ICTC/FIT/Community/Teachers Portal

Home Page for FIT Community - Teacher's Portal

 * FIT Landing Page - PhotoShop image with four (4) Areas of Concentration - Photoshop image and some detail

Featured Teachers

 * Featured Teacher (with tags)
 * Each province (if possible), and various concentrations in the FIT program

Fit Program
- Randy Fisher 18:59, 9 November 2012 (UTC)
 * Overview (details about the program, including Areas of Concentration - Photoshop image and some detail
 * FIT in Your Province / Provincial Updates (i.e., twitter or RSS feed to update page, instead of manual updates)
 * what schools in my province are FIT schools; what content came from my province?

Media (news)

 * coming soon!

Communications Strategy
See: http://www.wikieducator.org/ICTC/FIT/Community/Communications

Teacher Professional Development
- Randy Fisher 17:04, 7 November 2012 (UTC) 1. How would we train teachers about the FIT program
 * See page: http://wikieducator.org/ICTC/FIT/Program

2. Teaching resources: lesson plans, ideas to fill the gaps in the provincial curriculum, teaching resources etc.
 * also includes lesson plans, competency resources, and interactive resource development (videos, peer sharing, FIT Community, etc.)
 * Get an example of the competencies that are difficult to find resources for
 * Definitions (abbreviated) of competencies

Areas of Concentration

 * 1) Interactive Media
 * 2) Definitions and Resources
 * 3) Lesson Plans, links etc.
 * 4) Software Design & Development
 * 5) Definitions and Resources
 * 6) Lesson Plans, links etc.
 * 7) Business and Information Analysis
 * 8) Definitions and Resources
 * 9) Lesson Plans, links etc.
 * 10) Network Systems & Operations
 * 11) Definitions and Resources
 * 12) Lesson Plans, links etc.

General Skills

 * 1) General Technical Skills
 * 2) Definitions and Resources
 * 3) Lesson Plans, links etc.
 * 4) General Business Skills
 * 5) Definitions and Resources
 * 6) Lesson Plans, links etc.

FIT FAQs (Modules - 6, or 12?

 * See: Frequently-Asked Questions

News

 * (front page News feed; point people to resources; # of people and schools signed up to FIT, etc.)
 * TAB: Media on the front page

Newest Videos, etc.

 * Videos, podcasts
 * Info from Newsletter Content -

FIT Community - Secure Login

 * Login -
 * Areas of Concentration (PhotoShop image)
 * 1) Interactive Media
 * 2) Competency Profiles & Standards
 * 3) Software Design & Development
 * 4) Competency Profiles & Standards
 * 5) Business and Information Analysis
 * 6) Competency Profiles & Standards
 * 7) Network Systems & Operations
 * 8) Competency Profiles & Standards

General Skills

 * 1) General Technical Skills
 * 2) Competency Profiles & Standards
 * 3) General Business Skills
 * 4) Competency Profiles & Standards

Other Resources & Materials in Secure Site

 * Image of FIT diploma (low-res)
 * Certificate / Poster - FIT materials (hanging in schools)
 * Marketing / Promotion materials
 * Reports (CITC, Labour Market, Other)
 * Discussion area (maybe)

Requirements, Functionality & User Interface

 * Developing a framework to set up a site that easily gives rights, permissions to someone in Manitoba to set up video.

Technical Requirements

 * No. of users per month (unique visitors - 200 users per month)
 * How much data this will serve up / bandwidth
 * i.e., grabbing video across Canada 100x - how will site hold up; painfully slow (with 2 people); new hosting system (beefed up)


 * Communication -
 * Hosting
 * Where is audio / video hosted? Our server; You Tube
 * Pros / Cons
 * Image gallery

What will teachers to be able to do?
- Randy Fisher 16:23, 14 November 2012 (UTC)

Teachers have to sign up for an account and login, and update their profile...
 * New Teachers: - ideas for getting started (see an example of a teacher community: Scratch @ MIT
 * Experienced teachers: could contribute to this site through these activities) -
 * upload lesson plan on photography, and tag the lesson plan with the area of concentration, competencies that it meets; and will appear inside the area of concentration (i.e., if tagged interactive media, it will be tagged accordingly) -
 * Uploading and sharing images
 * Uploading and sharing videos

Communicate with other teachers (i.e., discussion area (could also be on the landing page
 * Find / search for interesting content, for use in classes taught
 * RSS feeds set up by area of concentration, and site-wide feed - then these can be redirected anywhere
 * program updates, content by province

Carousel of rotating images (Featured Teacher)
 * Search resources by competency
 * Peer rating of resources; FIT-Certified, etc.
 * collection, grade level
 * by competency (display the tags you want) - (teacher can choose the competency it meets)
 * views (select the view you want to show)

Teacher Content
= Website =

Priorities

 * What priority is the website? (high, medium and low priority, time-sensitivity)?
 * HIGH


 * FIT Portion of the website
 * HIGH


 * FIT Community
 * HIGH


 * what priority is it for the teachers to share content?
 * MEDIUM - Right now we need content up there / content can be static for the launch and then keep going, then we have another 24 months of work ahead of us; I just need content as a place to go to, and then we can make it better and better.


 * What is the priority for multiple users to update content (Emily, RF, JOT, teachers) i.e., collecting, sharing FIT and education tools and artifacts
 * HIGH - but there are challenges in accessing the backend of the website; two people very overloaded right now (EJ, LJ) and JOT and RF access
 * Tracy will be talking to Sandra about access to web development - talking to her on Tuesday, November 20
 * Jamie and Randy have been given read / write access to the website.

Website Development

 * What development work has been done so far on the DEV site?


 * Tracy doesn't know; Garth set it up, but only Emily has permissions
 * Current plan: JOT does development, hands off to Emily, and Emily updates website


 * FIT portion of website
 * Emily is doing all of content development and functionality here
 * FIT-Community / Teachers Portal portion of website
 * CURRENT - JOT does development, hands off to Emily and Emily updates website.
 * FUTURE - JOT does development; collaborates with team, team gives &amp; gets feedback on content and functionality; content moves from draft to live


 * Where is the active URL (URL given is no longer active)


 * ACTION: Every time URL is updated, moved or changed - key people must informed (Tracy and JOT)
 * http://focusitstage.ictcweb.net/ (was suppose to redirect to new - Garth)
 * Has a clone of the current DEV site been created? (ask Garth) (Saved daily)
 * Who has access to DEV site (i.e., admin privileges) - Randy &amp; Jamie;
 * Emily, Garth (Tracy is asking Sandra to change permissions)


 * What's been done so far (i.e., other portion of website? our portion of the website (does Dec. 17 include only text-based content OR is more expected (i.e., functionality)


 * ASK EMILY.


 * What is the Go-Ahead Plan for the content - does Jamie / RF provide the content, and then Emily puts it up? (looking into chaning workflows - Jamie provided with permissions)

Server Resources
What resources does the current website have? (i.e., national website) - 1,000 websites - Canada website Who has server level access?
 * processors, RAM, dedicated resources (how they are configured) -
 * what is being dedicated to this site - i(i.e., RAM, processing power on the server - will it be able to handle the anticipated load
 * GARTH

Functionality and Testing

 * Searching for plugins based on requirements


 * Emily


 * Installing plugins and ensuring NO conflicts with other plugins, functionality (i.e., stability)


 * Emily (Jamie was allowed, but then permission revoked)


 * Randy will suggest keeping a running schedule of activities
 * Randy will suggest keeping a running schedule of activities


 * JOT testing on DEV site (i.e., requires account and permissions, access to the website and server


 * TBD


 * When does content / functionality go live (taking into account migration from DEV server to live site)


 * This should be December 17, 2012. There is a period leading up to January 8th, 2013 - which is a Professional Development day in NB, where we will benefit from user testing / requirements gathering as a result of their input and feedback - Randy Fisher 21:47, 21 November 2012 (UTC)

Decision Points

 * Are we definitely using the current server (describe please)with WP;


 * This is now Pier I in Canada


 * Is there a separate install of WP?


 * No - not until the official - go live launch date.


 * Do we use the same WP instance as is being used for the website.


 * Tracy: For now yes. After the official - go LIVE launch date that will change.


 * Coordination &amp; Communication - who is doing what, when?


 * IN PROCESS -

Soft Launch - What Does It Include?

 * DATE: December 17, 2012


 * Clear understanding of what soft launch includes (because there's no place to put content right now)


 * one person working on web content; working on many things; getting pulled off


 * What exactly will the website look like on the day of soft-launch?


 * TRACY
 * Wireframe, buckets of content that's supposed to be there; what's supposed to be in the bucket;

Other Questions
TRACY
 * NB / Jamie - share what we're doing; what would best serve NB and Canada as a whole;
 * Brian was going to access to a server - showing something by Nov. 15
 * CLARIFICATION: Jamie and Brian discussed the possibility of NB servers to build a mockup of what could potentially be done with the FIT site, instead of just the Photoshop mockup - but a decision was made not to pursue it. The reason being, that Randy and Jamie worked on putting the workplan / outline on the wiki (here) and it has been very useful in getting folks on the same page, and moving things forward.

Overview

 * continuing activities
 * soft launch - December 17, 2012
 * user recruitment and TORs (December 2012) - speaking with Brian Gray (November)
 * User Testing: Brian Gray, NB Teacher ProD day - 50 FIT Teachers, January 8, 2013
 * Integrating feedback (January 2013 - Weeks 3 &amp; 4)
 * providing "requirements" and user feedback - navigation, useability, functionality - 'user experience', for next generation of FIT Community
 * Note: Jamie on vacation December 24 - Jan 7, 2013


 * hard launch (February 2013)
 * rolling updates (March 2013)

Work to Date (up to December 3)
Mockup created with Four (4) Concentrations Content Development
 * Resources being collected (at least 1 of each) - and wiki updated with content or links to content (JOT)
 * Dennis Hitchmough to provide scoping report)


 * FAQs / Modules being developed (text)
 * ICTC-FIT FAQs - completed
 * FIT-FIT FAQs - in development

Functionality & Requirements
 * identify functionality and requirements
 * estimate time and resources to achieve such functionality
 * identify plugins
 * Buddypress

Outstanding:
 * Jamie's access (permissions) to DEV site - Randy Fisher 13:40, 4 December 2012 (UTC)

Estimate time, planning resources

 * creating plan
 * cost / lifecycle cost - including server requirements, hosting, maintenance
 * Specifying user requirements and functionality:
 * Integrate user feedback from ProD day, continue implementation {January - weeks 3 & 4)
 * Communicate everywhere - newsletters, other teachers, admin, partners, etc. (integration with Communications / Stakeholder Engagement Strategy)

Short Term

 * Number of users: 200
 * Data requirements -
 * YouTube (embedding your own video or YouTube)

Medium Term

 * Number of users: 500
 * Data requirements -
 * YouTube / Our Server

Long-Term

 * Number of users: 1000+
 * Data requirements
 * Our Server

Option A: Pros

 * currently in use
 * permission-based content management system
 * widely used for blogging, content development
 * Open source
 * large user and development community

Option A: Cons

 * customized functionality time-consuming (and expensive)

Option B - Pros

 * functioning website in 1 months - that does all of what is required.
 * 4 weeks - user testing - on January - yes, if we got going in 2 weeks
 * ready to be used in 2 months (uploading video content)


 * hosted video, audio, image galleries; all formats play
 * super-easy to use for end-user
 * super-easy to use for reps
 * super-easy to use for teachers - easy upload process into the system
 * super powerful display of content
 * completely separate - wouldn't affect the rest of the site
 * get site, and paying the hosting (scalable)
 * easy to roll into FIT into a box - all scalable
 * very good tagging
 * no hunting around for plugins
 * no impact on other site
 * scalability
 * easy maintenance
 * open source

Option B - Cons

 * pay additional funds: $3K - covers website hosting, and maintenance (1 year); backups, module updates, and site optimization
 * dual systems - WP and Other
 * work to date on WP Teacher Portal site stops
 * large user and development community

Challenges

 * Since JOT is not an expert in WP, significant research and testing is required to come up with the functionality and plugins required for appropriate functionality
 * Hosting on YouTube: difficulty with control over content even though we / teachers and users own the rights to their content.

Useful Links & Info

 * http://www.oercommons.org/ (tagging - cool stuff with lots of content; (left side); searchable repository
 * http://www.oercommons.org/oer

Important Information

 * Vacation: Jamie, Christmas Break - Dec. 24 - Jan. 7 (2 weeks)

Newsletter
Visit: http://wikieducator.org/ICTC/FIT/Newsletter