Susan
Herlong Kenney
EDIT 705
Instructional Design
Dr. Gary
Powell
SOLO- Writing
Productivity Software
Final Project
Background
The
school district in this project is a
relatively small urban district that has about 2000 students in 17
schools,
grades kindergarten through high school.
It also has about 15 preschool classes for students with
early
identification of special needs. The
students
come from many cultures and many have difficulties with written
language. This
project will focus on the 9th
grade Center for the district.
Population
There
are eight Special Education teachers
and six Special Education paraprofessionals new to the
Need
The
Augmentative Communication Assistive
Technology Team (ACAT) in the district described, has been working to
provide the
schools with Assistive Technology that can be used to help students
with
special needs with written language skills.
Students have difficulty following the writing process
because they have
physical disabilities that hinder their ability to type quickly or
learning disabilities
that affect their ability to spell and organize written work. This year the 9th
SOLO
is a software package that has four
different software programs that are integrated to enhance the
students’ use of
the writing process. The
first program Read:Outloud. This
program can help students in researching
information on a chosen topic. The
next
program is called Co:Writer. It
is a
word prediction program that helps students who have difficulty with
fine motor
control type with fewer key strokes. If a student has difficulty moving
s/he
will only need a small percentage of key strokes to type any word. It also helps students who
have trouble
spelling words they know receptively.
As
letters are typed, the program predicts word choices for the student. It has flexible spelling
so that if a student
is spelling f-i-l-o it will give word choices that begin with those
sounds. After
only four letters typed, the choices given are:
The
student may then click on the word or
choose the number in front of the word.
Draft:Builder
is a program that helps a
student organize thoughts, add details, and create drafts for writing. Students can use the spell
check and the text
to speech features for editing. It
also
has many templates that have cues for effective writing. This software can build
independence and
develop writing skills.
Write:Outloud
is a talking word processor
that helps students hear what they are typing.
Students can hear mistakes which is very helpful with
editing and
revising.
Problem
Statement
The
software programs
in SOLO can help students with written communication. Teachers have
never used
the program before.
Methodology
Innovation
Model, (Smith & Ragan p. 46
& 47)
1.
Determine
the nature of the change.
2.
Determine
the learning goals.
3.
Determine
if the goals are a high priority
4.
Begin
analysis of the learning environment.
Rationale
The
first change is the learner
population. There
are new teachers and
new paraprofessionals who are involved with the students with special
needs who
have deficits in written language.
Since
the 9th grade center has only one grade, most of
the students are
new to the building. The
addition of the
tools new to both students and teachers indicate the need for
instruction on
the software.
The
district’s focus on the expectation of
the use of technology in educational strategies used is also quickly
increasing. With
the new software and the contemporary
focus on the use of technology, teachers will be expected to use it as
an
integral part of their instruction.
The
teachers must know how to use the
software, teach students to use it effectively, and they must be able
to
trouble shoot when students have difficulties.
Successful instruction is a likely solution.
Innovation
Model will be used because the
software SOLO and the mobile laptop Labs have just been purchased for
the 9th
grade center.
4.
Begin
analysis of
the learning environment.
The
main resources currently available are
tutorials. Each
building has a notebook
that contains the paper based tutorials.
The teachers in the district also have access to
Atomiclearning.com
which contains many useful tutorials.
Having
access to these resources have had limited impact on the
learners’ need to
become familiar with the software.
Data
Collection
The
reading teacher and the Technical Resource
Teacher were consulted. They
agreed that
there were no teachers trained to use the software.
A survey
was conducted and it revealed the teachers did not know how:
q
What
the software
could do,
q
For
whom it could
be helpful, nor
q
How
to use it.
The
ACAT team interviewed teachers to
find that many of the teachers do not have
a natural inclination towards technology; they often feel more
comfortable when
taught a skill rather than being left on their own with tutorials. They also need to be shown
how to use the
technologies in situations that are familiar.
Because teaching this software in isolation would conflict
with the
heavily weighted content goals, they must be shown how it will help
them
accomplish teaching the content and skills students need to prepare for
and
demonstrate on the “High Stakes State Tests.”
Students
were given a questionnaire to
determine their feelings about writing, the
challenges they face, and possible solutions.
The students responded that the demand to write with a
blank piece of
paper often seemed to erase their minds.
While they would feel self-conscious about getting help
from adults, they
felt some guidance as they wrote could help them verbalize thoughts on
paper. Many also
mentioned that they
couldn’t spell the words they wanted to use.
It was hard to think of something good and then have to
try and think of
another way to say it using words they could spell.
Data
sheets were used to determine student use of generally
available word
processing software for written work.
Some
additional inhibiters are that
teachers and students may view the goals as another mandate giving more
work. Learning and
practicing software may
take time away from the content and/or recreation.
It is vital to show them how it can make
their jobs/assignments more efficient with better products resulting.
This
could be done only after the team observes
the teachers and students in the written language classes.
Summary
Because
the district requires the use of
more technology in classrooms, teachers must be willing to incorporate
software
programs into their classes. New
software programs have been found that can improve student writing
skills. Although
other contributing factors for the
lack of acceptance of the new software could be found, those factors
have now
been addressed and lack of training remains a problem.
The teachers who had been trained left the
school and the training given by the company was no longer offered. Teachers must be
trained on the software to
feel comfortable using it and to be able to teach it to the students.
The
new goals to increase the use of
technology in classrooms for both instruction and student work, could
be appreciated
by those who enjoy using technology and could intimidate those who have
little
experience with technology. Given
the
data accumulated through observation, interviews, questionnaires,
surveys, data
collection sheets, the team designing the instruction will be able to
incorporate all the ideas submitted. Including ideas from both those
who enjoy
technology and those who fear it will insure greater acceptance by most
of the
teachers.
Recommendations
The
software
programs in SOLO can help students with written communication. Teachers
have
never used the program before so the Innovation Model will be used.
Description
of Leaning and Performance Environments
There
are eight Special Education teachers
and 6 Special Education paraprofessionals new to the
2.
Nature
for curriculum into which this goal fits
The
goal is connected to the writing
curriculum. When
participants learn how
to use the software and train students to use it, the students should
be able
to use the writing process more effectively.
3.
Physical
(or virtual) facilities available
The
training will take place in a district
computer lab located about 10 minutes away from the 9th
The
administration has offered a 2 hour
training period during a departmental meeting on
4.
Instructional
hardware available
The
training room has 16 new PC computers
with the software installed. There
is a
projector and screen available that is attached to a computer for
instruction
and demonstration. The
computers have
state of the art tables with monitors built in the glass topped desks. There are ear phones and
retractable keyboard
trays.
5.
Characteristics
of environment where performance
deficit exists
The
environment where the deficit exists is
the 9th grade center of the school district
outlined in this
project. The
students come from two
middle schools in an attempt to unify students before they attend the
high
School. There are 8
Special Education
classes. The
students had minimal to
moderate needs.
Description
of Target Audience
Summary
of characteristics pertinent to task
1.
Cognitive
characteristic
The
Target Audience is a group of Special
Education professionals and their paraprofessionals.
The teachers have a minimum of a bachelor’s
degree and some may have a Master’s degree.
They are familiar with problem solving techniques and
methods of
pedagogy. They have between 2 years and 15 years teaching experience. They use
computers for administrative
classroom tasks.
The
second is a group of Special Education
paraprofessionals. One
has a Master’s
Degree, One has a Bachelor’s Degree, and 4 have high school
diplomas. Most of
the Paraprofessionals have little
experience with computers. One
is very
familiar with computers.
2.
Physiological
characteristics
From
the interviews and surveys several characteristics
were noted. Of the
teachers, most have
an internal locus of control. They
tend
to enjoy being in charge of their respective classrooms. 6 out of the 8 consider
themselves life long
learners.
Of
the Paraprofessionals, four are very
easy going but have an external locus of control. One has a tendency to
be uncomfortable
with changes in expectations. 4
do not
see themselves as learners. They
feel
more comfortable with following directions than giving directions.
3.
Affective
characteristic
The
teachers feel overwhelmed with the
demands already on them. They
do not
tend to gravitate towards new ideas and techniques.
All
but one of the paraprofessionals is
content to follow the lead of the teacher.
They don’t really want to invest time in
learning.
a.
Social
Characteristic
Observations
during the interviews revealed
that six of the teachers and one of the paraprofessionals are
extroverts and
enjoy being in the lime light. The
rest
are rather shy in social situations.
b.
Cultural
characteristics
Background
investigations were
conducted. Of the
employees Of the 8
Special Education teachers 4 are Caucasian, 2 are African American, and
2 are
of Asian decent. All
8 have grown up in
this country, 4 in
Of
the 6 paraprofessionals 3 are African
American, 1 is Nigerian, and 2 are from the
Goal
Identification and Task Analysis
Given a topic and a
computer with the
software program called Draft:Builder by Don Johnston, the participant
will be
able to open Draft:Builder and use it to create an outline, notes, and
a rough
draft of a paragraph. This goal represents a Procedural Intellectual
Skill as
described by Gagne.
Task
Analysis
1.
Open
Draft:Builder.
2.
Choose
“Create a New File.”
3.
Go
to “File”
4.
Click
“Save As.”
5.
Put
the number of the month and day with a title and
Participant’s initials.
6.
Click
“Save.”
7.
Type
the topic on the Topic Line.
8.
Press
“Enter.”
9.
Is
the line to be typed blue?
a.
No
i.
Highlight
all the words- Go back to 9.
b.
Yes
i.
Go to on to 10.
10.
Type
a sub topic.
11.
Have
I included all the
subtopics?
a.
No
i.
Go
to 8.
b.
Yes
i.
Go
to 12
12.
Go
to “File” and click “Save.”
For
the graphic representation of
the information see Appendix 1.
For
the prerequisite skills for each
step in the analysis see Appendix 2.