Assignment feedback and revised flowchart

As suggested in my first assignment feedback, I am going to limit the scope of my site to preschool only. The new California Pre-K Learning Foundations have just come out and I will base the content on those.
I will add k-12 as another link at a future date. So I need to revise some of the topics in the standards section, the activities, and the lessons. I also have to add the portfolio levels. My first try at the revised flowchart is as follows:

I then added a few headings under home that were not in the previous draft. I also forgot a few things. The new flowchart has the search, site map and help added.

Design cont'd

After doing the video tests, I have decided not to add advertisements to the site. Perhaps once the site had enough visitors I might add some unobtrusive ads, but for now I'm going with clean and no distractions. My test subjects didn't like being asked to sign in on the home page. I will use the left box as a changing sub menu for each top navigation topic.







I will add a 'sign in' for the portfolio section of the site. The portfolio section will need a 'sign in'. The electronic portfolio allows teachers to collect, organize, and submit evidence of their competencies in meeting the California Pre-k through K subject matter standards.

Teachers will use the Portfolio as a tool for self assessment and reflection. Teachers can collect artifacts and create showcases that document teaching competencies aligned with the preliminary and professional clear California Standards for the Teaching Profession as well as the state and national (NETS) educational technology standards. As teachers collect artifacts and design showcases, they reflect on their teaching practice. Showcases may be published for public exhibition and shared with the professional community and parents.

Flowchart

First draft of basic ClipBoard layout:

Second attempt:

First draft of portfolio section:

Index Cards

I wrote the titles of my top bar main navigation on the coloured index cards. I scanned them, however my hand writing is so poor that they don't look very good.

On the white cards I used similar questions that I had used in the video testing. For example I wrote the following and asked the participants to place them on the heading they thought they would look for these in:

1. A lesson to comply with Mathematics standards for preschool
2. Online Readers
3. Printables for use in the classroom
4. Puzzles
5. Interactive games
6. A Music lesson
7. The Literary standard for pre-k.
8. A description of the site
9. Wallcards
10.Downloads

As I only had two participants the results weren't terribly clear. Some landed in the miscellaneous section. I decided on side menu link names for each top menu topic that would make it easier. For example if you click on activies the side menu will be:


Both participants were teachers, however one was not sure what the portfolio section would be for. I will add an info side button on the home page for the portfolio and a portfolio tutorial button.

Video editing

I didn't really edit my video. It took me a couple of days just to get a format that would work on DVD and CD. I was going to go directly onto a DVD recorder, and then I realized that the NTSC DVD recorder I have might not produce a DVD readable on the Australian format. I tried out the Pinnacle Studio Plus and ran about 6 versions before I finally "hopefully" got some that worked. Just to be sure I made a data copy on CD as well as DVD.