8 - Week - Midterm

Midterm Degree

7 - Week - Close to Getting Somewhere. Maybe.

So this week, I've developed a site map that will function to inform the scenarios, which I also made! In MX last semester, I made somehow ended up making a lot more screens than I actually needed, and considering the tight schedule I'd like to try and avoid that, hah.


After the group crit I feel that I need to spend some more tine reflecting on the format that these scenarios are going to present themselves in. Been thinking iPhone, but maybe iPad would be more suitable. It's moved in a direction that it doesn't need to be that portable. And the iPad could make itself more available to being used by children too. Not to make the app for children, but perhaps some of these hypothetical activities could be performed on the ipad. Right now the scenarios are not device-specific.

Scenarios

Scenario # 1 Setting up the profile

either mandatory set or of enter settings on  their own?

1. download, enter app (show the icon on the screen)
2. enter assessment test. series of questions (based on the kindergarten screening)*will the parent do this or the kid?
3. chart is produced showing strengths and weaknesses
4. tap on certain areas to explain subjects/different categories
5. go back to chart
6. next screen, select areas of concentration, which will customize search results, tailored to child’s needs
7. tap on activity gallery button
8. search for an activity
9. select one
10.  tap to see more information, read through it
11.  save it for later use
12.  as your complete more activities with your child, you can check your progress

Finished

Scenario # 2 Geographically-specific features

1. open up app, go to the profile page
2. select privacy settings
3. turn on the “location-based” events
4. go to activities section
5. select the geocache tab. there you have the opportunity to select local areas (this would be like parks and playgrounds) that have been rated and reviewed by other parents
6. scroll through the information, probably an image, a rating, and a button that would take you to user comments. Areas would also display a list of related activities that one could do while at the location.
7. Can tap a location to save it to maps. You can prepare before you go.
8. go back to geocache page, select social opportunities.
9. view events such as library readings, and stuff like that
10.  can add events to iCalender

Finished
Scenario # 3 Being a part of a community

1. I have a question! tap on the community button
2. tap the search existing questions
3. use keyboard to type keyword
4. search
5. didn’t find what I was looking for, so I tab the “pose new question button”
6. type question and send, wait for a reply!
7. while waiting, you can check out the community
8. connect to friends who also use the app through facebook, your contacts, and the school that your kid is zoned for to find people to connect with
9. subscribe to friends
10.  enter contacts, can message them, request to have a play date, look through their saved activities to see what they like

Finished

****Want to work in how to connect with school, and potentially create a link between teachers and potential new parent/students.

6 - Week - 2-24-12

Again? Yes, sorry. After the small-group critiques on Monday Feb. 20, I ended up in another direction than I was previously going. Well, not so much another direction in concept, but in form. The book has been dropped, which is a pity, but I understand the reasoning behind the suggestion. With the time allotted, it was a pretty ambitious goal. Mostly the reasoning behind creating this book was to organize all of the research that I collected. It wasn't just a couple websites that I pulled resources from, but a lot of different, legitimate sources! But of course, I can just make a place for all that in the process portion of this project. I don't want to seem like I'm not doing anything though, so here are a couple spreads that I had started from the now-retired book.

Whatever! Now though, I feel a little set back, so I've got to spend a lot of time catching up, concepting for the new form of this project. First: another schedule! Hopefully I'll be able to stick to this one with minimal changes in the future. I've also built a little "wiggle room" into this timeline, in case any bumps in the road come along. This is mostly because the shift in the direction, I am not quite as sure about how this is going to happen? No, that's not true. I am sure, of what I'm doing, I'm just not quite as confident in this area of work, so I've given extra time to work out any kinks and make it look the best it can be.

For next week, I am going to spend a lot of time working out what functions I would like this application to have. I want to figure out all the experiences that it will encompass. This has also led me to thinking a lot about the form that this is going to take.

iPhone? Yes? Too default? Maybe? No.
I was hesitant to jump straight to doing an iPhone application, for the sole reason that it was an "easy" route to go. I want to make sure that what I create is informed by the content that will be in it, and I'm not just flaking out and going with the iPhone because it is the easiest solution. But the more I explore, the less it makes sense to create a whole new object, when the iPhone is a perfect medium to contain the functions. Perhaps speculative functions can be within the iPhone, rather than call for the creation of something completely new.

5 - Week - PROGRESS, PROGRESS, PROGRESS

First off, here is my revised schedule. It's generally the same, but I pushed some things forward so that I'm not working through the "presentation refinement" time allotment. Things are about to get busy busy busy! My goal is to push the book out rather quickly, created the second artifact based on the information and outcome of the book, and then make them into one cohesive design, so that they act as complements to each other. Very exciting stuff. What's also exciting is...

The beginnings of the book! I've pretty much completed going through all the materials that I'm going to be basing my project on. I've pulled from lots of books and resources sent by the Kindergarten team at Prairie Trail Elementary, as well as a few online resources to help supplement certain areas touched on, but not necessarily fleshed out in the teacher-given, more legitimate materials. First, I went through everything, and began arranging it into different categories that I might use in the book:

 

The reorganization of all this information was extremely beneficial, as it allowed me to break down the categories and assess how much content I actually had for each one. It also gave me a more in depth knowledge of what each category was about. Initially, I had seven total categories, like this:

 But, after mapping everything out, and accounting for areas where there was a significant amount of overlap, I've decided to pair several of the categories into compound categories instead. Social Studies and Social Development were very similar, and can easily be bridged into one-another. Math and science skills, while somewhat different from each other, both have an overlying theme of categorization and observation. Moving forward, I will be using these five categories (but not these colors! they're still left over from the very beginning!).

With all of that out of the way, it's time to start putting everything together! Here's the beginnings to the mapping out of the book. Very rough, I am just trying to determine the order of the book, and where to place the content that I've collected as well as content that I will be writing myself. Some of it I am still a bit unsure of, but it will clear up as I begin to put everything in its place. One thing I am a little concerned about it imagery for this book. It is meant for adults, yes, but I still feel that these pages will need some visuals! Not sure what that content will be like yet. My focus right now is on the written information and layout, not the filler pictures.

ps: forgot to add "bibliography" to the end of the book. Oops, that is definitely going to be there!

Here's a sneak peak at the beginnings of the book layout! I want to keep the middle open as a small area where tips, tricks, activity examples, or any additional tidbits will go. Now time to finish the grid and start dropping stuff in, got to stay on schedule!

HEY, IT'S A SCHEDULE. ONE THAT WILL CHANGE

4 - Week - Concepting and some Resources

The conceptual stage. Time is of the essence in this project, and while I want to ensure that the final product of all this is highly conceptual, meaningful, helping/useful, all that stuff...I also know that I need to keep in mind a certain weakness that I have in design. I’m pretty great at the conceptual stage, and then I get so comfortable in it that I have trouble moving on, and sometimes my final pieces lack a certain refinement, or finesse, as a result. I really don’t want to get stuck with this project, so while creating my schedule, I plan on building in a lot of time meant for refinement of visuals, rather than of concept. I feel like I’ve got a pretty solid concept anyway. But enough about that.

As I am beginning to create the content for my degree project, which right now I am thinking (open-mindedly!) will be a book (and then something else!), I am making sure that I reference solid, legitimate materials.

These are some of the materials that have been graciously given to me by the lovely ladies of the kindergarten team at Prairie Trail Elementary. Some of them are the very earliest materials they use in their classrooms, while others are handouts and exercises that they give to parents when they come in for the kindergarten screening in april before the next school year. I requested both kinds of materials from them because I was curious to see how big of a leap there was between what parents were encouraged to do, and what teachers were teaching the first couple weeks of class.

These papers, along with various books that I have borrowed from the teachers, is what I will be pulling my information and some of my activities from. On the other hand though, there are a wide variety of online resources I will be pulling from as well, most of them parent's blogs. This information, while not quite as easy to validate, is still valuable when trying to come up with new immersion activities. I'll definitely be taking some liberties of my own to categorize and/or create activities within my project.

Link Dump

Because I'm tired of them cluttering my bookmarks.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQrnI_1IdHw

http://www.naeyc.org/

http://playathomemom3.blogspot.com/

http://www.aiga.org/video-pivot-2011-salen/

http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_What_You_Need_Your/?page=6

http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/ready-for-kindergarten#recognition

http://school.familyeducation.com/kindergarten/school-readiness/38491.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columncc/cc010309.html

www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com

http://www.babycenter.com/0_kindergarten-readiness-is-your-child-ready-for-school_67232.bc

http://carlasnuggs.suite101.com/kindgergarten-readiness-a35942