been in meetings, but is in need of a the report that contains data that they need for their report. Therefore, could you please get back to me as soon as possible where we are able to discuss this issue more in depth? I would then conclude the voicemail with, “thank you so much for your attention to this mater. “

Face-to-Face

Face-to-face is the most formal form of communication where the content is preplanned and conducted in a standard format for a scheduled time. However, in the face-to-face message, I would have interrupted the message much more offensive then the email because the facial expressions and hand gestures. During this interaction, I feel as though it was not a schedule meeting, but a stop by to inform that the person is in desperate need of a report because they are lacking on their deadline.

Overall, communication is very effective when it is conducted according to the type of information and format that it needs to be in, in order to effective communicate the information. In addition, after hearing the information that Dr. Harold Stolovitch discusses and our text book addresses it seems as though one must determine whether the information is information that just needs to be share for a friendly FYI or check up or it needs to be preplanned with information that is essential for all members and stakeholders.

Resources:

Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project Management:Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Learning from a Project “Post-mortem”

In 2008-2009, my school district at that time was in the process of adopting a new mathematics curriculum for the middle grades. The math content specialist of elementary, middle, and high school selected three programs that they conduct literature reviews, analyzed, and would align with the elementary and high school curriculums from past adoptions. The process that was communicated to math teachers of the middle schools was, teachers would pilot a variety of lessons from each of the three curriculums to gather information that would be communicated at delegated in-services to help gather information that would later be develop into a proposal for the school board at the end of the school year.

General Questions from the Project "Post-mortem" Review Questions

What was the single most frustrating part of our project?

As a three year teacher, the most frustrating part of the project of piloting the three curriculums to determining the best fit for the school district with the district, state and NCTM mathematics standards was the negative feelings and thoughts with the adoption process and having to pilot the three. I believe that this could have been simplified if the content specialists would have chosen three different standards where we could compare and contrast the three curriculums. Whereas it was a free for all and no structure which created frustration because most of the veteran teachers did not want change and refused to pilot the curriculums to participate in the adoption process effectively and efficiently.

 

Phase-Specific Questions

Phase I: How could we have improved our need-feasibility or analysis?

Prior to piloting the three curriculums, the math teachers were told on the first day of in-service at the beginning of the school year that they are to pilot lessons of the curriculums where we would collaborate about our experiences during certain in-service days throughout the school year. The timeline of the project could and would have been smoother and more effective if there was a plan, a timeline, and what needs and analysis did the content specialists, superintendent, and school board need to see and know to ensure that they would make the best choice of curriculum for the students, teachers, and district. Without having a plan or structure in place for the project creates much disorganized and negativity.

Overall, the adoption of the new curriculum could have been very successful and much more effective during the pilot process is a ID plan. The content specialists should have created an objective, what need to be analyzed and done by the teachers to provide the best information with a compare and contrast of the three curriculums. In addition, this would allow them to have a strong presentation for the school board and superintend with the literature review, teacher interaction, and feedback.

Hello Project Management Class

Good Morning!

I am extremely excited for this project management class for a few reasons: First, my center has been bought and I will be stepping into a new role where I am the ID/PM for SES (Supplemental Education Services, Title 1 program) for the Pittsburgh area. Therefore, I will be developing educational programs, teacher trainings, and overseeing all the school districts in which we will be providing services to. Secondly, the materials that we will be learning will carry immediately into my daily roles of occupation.

I look forward to learning, collaborating, enriching my knowledge with you all.

Reflection

Reflecting on these last 8 weeks…

We have end the course with the views and future of perceptions of distance learning in our society. Taking into account the societal forces in the world, including the advocates for and skeptics of distance learning, I will be considering the following: perceptions of distance learning in the future, as an instructional designer be a proponent for improving societal perceptions of distance learning, and how I will be a positive force for the continuous improvements for improving the field of distance learning.

Perceptions of distance learning today is all over the place where many think distance learning is a great concepts, some believe that it lacks creditability, and some are on the fence and not sure what side to go to. As technology and the continued development of distance learning, society and the future of distance learning will become a norm. I believe that distance learning will be just as prominent as students graduating high school and going to college in the fall, but it will just be a choice of distance education or the traditional face-to-face environment. In addition, distance learning has been undergoing many studies where the instruction is being analyzed by its creditability, integrity, and effectiveness. Therefore, these perceptions from students, instructors, and society being improved will enhance the effectiveness of distance learning where the perceptions will be very minimal in the next 5-10 years.

            As perceptions of distance learning dwindle away, being an instructional designer we will be improving the societal perceptions of distance learning with continued professional development, longitudinal studies, and the use of classic research to ensure that instructional design of distance learning is being developed with the most effective and essential techniques of instruction. In addition, the use of technology and course management systems will be used to optimize the instruction and objectives of distance learning.

            Distance learning has come so far from when it was used through the postal services to the use of technology in today’s society. Instructional designers will continue to go through professional development, education, and collaboration with subject matter experts to eliminate the perceptions of distance learning and enhance the experience of distance learning where the future of distance education will be just as we see a high school student graduates and we assume they will be attending college, but now it will be a matter which path will the go down the tradition classroom of college/university or distance learning.

Exploring Open Source Software

Open source software is a way for educational information, courses, or applications to be distributed free of cost. Open source “is intended to be freely shared and can be improved upon and redistributed to others” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 256). The potential that open source has on the educational and/or business environment is vast considering many institutions have the ability and support to create and manage the open source software. The majority of institutions that optimize their exposure via open source software are capable to do so because they already have technical and support staff to manage the software without collaborating with a third party.

Upon exploring various open source software such as MIT (http://ocw.mit.edu/html ), Standard (http://itunes.standard.edu/ ), and Yale (http://oyc.yale.edu/ ) I found Yale’s site to be very appealing due to its simple, user friendly attributes. The site allowed me to navigate through Yale’s open source in an efficient manner. The instructional design is excellent. The font, contrasting colors and tabs are obvious and straightforward creating a confident and comfortable experience for a beginning user such as myself. The technology considerations, especially with the links and tabs, are easy to use. The consideration of the learner has been taken in to account. The learner is able to use the software. Yale’s site design and layout are done very nicely. Institutions such as Yale are able to offer and perfect open source for educational and personal gain. In addition, Yale can offer free open source because they already have technical support staff in place that can manage open source software applications”(Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 256).

During my exploration of Yale’s open source, I put myself in to the shoes of a distance learner with a specific course such as Spanish-Portuguese. Distance learning is a unique and powerful learning experience that is possible through the Internet and World Wide Web. The instructional design is essential in bridging the gap between learner, instructor, content, and technology to create an effective and efficient learning environment. I discovered a very usable site that maximized the planning process of the instructional designer and most likely collaboration with SME (subject matter expert) in the Spanish-Portuguese department. The course homepage contains a brief disruption of the department in addition to an informative paragraph about the instructor. The user is able to navigate to the course with access links embedded into the description. As an instructional design, the use of hyperlinks built into the introduction allows the distance learner to immediately move to the next step without confusion or having to decipher the next step in utilizing the links. Thus, the instructional designer is planning for a variety of learners.

Overall, the instructional design seems to be the product of an in-depth and through planning process. In addition the open source, especially the Spanish-Portuguese course, has be through the ADDIE process, collaboration with SME and instructional designer to ensure the learning experience is effective. “Thus, an instructor who wants to create a quality learning experience for all members of the class, with the ultimate foal of learning as the outcomes, will be certain to account for these variables in planning” (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 129).

Resources:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education. NewYork: Pearson.

Selecting Technology of Distance Education

Scenario: Interactive tours

A high school history teacher, located in the west would like to showcase new exhibits being held at two prominent New York City museums to her students. The teachers goal is to have her students take a tour of the museums and interact with the museum curators, in addition, to see and critique two individual art pieces. As a novice of distance learning and technology, the teacher has turned to the districts instructional designer to make this learning experience happen. As the ID, what distance learning technologies would you recommend where the teacher can provide the most effective learning experience for her students?

 According to the media program, “The Technology of Distance Education” defines media “sharing are web sites that facilitate the sharing content and artifacts such as text, pictures, videos, presentations, and audio files.” Media sharing would be a tool for the history teacher to engage her students in a “tour” of the two prominent New York City museums where the students can explore the museums through the aspects of media sharing. In today’s society students of all ages especially high school students’ use technology like it is second nature. Thus, using media sharing will allow and require the students to learn using “effective communication requires an active audience” (2009).

Another technology that I would suggest to the history teacher is a blogging site. The objective of blogging stated by Technology of Distance Education “is to build an online community of interest around a blogger’s writing. Blogs, which are also asynchronous, may include text, images, or links to audio, video and to other Web pages.” Blogging would be an effective tool for the students to communicate and critique the two individual pieces of art. In addition, blogging would allow the students to interact with each other rather than sitting in a traditional classroom and the teacher prompting discussions.

I did some exploring on the internet using Google search where I typed the keywords “media sharing” and “media sharing sites”. I discovered a school website that has a few pages that are delegated to media sharing and multimedia project helpers. Another site that I discovered which is very similar to what I use in the classroom is Discovery streaming is TeacherTube. This site of media sharing allows the learning to come alive, in addition, to optimize the learning of distance education as well as hybrid classrooms.

http://www.warrensburgr6.org/education/components/scrapbook/default.php?sectiondetailid=10560

http://www1.teachertube.com/

Resources

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., ALbright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: FOundations of Distance Education. NewYork: Pearson.

University, W. (Director). (n.d.). The Technology of Distance Education [Motion Picture].

Defintion & Future of Distance Learning

Distance Learning

Distance learning is a working definition that changes along with the advances in telecommunication and demands of learning/training. The evolution of distance learning since 1833 can be observed on the timeline of distance learning within our week one video resources.

Through the various definitions of distance learning, the main idea of all is the separation of teacher and learner. However, the supporting details of distance learning may vary according to experience, profession, and technology. According to the textbook, Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Education fourth edition identifies the main arteries of distance learning are: institutionally base, separation of teacher and learner via time zone or geography, interactive telecommunications, and the connection between learner, resources, and instructor.

After working, reading, and collaborating with classmates on the concept of distance learning, my knowledge and view of distance learning has evolved from what it once was. At first, I thought of distance learning as a diploma mill and watered down education. However, due to my professional growth, becoming a distance learner, and position as a Director of Education I have developed an understanding and need for distance learning. In addition, the learning is and maybe just as effective and efficient as a traditional classroom setting.

As a student of distance learning, my profession as an educator and passion for learning, I have a strong vision for distance learning. With the advances in telecommunication, need for flexible education, and budget cuts in K-12 education I agree with Dr. Simonson where he states that distance learning will continue to advance similar to a normal bell curve. Once distance learning reaches the top of the bell curve it will just need to be maintained with the improvements and need for distance learning.

In conclusion, distance learning, especially in K-12 education will continue to grow when traditional public schools are not meeting their AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) report and continued budget cuts. Therefore, more students will make the transition to distance learning where they are able to obtain better teacher student rations, catch up, or get the best education position. In addition, with the advances in telecommunication, the ability to interact with student through a variety of ways rather than just discussion board will enhance the learning experience of distance learners.

Resources

Simonson, D. (Director). (n.d.). Distance Education [Motion Picture].

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., ALbright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and Learning at a Distance: FOundations of Distance Education. NewYork: Pearson.

Distance Learning MindMap