Kicked off a new project with two faculty today.  Both are new to blogging and will have their students multi-blogging.  And, it includes the entire range of blog support (not podcasting or vblogging, mind you) from setting up the blogs to teaching faculty and students to blog and use RSS readers to track entries.

This will also be my first time teaching faculty to use Google Reader.  I’ve mentioned it before, but not to this level.  One of the faculty has Gmail, so it makes sense to put both into Google Reader to maintain consistency so they can share ideas between each other.

Overall, I’m really looking forward to the project.  Will post when the blogs go online.

Well, the survey results will tell, but it wasn’t one of my more energetic outings. That said, I do think the instruction went well and was received well. Also, it was the first session I’ve instructed which included such a wide range of departments. I had a faculty member, a few administrative assistants, someone from facilities and someone from the dining hall. That is pretty significant.

Learned a few new bits. You can format paint anything. Wasn’t aware that feature had such wide applications. Also, I was reminded of an issue with zip codes starting with the number 0. Certainly something to add to my mail merge classes. So, we’ll call that 1.5 new things since one was something I had forgot from years past.

The funny thing I will add about the class was how it flowed together for me. I had a plan, but didn’t really follow it once we got into the meat of things. I started realizing bits and pieces and there were questions which built a better flow than I had on paper. Ah, sometimes good things do happen. Who knows, if 999 more good things happen I might have to stop being a cynic.

Signing off and going home…

Another week, another workshop. Awesome. Always something to look forward to. And, if you read my earlier post, you will notice I ‘m a bit under the weather. Well, today is certainly my comfort zone. Teaching Excel is always fun and always pulls out some new bits I didn’t know about since there is usually at least one attendee who uses the program more or has used the program for longer than I.

I think everything is prepped and I certainly don’t have any nervous energy today. In face, quite the opposite. I’m rather drained. It will be an effort, but teaching is one of my strengths and I always seem to find it in me to put on the show.

It dawns on me, as I write this and still have my earlier post buzzing in the back of my mind, that this is why I’m here today. I feel horrible, but give up the chance to teach something? No, way.

Time to set up the laptops. Will report on the session when the opportunity appears.

WebHome < Barista < TWiki

Polished off the just-in-time-training modules for the G20 wiki site this morning. Thought I would take a moment to reflect on the process, the technology and my own satisfaction at completion.
The Process

This started last year with the idea of building a publicly accessible site for all-things G-20. To kick it off, we built both the wiki area and a set of phpBB driven discussion board fora. The primary aspect of putting both sites together was to create a public space to share links and such, which other universities could access, and a private space where faculty could carry on conversations.

The secondary benefit of both is for the Writing Center director to have the ability to bring other writers into the Barista web. This would include access to both the wiki and the discussion board. This will increase the number of professional writers sharing information and also give the director a platform through which he can show the capabilities of the teaching area and inform them of some elements of teaching.

It did take some time. Knowing we needed to both upgrade the lab (software upgrades were certain, but hardware was possible) and the Twiki engine, things were delayed. And delayed. But, the process went rather smoothly once everything was in place.

The hard part was accessing and figuring out the processes by which the various operations were completed. Once I had a rough outline of each, it was another difficulty to access the room with enough time to knock out one or two lessons at a time. Normally, I focused on just getting the text elements down while doing some quick screen captures during the process. With the text up, I had a base from which to work.
The screen captures were thrown into Word and emailed onto myself for later copying into Photoshop and some doctoring before putting on the wiki. This didn’t result in the best quality images, but did save considerable time and allowed me to focus on what I could do in G-20. Though, I do wish a few of the images had come out better. But, for what is needed, I think none of the images detract from helping people through the process. It is something I will think of as I go into the first revision towards the end of this semester.
The Technology

Specifically, the technology I used for the tutorials, not the technology available in the room.

Twiki: I wasn’t happy with the last version of the Twiki software. I found it to contain many of the poor interface elements I’ve disliked about “out of the box” solutions for some time. However, the newest version is very nice. Better layout and with the wysiwyg editor, it is extremely easy to add content. Also, the ability to add images to the lessons went very well. It is a bit bewildering to figure out some of the markup to get the format just right, but considering this is an online, edit through your browser application, I am quite impressed.

Screen capture: I need to find an easy to install method for grabbing Windows elements on the fly. Using the default screen capture built into Windows (print screen) isn’t the great. And, if followed by dropping it into Word docs for later access, you do lose quite a bit of quality. Not enough to divert me towards finding a more complex solution to save such a slim amount of image quality, but something to have in place before the next round.

My own satisfaction

I have a lot of satisfaction with the project. In the end, it doesn’t look nearly as nice as something I could have created in Dreamweaver, but it isn’t supposed to. I kind of look at Wikis formatting along the 80/100 rule. 80 percent on time, 100 percent late. But, I would change it to: Wiki’s give you 80 percent quality with everyone able to compose and contribute. Websites give you 100 percent quality but you’re on your own. Does that make sense? And, right now, 80 percent is pretty damn good.
Looking back at the timeline, I wish I had started on what I knew was going to remain stable through the upgrades. Looking back, I knew the Digital Presenter, overhead projector, audio cabinet and Smartboard would either stay completely the same or have very few changes to workflow. I should have focused on those in the spring. Now, in my defence, it isn’t like life was peachy and I was sitting around with nothing to do. In fact, the spring, both personally and professionally, were extremely busy. But, a few hours spent back then would have saved many hours in the fall and allowed an earlier completion date.

Note: For those not familiar with the University of Richmond campus, G-20 is one of our high-end labs used by the writing faculty for enhanced instruction. It is the creme de la creme of our public labs.

I believe, overall, the class went well. I did’t rush too much (for me) and there were very few breaks where I had to go catch someone up. That is always a good sign.

The problem with the course was the hodge-podge variety of what we covered. Not enough time to teach all of Windows XP, so you give them a quick overview of the process for each bit and piece, answer any questions they have and then let them refer to the handout if they can’t pull the process from memory.

It will be interesting to read the survey results. Teaching a workshop is often like taking a test: you think you did an A (or D) job and the grade is a C (or B) and completely throws you for a loop.

1:20 p.m. Woosh. Start this blog on an up note. Going to teach a short course today. Nothing too complex. Just a quick introduction to some time-saving customizations and capabilities of Windows XP. Should be quite enjoyable. Small group, 9 so far, but could get one more in before we kick off at 2:30.

The course is basically designed around the Windows Basics: Tips and Tricks course I did for last year’s Professional Enrichment Conference here at UofR.

I wish the week hadn’t been so busy. Last year, I wrote some humerous (or at least I think so) bits into the PEC handout and kept them for this session. Wish there had been more time to add some fresh jokes. I don’t feel they take away from the experience and always seem to keep everyone relaxed. We’ll see how it goes today. I’ll have to ad-lib a bit. Maybe some soft-shoe. I know I can get a cane, but where can I get a hat?

Also, there are several people attending the class who I know pretty well. It always helps to know a few of the attendees. Gives you someone to focus on. And, it is especially good when the people you know coming will laugh at even your worst attempts at humor. Come to think of it, those people should get gold stars. They really help to break the ice and keep the intensity down.