Pro-D re: Anti-Bullying
Problem: Lenora’s web access is dial-up only. It can take a really long time to upload and download files. Plus she’s never created a web site before and doesn’t know anything about where one puts a website. Just because the creator of the website has dial-up doesn’t mean the users will be on dial-up access, so a website is a viable option. That being said, Lenora has a few options which I will list….
Upon reflection… after reading the posts of my classmates and seeing such a variety of options I still think that this approach would be highly effective.
Options
- F2F- F2F is a viable option for Lenora for a number of reasons: it will enable her to integrate technology at her level- thereby increasing her confidence; it eliminates the issue of dial-up; it caters to the oral traditions of the local cultures; it enables everyone to be in the same place at the same time-it’s inclusive (doesn’t isolate technophobes); and it could be followed up with one of the preceding options (she could even do a quick ‘how to’ tutorial for this follow up). Timeframe: 1 week- It would take her about a week to prepare a Powerpoint presentation, invite members and prepare venue.
- Website A website is a good option as well because: it would build up Lenora’s skills; if she created a simple, text-based website anyone could access it and it is easy to use. Timeframe: 3 weeks- Assuming she uses a simple web-page authoring program like Word she would be looking at a week to incorporate all of her material/resources and perhaps another week or 2 to get it online looking neat and tidy.
- Wiki/Blog This is an ideal method to encourage knowledge-building which would be easy for Lenora to learn how to implement. Lenora could begin by creating a simple Pro-D course which could be the basis of the discussion. It would also be a good place to share resources and links. Timeframe: 3 weeks- 1 week to learn about Wikis/Blogs and select which one to use, 1 week to prepare her resources and 1 week to get it up and running.
- Piggyback on www.cradleboard.org Why reinvent the wheel? As so many of you have already indicated, Lenora and her colleagues are already using this as a means of communication so why not tap into that? She could begin a Discussion Thread all about anti-bullying within the existing interface. Timeframe: 1 week- Lenora would not need much more time than this to set up a Discussion board for the anti-bullying topic.
- Yahoo Groups> An oldie but a goodie. Simple to use/implement and is a good option due to the dial-up only access since it does not use much bandwidth. Timeframe: 1 week- This gives her ample time to prepare the materials she wishes to present and post it into her group site.
- DVD A great idea for Lenora! She can learn how to author a DVD and send it to all of her colleagues with an invitation to join her at one of the above…. Timeframe: 4 weeks- Lenora would need to do some research/seek help/training to help her create the DVD- this could take 1 or 2 weeks. Then she would need time to create the DVD- 1 week and then 1 week to communicate with the others.
Based on the above, I feel that ideally Lenora would have a F2F session and follow it up with an invitation to join her Discussion Board on the www.cradelboard.org site (she could model how to use this site for those who are new to it at the F2F session) which could then link to the wiki that she creates. Furthermore, Lenora is lucky because it sounds like District 83 is very pro-technology. She may be surprised to find out how many people around her –physically and electronically- can help her see her project to fruition.