Communication
Communicate clearly to achieve professional goals using visual and verbal modes to explain and persuade
EDTEC 590 – Evaluation Techniques for the Performance Technologist
Artifact – NutritionLink Emerging Technologies Program Evaluation
EDTEC 590 – Evaluation Techniques for the Performance Technologist
Artifact – NutritionLink Emerging Technologies Program Evaluation
Context
For 590, a partner and I worked with the Nutrition Link program to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating and new and emerging media (podcasts, blog, etc.) into online curriculum in order to become more engaging and sustainable. There are many ways to describe emerging technologies; our working definition was newer technologies that have potential for instructional use.
Nutrition Link is a nutrition education program designed to improve nutrition and physical activity knowledge and behaviors of participating elementary students (grades 3-5). Nutrition Link takes a unique approach to nutrition education through a combination of in-class and web-based lessons that “link” nutrition and technology to enhance student learning and computer skill acquisition. The project sponsor we worked with hoped that incorporating new technology would reduce the need for staff to travel and that eventually the program could be conducted entirely online.
The challenges here included:
· Finding technologies that could be used for nutrition or similar curriculum
· Minimal resources and funding
· Student Safety
· Sensitivity to each schools system requirements
· Teacher adoption
During the course of the evaluation, we conducted a review of the literature, a survey and focus group of the teachers involved in the program. All three were essential in order to achieve a triangulation of data to formulate useful results.
Outcomes
Our research was extensive, trying to find viable options for the program that would not include the high costs that technology solutions often do. We also had to consider the various school site system requirements, as well as the teacher feedback while looking for options.
While conducting our Literature Review, we discovered that there was another challenge that we would have to overcome. It seems obvious now, but was not something we had anticipated. Emerging technology comes with many risks, the most important of which, for this project, was exposing the young students to the internet. We raised this concern on a status call with the client and, after a very brief discussion, we all agreed that any proposed solutions had to be locked-down and secure for the children’s’ safety.
Despite all of these challenges, in the end, we created a comprehensive Evaluation Report and presentation. The client read the report and was happy with it, but after attending the presentation, she sent us a note to thank us for breaking everything down so clearly in the presentation. She mentioned that the report, although well written, was hard for her to get through and would be difficult to market to her peers, supervisors and funding agencies. The presentation on the other hand would be well received and would likely get them the attention they needed in order to get the recommendations implemented. I did not follow up to find out what the outcome was for the program, but I was happy to think that we may have had a positive impact on the program.
Lessons Learned
I have to admit that I was initially concerned that our Evaluation Report may not be shared with other in the Nutrition Link program. There was a lot of work put into the report and ideally, I wanted everyone to read it in depth to help making related decisions. Since then, I have seen many times that presenting research and evaluation reports in a clear and concise presentation is essential when communicating with large or high-level audiences. I no longer assume that all stakeholders will read through a report and I realize the value of verbal explanations and graphical representation of data. I couldn’t have done it without my partner, but together we learned that we are capable to presenting complex data and information in an easy to understand presentation.
I believe this program is indicative of where many educational programs are moving and I have seen this happen in the time since this project was completed. The technologies that we classified as “emerging” back then (Podcasts, Wikis, Blogs and Games) are in regular use today in the corporate training world. These technologies are also being used widely in our personal lives and I believe they will slowly force their way into the world of Public Education.
For 590, a partner and I worked with the Nutrition Link program to evaluate the feasibility of incorporating and new and emerging media (podcasts, blog, etc.) into online curriculum in order to become more engaging and sustainable. There are many ways to describe emerging technologies; our working definition was newer technologies that have potential for instructional use.
Nutrition Link is a nutrition education program designed to improve nutrition and physical activity knowledge and behaviors of participating elementary students (grades 3-5). Nutrition Link takes a unique approach to nutrition education through a combination of in-class and web-based lessons that “link” nutrition and technology to enhance student learning and computer skill acquisition. The project sponsor we worked with hoped that incorporating new technology would reduce the need for staff to travel and that eventually the program could be conducted entirely online.
The challenges here included:
· Finding technologies that could be used for nutrition or similar curriculum
· Minimal resources and funding
· Student Safety
· Sensitivity to each schools system requirements
· Teacher adoption
During the course of the evaluation, we conducted a review of the literature, a survey and focus group of the teachers involved in the program. All three were essential in order to achieve a triangulation of data to formulate useful results.
Outcomes
Our research was extensive, trying to find viable options for the program that would not include the high costs that technology solutions often do. We also had to consider the various school site system requirements, as well as the teacher feedback while looking for options.
While conducting our Literature Review, we discovered that there was another challenge that we would have to overcome. It seems obvious now, but was not something we had anticipated. Emerging technology comes with many risks, the most important of which, for this project, was exposing the young students to the internet. We raised this concern on a status call with the client and, after a very brief discussion, we all agreed that any proposed solutions had to be locked-down and secure for the children’s’ safety.
Despite all of these challenges, in the end, we created a comprehensive Evaluation Report and presentation. The client read the report and was happy with it, but after attending the presentation, she sent us a note to thank us for breaking everything down so clearly in the presentation. She mentioned that the report, although well written, was hard for her to get through and would be difficult to market to her peers, supervisors and funding agencies. The presentation on the other hand would be well received and would likely get them the attention they needed in order to get the recommendations implemented. I did not follow up to find out what the outcome was for the program, but I was happy to think that we may have had a positive impact on the program.
Lessons Learned
I have to admit that I was initially concerned that our Evaluation Report may not be shared with other in the Nutrition Link program. There was a lot of work put into the report and ideally, I wanted everyone to read it in depth to help making related decisions. Since then, I have seen many times that presenting research and evaluation reports in a clear and concise presentation is essential when communicating with large or high-level audiences. I no longer assume that all stakeholders will read through a report and I realize the value of verbal explanations and graphical representation of data. I couldn’t have done it without my partner, but together we learned that we are capable to presenting complex data and information in an easy to understand presentation.
I believe this program is indicative of where many educational programs are moving and I have seen this happen in the time since this project was completed. The technologies that we classified as “emerging” back then (Podcasts, Wikis, Blogs and Games) are in regular use today in the corporate training world. These technologies are also being used widely in our personal lives and I believe they will slowly force their way into the world of Public Education.