Agile Development, Meet Online Learning

Lately I have been thinking about Agile Software development. In a nutshell, Agile development is a software development philosophy that favors incremental development and response to change over planning, documentation, and final-release software. The originators of this method of development published the "Agile Manifesto" :

We are uncovering better ways of developing
software by doing it and helping others do it.
Through this work we have come to value:

• Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

• Working software over comprehensive documentation

• Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

• Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on
the right, we value the items on the left more.

My brother-in-law and I have had many discussion regarding the merits of Agile development versus traditional requirements based development (frequently referred to as "waterfall" development). For me it was all theory, until recently.

This year I took a position as the director of online learning for a christian school in Michigan. One of the projects that I began was the development of a series of online Bible courses. These were courses that we could not find elsewhere and were forced to develop on our own. 

In late spring we hired a company to assist us with the development of our first one semester course. The course was to be modeled off of an existing class that is taught at the school. The teacher of the course agreed to be the subject matter expert and modify his lesson plans for an online environment. The company we hired provided the curriculum designer and technical programming expertise. 

Six months later our development continues and we have nothing tangible to review or display for our time, energy, and efforts. The process continues, but the going is slow. Until all of the lessons are written (we are on lesson 20 of 30), the design and technical implementation process can't begin. When the project finishes (and it will), the company will deliver the course to us in its final form. 

As an observer and participant in this process, I can't help but wonder if there is a different way to develop courses. Could the principles of Agile development be applied to course design, significantly reducing development time, and lowering overall costs. 

[side note: In no way am I insinuating that the company we hired to help us develop this course is doing a poor job. They have a well defined process and I am confident that the final product will be of excellent quality. This post is response to observations I have made about the process of course development in general.]

The Agile Course Development Manifesto: 

• Assemble a small, focused team:  curriculum designer, subject matter expert(s), and customer (school) representative that works together on a daily basis, not in isolation.

• Build and release small packages of content (lessons) to be assembled into a larger whole. Each content package will be fully assembled (content, media and assessment) and release on a weekly basis. 

• The design team works together instead of as individual entities. The SME shares the vision of the lesson and the curriculum designer leverages technology to make it work, on a daily/weekly basis. 

• As the understanding of the requirements and scope of the course unfold, the team response to correct and modify past lessons to support future lessons. All team members expect that change will happen and view it as part of the process, not as a situation to be avoided. 

The typical Agile model of development avoids long lists of requirements to prevent bogging down the process. With course development, a change must be made to this philosophy in order to ensure the usability of the course. Prior to the start of development, a list of required state and national standards should be compiled to help guide the development. General assessment guidelines should also be determined (minimum number of multiple choice questions per unit, number of assessments, types of assessments, etc). True to the Agile philosophy, however, these specification can be modified as necessary throughout the process. 

The application of this Agile form of development with the rapid release of course modules would allow the faster deployment of the course to students, even during development. Because long-term projects frequently stall due to poor communication and process bottlenecks, the Agile model has the potential to speed up the process. Faster development means more capacity to develop, which reduces overall costs. 

This posts represents my first public announcement of my idea. Undoubtedly there are flaws and weaknesses in my logic for which I would seek your comment and review. If you would be interested in exploring this methodology with me further, please contact me so that we can continue this discussion and see where this idea leads. 

10 Ways to Quickly use the iPad in your Classroom

I put together the first 10 ideas. Click here to open the presentation below and add in your own!

Test Drive: Blogger App

Blogger, one of the top blogging platforms on the web, has recently been receiving some love from Google. Recent updates include an interface refresh, and new mobile views. Without a mobile app, however, blogging from small screens has has always been difficult.

This month, to the delight of iPhone users all over the world, Google announced the launch of their Blogger App. The App promises to make adding photos and managing multiple blogs easier from mobile devices.

This post is currently being written on an iPad 2. Sadly, the App released by Google is an iPhone app, not a dual iPhone/iPad app. As a result, I am being forced to use my iPad vertically instead of taking advantage of the wider screen.

The image above was taken on my iPhone and inserted into the post from my camera roll. Editing a post from multiple devices is easily accomplished from within the Blogger App. Geotagging is another feature included in the App.

Common blogging essentials are still notably absent from the app such as the ability to insert links or media other than pictures, and rich-text editing.

Thanks, Google, for pushing out a Blogger app. It is a considerable improvement, but there is a long way to go before the mobile interface is truly full-featured.

5 Goals for the School Year

Every year I pick five professional goals to work on during the school year. This marks my third year of this process:

• 2009-2010 Goals
• 2010-2011 Goals

So, here it goes, my goals for the 2011-2012 school year

1. iPad Coaching
This year my school, Southfield Christian is implementing a 1:1 iPad program in the high school. Staff were given three days of training in the spring before summer vacation and were instructed to play with and use their iPads throughout the summer months.
Because my schedule is somewhat flexible this year, my goal is to work individually with teachers on creating lessons and activities that fully use the capabilities of the iPad. These activities play into my longer-term goal of becoming an Apple Distinguished Educator.

2. Build a Professional Website
This past year opportunities have opened up for me to do some training and consulting work related to educational technology. I've enjoyed the opportunity to visit schools around the country, meet new people, and share my experiences with technology in the classroom. This year my goal is to launch my consulting website where I can highlight my experiences and share the resources that I have created.

3. Google Podcasts
Over the summer I was shocked to learn that the Google tutorial screencasts that I created were the #1 series on the iTunesU Teaching and Education section. I even beat out the Khan Academy! Obviously there is a demand for these brief tutorials so I would like to add to my collection. My goal is to add 15 new tutorials this year. If you have any requests, let me know!

4. Focus my PLN
Over the last few years I have built a very wide-ranging professional learning network. While variety is good, I'm also beginning to feel the need to focus my PLN in terms of subject and quality. At the risk of sounding harsh, there are a lot of talkers but few doers on the web. See my previous post on "Shipping" to better understand where I'm coming from. This year I will be weeding out the "talkers" and those who primarily post outside of my current areas of focus: ipads in education, online learning, and Google Apps for Education.

Flickr via DavidErickson 

5. Build a Mobile App
This is the toughest goal on my to-do list. I do not have the required skills to build an mobile app however I am fortunate to have a brother in law who is full time programmer with mobile app experience. I have a couple of ideas for apps which I need to explore in more depth. I'm putting this goal down because unless I do, I will never get it done!

Those are my five goals for the year. I would be delighted to read your goals. Leave me (and everyone else) a comment with a link to your post.