Weekly Report 6

This week Alicia and I divvied up sections of the design plan and worked on our sections. Sunday we met on Aim and used Google Docs to combine and revise the sections we had written. We also discussed possible company titles and logo animations. We have decided to go with Harvest Productions, and create a logo of leaves falling from a tree to spell the company name. I’ve since started creating still pieces for the animation; a tree trunk, branches, bunches of leaves to go on the branches.
On Tuesday I’m going to give her a copy of the example Design Plan I have, and she is going to let me know what pages in the curriculum materials she loaned me are relevant to our project.

Weekly Report 5

This week Alicia and I met online again to discuss and develop our ideas. We discussed the Design Plan, how we will segment it so that we can each work on our own sections separately and then read over each other’s work and incorporate them. She is working on the audience analysis, which makes sense because she is around the target audience more and has access to more information as an employee of the school. We initially considered starting to work on the other sections but decided to hold off until Tuesday’s class. It’s an interesting back and forth between Alicia and myself. My natural instinct is to start working on something ahead of schedule, and stay ahead, so that there’s a buffer if something becomes delayed. Alicia’s natural style is to wait and make sure we have all the information we need, so that we don’t end up doing the same work twice.
We discussed the logo animation quite a bit. We both put ideas on the table, and we both rejected most of them; some because they were not feasible with our current skill levels, and some because they did not have a strong connection with computer software and/or instruction/education. I’m going to actually create the animation, but we’re both going to be involved in deciding what it is. I think the logo will be one of the most challenging elements.
While we were discussing ideas for the animation I felt very frustrated that I don’t know more. I have some programs of my own that would be very helpful in this task, but I haven’t had time to learn them yet.

Weekly Report 4

This week we tried meeting online, via AIM, as a method of working together on the Instructional Problem Statement. In theory one of us probably could have done it on our own, but I think it was helpful to try that method. It was very interesting. I don’t know how Alicia found it, but I thought it worked rather well. When we are using that method we can both choose a location and background situation that best suites us, whether that is having music playing, a TV on, or absolutely no sound whatsoever. Collaborating via an im system also has the advantage of being possible regardless of physical distance, so we could easily go on vacation but still work on the project together.

I think the only real weakness is that when I am working on an idea, Alicia can’t see what my idea is until it’s complete and I send it in a text message. Therefore there are long periods of silence while one of us is developing an idea, or the other is examining it after it has been sent as a message. In many ways I definitely agree that in person is superior, but when in person is not an option or is inconvenient, this works. I think it’s a good idea to experiment and try different methods of communicating and handling aspects of the project now, in the early phases, so that we can work out the kinks and know what works when things become more hectic. We don’t need all our documents to also be on a wiki, or as google docs, but I figure “why not”.

Weekly Report 3

This week we finalized the proposal and the omelet exercise. We chose to separate the work, Alicia would work on the proposal, while I worked on the omelet diagram. So far that has been the common method, separate the work into independent processes that we can each do on our own. It’s working out rather nicely, but I wonder if it will still be possible to divide the work in this method once the main project begins, and each process is intended to function like a puzzle piece, fitting in with the rest.

When I created the level 2 omelet diagram I intentionally made it larger than it needed to be, as practice for later. This one could have been made as a single column of sheets, but the final project will be too large. I think the best method is to try and divide the diagram into a series of columns of 8.5x11 sheets, and establish those columns as early as possible. That way you only have to align one page to the left or right of the main page, and then the rest are aligned from top to bottom. When pages are aligned top to bottom the PowerPoint Outline Sidebar almost simulates the diagram.

I also really like the idea of placing small geometric shapes with numbers inside them along the edges of slides. I chose to place them as mirror images of each other along the edge, the 5 triangle on the bottom of one page would also be on the top of another. Setting that up can be a little time consuming, but once it’s done that makes laying out the pages so much easier than a simple page numbering system.