Journal

Week One May 16-20, 2011

This is my first week in the lab. There are four grad and one doctoral students doing research as well as teaching. The group is a diverse one; Ben is from Morocco, Yasmeen is from Jordan, Sonal and Gaurav are from India, John and Bob are from the state of Georgia.  Joseph is a native of Alabama.

I will spend this week becoming familiar with Alice. I have been advised that there is a computer camp beginning June 4th. The camp has six sessions. I will also begin learning HTML to build my DREU website. My goal is to at least get the page started this week.

Week Two May 23-27, 2011

Information regarding accessibility was provided for me to review. This is an opportunity to implement what I am reading and learning about on my website. I was formally introduced to Kodu. This is a Microsoft software that is designed to be used on the desktop or via the XBox 360. Although I am challenged when it comes to gaming, I found the XBox to be a better vehicle than the desktop. I am learning to how to use a controller. The next step will be learning to program objects after creating the desired environment. These two weeks have been an eye opener and has broadened my perspective about opportunities in the CSE field.

Week Three May 30-June 4, 2011

Robo Camp will begin this Saturday. We are anticipating 25 participants.  We had a meeting with all lab members to go over the roster and to discuss the anticipated needs of children with disabilities.  Dr. Marghitu decided that she would invite students from the School of Education specializing in Special Ed to observe and assist special needs children should the need arise during the camp. 

Week Four June 6-June 10

The local newspaper covered the story about the computer camp.  It was exciting to see the reporter interview the instructors and and kids as well.  It just so happened that more students were interested in Kodu than we thought.  This was the largest number of attendees ever for Kodu.  The age group is quite diverse, from eight to fifteen years of age.  They are quickly learning to build worlds in Kodu. 

 Week Five June 13-June 17

Yasmeen has been working with me to learn Kodu.  Before each camp session, she goes over the instruction material with me so I can understand what the kids will be doing.  Our training sessions have given me an opportunity to get to know Yasmeen.  I inquired as to how she selected Computer Science as her field of study, where she studied and why she decided to obtain her Masters at Auburn. 

This is the final week for computer camp.  I will prepare certificates for the participants.  It has been a nice experience to see the enthusiasm of the kids for each of the Kodu sessions.  Some of them would come in with plans for worlds they wanted to create in Kodu. 

Week Six June 20–June 24

Robo camp wrapped up last week and preparation began for workshop conference for Alabama Teachers.  This workshop in in conjunction with Microsoft to demonstrate how Kodu can be a useful tool in the classroom.

Prior to the workshop, Dr. Dave Toretzky, Professor of Computer Science Department and the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition at Carnegie Mellon University came to the lab to make a presentation on robotics.  Robotics is one aspect of the computer camp presented each semester by Dr. Marghitu.

On the day of the workshop, I had a chance to meet with Brad Gibson, Program Manager with Microsoft.  The workshop afforded me an opportunity to hear teachers express their views and opinions about how Kodu might work in the classroom environment.  It was interesting to hear adult feedback as they were navigating thru the Kodu software.

Week Seven June 27-July 1

This week preparation began for feedback from teachers attending the workshop June 24th.  A survey was created and mailed to each of the participants.  I began typing the survey questions into Excel in preparation for forthcoming responses.

Week Eight July 4-July 8

Only one response was received from participants in the June 24th workshop.  Followup requests were sent out.  Excel will be used to tabulate responses.  The survey is not very extensive.

I worked with Sonal to fine tune her website to be evaluated by low vision and blind individuals at the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.  In the usability study, two websites were taken for comparison. One was the accessible website built for the research and another inaccessible website.

Week Nine July 11-15

This week I accompanied graduate student Sonal to the Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind to evaluate her website for accessibility by low vision and totally blind individuals.  The Institute is on the campus for the Helen Keller School for the Blind.  It no longer takes in only blind and deaf persons, they now have individuals with various types of disabilities.  Sonal's focus was on the visually impaired.  We worked in an area where much of the assistive technology was located.  Also in that location were students working and using various types of assistive technology. 

Week Ten July 18-22

This is the final week.  I continued to work on Robo camp responses as a final task.  This was extensive as each entry requires input into an Excel spreadsheet.  Perhaps I will be able to learn the outcome at a future date.