LALA+-+Assessment

- review learning goals from semester 1
Our objective is to foster an online community to connect parents who are interested in learning and sharing technology as it pertains to their children's lives and their own parenting. Allowing interested members of a community to collaborate and contribute individual bits of information allows for a far more consolidated bank of knowledge, upon which the individuals can make informed decisions on what technology best fits their needs. While our intended outcome is ultimately effective knowledge sharing, raising awareness among parents on the current trends in technology and helping them make informed decisions concerning their children, there might be different outcomes and or outcomes that we can not control. At Virtual Village we have a collaborative learning environment with not time and content limitations and without any specifically set learning goals. Each members’ learning goals and outcomes might be different. Therefore more collaborative ways of assessments may be more suitable in this environment like self-assessment and collaborative assessment. While designing and building our Virtual Village with assessment and content in mind, we will feature a design principle that supports computer based learning and is centered on the users gaining, sharing and facilitating their knowledge to aid in increased learning and greater participation. Provided are some ideas on how will we be able to incorporate learning assessment and usefulness in our design project? 1. Users acting as facilitators 2. Use of a variety of presentation styles 3. Multiple exercises 4. Hands-on problems working with portfolios 5. Learner control of pacing 6. Frequent testing 7. Clear feedback 8. Consistent layout 9. Clear navigation 10. Available help screens
 * -consider new ways of assessment**
 * Self-assessment:** Self-assessment allows the members to think about their learning needs, goals and where they currently stand in their knowledge. Having short surveys with questions to initiate and guide this self-reflecting process might be used. These surveys will also keep us, facilitators, informed about the how much and how well the members learn.
 * Member assessment and feedback:** Giving and receiving feedback to each other, in any kind collaborative learning environment, is a key element of learning. In many work environments, especially now, professionals exchange feedback to guide their practice. As the community of practice will grow, hopefully this kind of assessment will become more common and effective.

By building in a query based system that upon completion of the query, it will E-mail an auto reply to our administrator system. The questions may include, but not limited to the following:

1. Describe their experiences while at the Virtual Village 2. Provide information on what services they found useful 3. Explain how they used the community 4. Make any recommendation/ suggestions as to how we can improve our community 5. Anything else that they would like to share.

Looking at the different taxonomies of learning, the members of our community will be at different levels in their learning. Our goal is to have enough diversity in terms of the knowledge and expertise, so that members in all the stages of their learning can benefit from the knowledge sharing. Considering this diversity we need to measure a range of learning that might happen:
 * - consider what are you measuring**


 * Foundational knowledge:** Is there a variety in the resources shared. Are there good descriptors on the resources shared and are there good questions asked about the descriptors.
 * Application:** Are best practices and problems solving ideas shared among the members on the uses of various resources?
 * Integration**: How creative are the members in using the resources in solving various problems and/or improving practices.
 * Human Dimensions:** How well do the members understand the problems being discussed and how well can they provide feedback addressing these problems.
 * Caring:** Do we see certain values and traditions built in the community based on what and how the members share and interact with each other.
 * Learning to learn:** One of our long term goals is that the members will be self-directed life-long learners. We want to measure how well do the questions asked by the members address the problems that they are trying to solve and how well their answers address and analyze the problems being solved or the questions being asked.


 * //- think about your audience//**


 * Parents:** Our intended audience is mainly comprised but is not limited to the parents of children 3-16. The dilemma we see facing this particular group is a lack of reliable, social space for parents to gather as the internet is a vast place with many venues. Without such a space, this demographic is challenged when trying to obtain valuable information from individuals they relate to and trust. This is especially true if technology is not within the individual’s comfort level to begin with.


 * Other professionals like teachers, administrators, researcher:** Professionals can contribute valuable knowledge in the field of education and technology to facilitate meaningful discussions. By participating in this knowledge sharing community, they can also gain some valuable insights about the common problems and concerns among parents today, which might be helpful in improving their practice or carrying on the research.

Resources: [] []

---
= Email-Inquiry sent to our reviewers =

As a parent, technology figures into the lives of our children more and more. There is a need to keep learning and sharing what we know about technology with one another. We have designed a website to help address that need, in what we think is a "social solution." Our hope is that through the website, facebook and twitter, our "Virtual Village" can become a community in which parents who relate to one another serve as both teachers and learners as we continue to develop of our tech skills together. So...the key success is participation. We want to see how parents of varying tech proficiency respond to the website and to one another in this online venue. We hope to see the start of a growing community. Here's what we'd like you to help us with. Over the next few days, visit our website, and follow us on Facebook and twitter. Try to check back on the Virtual Village community each day, in one way or another. If you can, jot down a few notes: What did you look at or do while visiting the Village? How did you contribute or participate? What did you like? What was helpful? What was confusing? Is there anything missing? What would you like to see added?

In about a week, I'll message you again, to ask for your response with some more specific questions. I'll ask you to tell me the "story" of your interaction with the Village. Those stories will help us gauge how well our Village is working, and how we can make it better. Here's the website: [] On Facebook: [] And on Twitter: [|https://twitter.com/#!/VirtualVillage1] In fact, if you have any other parent friends who might be interested in participating, please forward this message along to them. They wouldn't all have to respond on their experiences, but the more people looking at the website and contributing, the more our community can grow. Of course, if you have any questions, just let me know. And THANKS AGAIN.

I love the idea of It Takes a Virtual Village
 * Home**: The welcome is a little confusing. You mention learning, sharing, posting, having conversations. This is a lot. Maybe somesort of getting started or roadmap to begin? Do you want to hear from the parent orhave them look at your resources? For someone who hasn’t been to this sort of communitymight be a bit confusing, daunting.

Technology Tips:
Online safety, would add Common Sense Media website andsomething about checking school district policies. Learning About Technology vague. Would like some moreexamples above the links area. Social Media – maybe have some links there where parents cango to find ratings on sites and apps (age appropriateness, rules, monitoring) Conversation tab: - nice and easy to view and post. Submit a Resource – some examples and a word or twoabout copy write, stealing School Level links – As this section grows withresources, how will you categorize them? There’s actual online practice andprintouts for kids, then sites for parents to learn more about teaching theirown children, also advocacy sites.

I also don't like how the drop down menu looks, but that's really personal. The site is kinda retro and clean (I really like the colors, font and layout) and the drop down doesn't flow with that look.

More later!, Michele

Feedback 2 - From a user who is currently a 6th grade teacher who has no children of her own, but is an advocate for using and sharing technology.
What did you look at or do while visiting the Village?
 * Looked at the ELementary school section and Tech tips
 * Ditto to Tech section

How did you contribute or participate?
 * Primarily scrolled through and investigated the various linked articles and websites.

What did you like?
 * Layout was clean and organized--easy to navigate
 * The short descriptions after each link was useful to help decide what the subject/content covered would be and how useful the website was likely to be

What was helpful?
 * Layout was set on top and clear on what each section contained--little 'guess work'

What was confusing?
 * Not so much 'confusing' as would be nice to see--an approximate grade level of the sites and slightly more indepth description

Is there anything missing?
 * It would be great in the "Tech tips" section on how to use Nooks/KIndles/IPads/etc for kids education at home
 * For the "apps" part--what about Droid phones and tablets that are not IPads?

What would you like to see added?
 * A discussion are for readers to post and share questions and comments would be most useful--might be difficult to monitor, but could be a powerful way for readers to share their successes in using tech with their children.
 * Or a "Ask the teacher" column? Sort of a "Dear Abby" but geared toward bridging the gap between, school, home, and technology use?

What a great idea for a website! Very well done as well. :) I know everything is still in the works, but keep the Facebook and Twitter going.