Final Days: HTML and Presentations

As I mentioned much earlier, all the files designed for the DoE project had to be completed in Microsoft Word. Now that I had submitted all of the pages to the DoE in that format, it was time to "convert" it all to HTML so as to send them the direct files for posting. (The idea was that the MS Word files would be cleared for content and security, and that then the HTML files would be posted directly onto the Ed.gov site. I'm not sure why this could not be sent to the DoE in HTML to begin with but I suspect it is for security reasons.)

It was during this phase of the project that I discovered how much of a pain in the $#@!! it is to turn MS Word files into workable HTML. The main reason: MS Word inserts all kinds of nasty code of its own into any MS Word document. Why MS Word does this is completely unclear to me. What is clear to me is that nobody who works even the teensiest bit with HTML ever wants to take content from Word and make it HTML-friendly. Don't believe me? Go ahead. Do a Google search. It's a bit of a nightmare.

Now, before I go further: a brief history. I know basic HTML. I mentioned before that I used to be an early-adopter. Yeah, so in 1995, I was bored in the UBC computer lab (read: procrastinating) and decided to teach myself HTML so that I could create a Geocities site (in Netscape, no less). Oh, remember the days? That was around the same time that I was a CompuServe chat room hostess (little known fact) and I was determined that this Internet thing was going to be SO COOL.



Yeah, so anyway, I know basic HTML. I can create lists, headings, change fonts, and other basic stuff. I never moved my HTML skillz forward because I really didn't find coding nearly as exciting as English lit, music, and socializing, which took up the majority of my time at UBC (and not in that order). I was too interested in "the social web" before it was ever called that, and although I thought it was SO COOL to create my own website (which I did, and which no longer exists), I really only maintained the basic skillz so that I could tweak bits here and there when I needed to. And really, this was all I needed.

Until now.

Aside from the fact that I've been working on my own website, blog, and professional portfolio, I needed to up my HTML game for this DoE project. What to use, what to use? By this time, iEARN had been able to upgrade their version of Adobe CS, and so the new Dreamweaver was at my disposal. Yay! I thought it would be simply a matter of:

1. converting the Word docs to HTML in Word
2. opening in Dw
3. stripping the Word code
4. refining a bit

What it ended up being instead was

1. converting the Word docs to HTML in Word
2. opening in Dw
3. stripping the Word code
4. cursing
5. repeating all of the above
6. cursing some more
7. searching on Google for how to get rid of span this and /span that
8. repeating all of the above two or three times
9. perusing message boards and Yahoo answers
10. removing individual pieces of code from the main documents
11. crying as I realized I had 14 more documents to do this with before I could combine them all and add anchors
12. begging Diane and Jeff, iEARN's web developer, for help
13. experimenting with different ways to import HTML from Word into Dw (repeat, repeat, repeat -- ain't nothing like learning by trial and error)
14. finally realizing (THANK YOU, JEFF!!) that the best way to do it was to copy & paste from the Word document itself and then apply HTML formatting to the content in Dw
15. repeating that last step for every file
16. adding anchors throughout
17. adjusting image sizes, alignment, and adding "alt" tags
18. cursing again at the table alignment but resigning to their being "good enough"
19. offering prayers of hope to the tech gods that I never again have to move content between Word and HTML again

… and before I knew it … Oh who am I kidding… about 3 days later than I had anticipated, I had the necessary HTML files to send on their merry way to the DoE! :)

Now, my official internship and the project itself is COMPLETE -- HURRAH! We are still waiting for the official stamp of approval from Ed.gov for the site to go live, but in the meantime we are preparing a presentation for the Global Education Conference next week. I do hope you join us as we walk people through the new Teachers Guide to International Collaboration! Perhaps I'll write a separate post about that.

Top Image by itspaulkelly under this license.
Lower Image by webmove under this license. 

On blurry lines and shoes that fit...

Right.

So back to that ginormous DoE guide. A.K.A.: The Internship Continues!

Okay. How do I sum up 6 months' work in one blog post?

As I said, I began with the page of the DoE guide that got the most hits. And it did end up being the page that consumed the most of my time. But I worked my way through that page -- it turned into pageS -- and then moved from there to other pages, based on the analytics that the DoE staff were able to give me about number of page hits, referrals, etc.

There was a lot to be changed. Links didn't work. Sites -- or entire organizations -- had dissipated. For every existing resource, project, or contact person, I had to contact the person in charge and find out if it was still current, or if changes were to be made. This meant many hours of e-mailing and following bread-crumb trails through WHOIS searches, filling out forms on contact boxes, and tweets to the tune of, "Does anyone know anything about… ?" (SPECIAL SIDE NOTE: if you have a blog or a website, please consider putting your e-mail address on there somewhere! A contact form is not enough as it does not give the user an option of having "proof" of contact -- i.e., a copy of the communication -- which is often necessary for work, accountability, follow-up, etc.)

And so... we made changes!

We removed one entire section of the guide due to lack of relevant resources: Vocational and Life Training.

We combined the Languages section of the guide to streamline projects and to not make it seem like any languages were given preference or higher status. World languages are languages of the world, after all.

We added a page on Web 2.0 resources and tutorials -- and discovered a host of controversies surrounding how to classify tools in a digital age.

"Twitter is not a collaboration tool." "Yes, it is." "Well then what about Facebook?" "There are no document-sharing tools other than GoogleDocs. Why is that?" "They are too expensive." "How can teachers use Prezi for collaboration?" "Is Prezi a collaboration tool? Maybe we should call it a presentation tool." "But it does so much more than presentation tools like PowerPoint, and we're not even putting PowerPoint in here." "Is Skype really a Web 2.0 tool? It doesn't live on the Web -- it's downloadable software. And there are other web-based video tools." "I know everyone is using Skype but do we have a guide for newbies?" "What about wikis? Are they the same as CMS tools like Blackboard and Weebly?" "Wait, Weebly is for creating a website -- is that the same as CMS?" "Do we even have a CMS section?"

… and so on. So, please note that when you access the Tutorials and Guides section of the DoE guide, the categories are more like suggestions than they are labels. What I learned in working on that particular section is that most Web 2.0 tools (I hesitate to even use that nomenclature) are not easily classifiable -- they do many different things, and teachers use them in many different ways. There is no single way to use any tool, I guess. I mean, I knew this before, but trying to nail down what any tool does or does not do was tremendously difficult. My goal was to put it in the framework of "How will this help teachers and their students collaborate internationally on project-based learning?" Once I remembered that question (thanks to Diane for always reminding me of the purpose), then I found it much easier to write about how to use the tool and suggested implementation strategies.*

The tool should support the goals of the project.

We ended up discovering and therefore highlighting some VERY cool projects on various subject area pages -- many of which I had never heard of before but look so exciting. Global Dreamers, anyone? Rock Our World? Global Art? Those are just a few of the examples of projects that had a big "Wow!" factor for me -- and I've seen a lot of projects over my 12-year teaching career.

And then, with all the content more-or-less complete (and having made contact with some 100+ educators), it was time for the next phase: HTML.

*Note: I have to sheepishly admit here that I also discovered (and included) some tools that previously I had not considered as being instruments for student or teacher collaboration. Twitter, Glogster, and Prezi are all good examples of this. Twitter I saw primarily as a networking tool, not a collaborative one. Glogster I saw as a presentation tool, also not collaborative. In both instances, my quick tweets to my PLN definitively changed my mind, as colleagues directed me to resources, projects, and communities where these tools were being used collaboratively in ways that were A) not difficult, and B) truly transformative. I duly noted these and changed both my tune and the appropriate DoE documents. But perhaps the biggest turnaround for me was regarding Prezi. Having been introduced to Prezi back when it was still in private beta, I was not all that impressed with its clunkiness. (Such is one disadvantage of being an early adopter, and as a result I'm rarely an early adopter of anything these days; I've learned my lesson!) I saw Prezi as a "sparkle 'n' dazzle 'em" presentation tool that teachers just thought looked "cool." I did not see it as a collaborative tool whatsoever -- until Rob Newberry introduced me to Prezi meeting. I knew Rob was the go-to Prezi-for-edu evangelist in my PLN, and so sent a few tweets his way, much as I had when I was exploring Twitter and Glogster as collaborative tools. However, rather than point me in the direction of an example of how to use Prezi with students, Rob invited me right then and there to a Prezi meeting… and really, that's all it took: this skeptical mind was changed. I was pleasantly surprised to see how much Prezi had changed since 2008. Within less than 5 minutes I was suddenly saying, "Ohhhhhh-kay. Now I get it. Now I see how this could be collaborative." So, the lesson here, folks: don't knock it till you try it! There are some very creative things happening in technology for learning, and we shouldn't discount it just because it "looks" like the shoe won't fit. Even Cinderella knows to try it on first. ;)




Top Image by EvelynGiggles under this license.
Lower Image by Shopping Diva under this license. 

Building Blocks

Wow, so where to begin?

I haven't updated my blog since… well… since my internship period "officially" ended. Well… the time period ended but the internship did not!

Turns out that the DoE guide was going to be a lot of work. And iEARN wanted me to finish what I'd started… so my internship continued, so to speak. I'll divulge more on that in my next post.

But let me get back to what I was saying previously, just to give a brief update on Project #3: The Getting Started Guide for teachers new to iEARN projects. I'll start with the ending: It's done! You can view it here. (Yay!) In summary:

    •    I aggregated the data from the surveys. I also learned pretty quickly which parts of my survey sucked, and which parts were super-informative. (Note to self: the "Rate the following on a scale of 1-5" types of questions are most difficult to aggregate.)
    •    I created a killer report of all the survey findings, and presented it to Lisa, who was a bit surprised by some of the findings. In particular, that many teachers wanted video and lesson plans to help them as they were getting started in iEARN projects.
    •    After discussing the report with Lisa, I carefully chose content sources for devising a new guide. Basically, I ended up repurposing what iEARN already had, and adding several other sources here and there throughout the guide.
    •    I was disappointed to discover that it just was not going to be possible to create what teachers wanted / needed most: videos and lesson plans to aid them with their understanding of iEARN projects. The reasons we could not do this are wide and varied; suffice it to say it boiled down to time and resources -- isn't that always the case? Not to mention that many teachers in iEARN are accessing content from countries with slow (read: dialup) internet access, and so text always wins over audio or video. However, Lisa assured me that iEARN was aware of the need for more support to teachers in this manner and that the redesign of the Collaboration Center as well as some new resources in online and face-to-face workshop professional development would (hopefully) cover these needs. So, I feel like this is being addressed, despite my desire to have created some dynamic, media-rich resource for the iEARN global page! Ah well… the newcomer can't know or do everything, right?

So, the Getting Started Guide is done. It's not perfect (far from it) but it's a place where teachers who have never done an iEARN project can go to begin, and hopefully the iEARN staff can use this new guide as a building block for future developments.



Image by 10000spoons under this license.

If we knew what it was we were doing...

I've never really thought of myself as someone who's an extraordinary researcher. Really, I figured that what I can do is really what anyone could do with a bit o' smarts and an Internet connection. In my teaching career, I've worked with some crazy amazing librarians who have found answers to questions (mine and kids'!) before the question was even punctuated. I have marveled in their style and efficiency. I've never fancied myself as much of a librarian, or a researcher, for that matter, but several times in the last academic year, my peers have mentioned that my research skills are sharp. I  always thought (and still do) that they were just being polite.

Working on the DOE guide made me a better researcher.

That is the plain and simple truth. First of all, this project required me to not only check every link that was on each original page -- tedious! -- but it also required me to find new projects and make contact with all and any educators who were involved. Wow!

Considering how many pages the DOE guide was, (90+ when printed!), I decided I needed to prioritize. I emailed the DOE contacts again, via Ed. This time, I asked for some stats. I wanted to know which pages got the most hits. They responded shortly with not only the number of hits of each page but also the top referrals. This was very useful and allowed me to find a starting point.

I started with the page that by FAR got the most hits. And, unsurprisingly, it ended up being the page that consumed the most of my time by FAR on the DOE project overall. :)



Let the combing begin.

Image: 'What on earth!?!? (302/365)' by Tony₂
Edit: P.S. the title comes from this Einstein quote about research.