A bit of time to breathe

Now that I have a bit of free time – waiting for feedback for my first 3 chapters, I’ve decided to blog about what’s happened recently.

So I’ve had to recreate Knowledge Trails because apparently the server that it was hosted on got moved and so I couldnt even log into the site. 😦 On the plus side, in creating the new site I realised that I am able to put my knowledge about community of practices in action when re-deciding what plugins to include in the site. I’ve also been able to find new plugins that will allow me to write the form to create Knowledge Nuggets instead of uploading them as files that were created in a word document.

I’ve been able pre-design the dashboard of the site so when a new user logs into the site, they wont be overwhelmed by a blank page. If they dont like the layout, they can edit the page when they become more well versed with using the site.

I’ve managed to find a plugin that will allow me to edit the spotlight area. This is good because I wont have to keep the current spotlight up on the site showing just information about Elgg. Since this plugin allows me to divide the spotlight area into three columns I think I’ll be using it to direct the users to the Video walkthroughs (if I’m allowed to reupload them), upload current information about Parks Victoria, and posting other information such as featured video clips for example.

I’m quite happy with the progress of my exegesis thus far.

I know I’ve only completed 3/4 chapters but I’ve already put the first 2 chapters into InDesign and while I know I still have a lot of editing to do with my third chapter once it comes back, I’m relieved to know I’m almost done. With my final chapter I have a vague idea of what I need to do to tie it all together.

I’ve gotten to the stage where I’ve started worrying about printing this beast and trying to figure out how big of a hole it’s gonna put in my pocket (printing 4 copies) and 4 sets of DVDs. I scared myself thinking that I needed to print it either ALL in colour or ALL in black and white. Luckily it’s not the case otherwise I’d be paying just over 500 bucks for 3 copies. erk. Anyways I think I should get crack-a-lack-en on my fourth and FINAL (yay!) chapter =D

Murphy is hitting me hard.

Ok couple of problems have cropped up.

1. I wont be able to host my focus groups anymore

Given the time left before I need to hand in my Honours project, it doesnt seem like I’ll have very much time to invite users for KT, create accounts, teach the users how to use the system and get them to actually use it (which would take approximately 3 weeks), then later hold the focus group and evaluate what they’ve learnt.

So, in order to make the best of this set back (and after some discussion with Adrian), it seems the next best course of action is to just use JW as the only person in the focus group for this project since we’ve already gone through how to use the system with him and set out a list of questions based on how he used the system to ask in the next meeting.

This set back was the result of my ethics application not going through – since it was returned to me stating that I missed some important details. Oh well, we learn from our mistakes I guess. Now I just need to find solutions to make this project still work. =)

2. Some of my video walkthroughs cant be seen

While contacting JW through KT emails, it seems that he’s been having problems accessing and viewing the walkthroughs that I’ve posted. Initially I suggested that he should update his Adobe Flash Player and that worked but he still couldnt view all the videos – this came with a problem as well because these videos are supposed to help the user make use of the system properly and they didnt need the extra trouble of having to update their software just to view the videos. It’s supposed to make their workload lighter, not give them more work to do.

So I’ve been tinkering about with ishowu hd, trying to lower my data rate. I’ve managed to get it so that 5minutes of video time takes up about 20mb but the problem with this is that while the videos are much smaller in terms of its data rate, it also cuts out a lot of quality so the videos aren’t so clear, especially when trying to read the words.

As a means to find a solution, Adrian has set up the videos widget on KT so all I have to do now is embed the blip.tv file and it should play on the site. However, all I’ve been doing previously is linking images to the blip.tv videos. I wonder if it’ll have any effect on the ability to view the video. So far, I’ve embedded one of the smaller videos onto KT using this widget and while it was able to be uploaded, I’m still not able to watch the video – the player gets stuck while loading.

*five minutes later*

I tried re-loading the page with the video walkthrough and it seems to be working fine now. I’ve decided to set a new category called “Video Walkthrough” as an administrator so I can get all the videos I’ve made grouped together (since they wont all be on the same page anymore). I hope this sorts out my issues with this problem.

minor setbacks

I realise that I’ve got slightly over six weeks to complete the remaining three chapters of my exegesis and it has put me some what in a tailspin.

I’ll most like be able to finish my first draft of chapter one tonight and send it over to Adrian but apart from that, I’ve still got my chapter three and four to think about.

My ethics application got returned to me with minor issues – so now I just need to amend and send it back for re-evaluation and approval. Hopefully this time there wont be any problem otherwise I may not be able to host my focus group for feedback in chapter four.

Aside from that, chapter two has been further fine-tuned. I think I am learning from my past mistakes which is a good thing I guess. It’s gone through three processes of reworking and I think I’ve got something to be proud of.

I’ve been procrastinating quite badly and it’s evident in the lack of work done. I really need to get back to business and go full swing for the next six weeks. I need to make all the work done in the past six months count.

I really cant wait to get all this over and done with.

The need for helpful hints

I think later on when I get around to cleaning up Knowledge Trails, I’ll need to put helpful hints on the various tool pages. I’ll be randomly posting helpful hints here as I think of them. They wont be uploaded immediately because I usually come up with these ideas while conducting other tasks.

I started thinking about writing helpful hints because I received a message in my KT inbox this morning from JW saying that he couldnt access my video walk throughs and was wondering if it was because of his version of Adobe Flash Player. I realised then that there may be limitations to the screencasts. I’m running on Flash Player 10 which is the latest one so I dont really have much trouble viewing the screen casts I uploaded but this may not be the case for others who may be using older computer systems. Anyways, that’s just food for thought.

Back to doing my Mobile Environment readings. sigh.

How to use the Wire Posts feature on Knowledge Trails

Gantt Chart as of 05.08.2010

I havent done so much in terms of writing but these are my Gantt Chart updates showing the work that has been done with my blog and the video walk throughs for the Parks Victoria Elgg site. It may not look like much but I assure you that quite a bit has been done by way of recording the screen casts, uploading them to blip.tv, embedding them onto Knowledge Trails as well as on this blog. Now, to get as much done as possible to hit my August 6 deadline for Chapter too.

How to use the Pages widget on Knowledge Trails

How to use the Members widget on Knowledge Trails

How to use the Inbox function on Knowledge Trails

How to use the Groups feature on Knowledge Trails