Final Video

My video... it is FINALLY done!

I had to split it into two parts due to movie length limitations on YouTube, but here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqjxlWt6kaw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-qVXn6wVUE

And here's my project website
http://web.me.com/biancawoods/Final_Project/Introduction.html

If anyone was curious...

here's what the back end of my project looked like:

Week 4 - Post 4: Reading - Reframing

What I liked best about this reading was the idea of reframing an event. In Zander's story about the misbehaving teenaged orchestra members, their behavior could have easily been framed as "these teenagers misbehaved and made the orchestra look bad." In that case the trip would be defined as one where some of the participants ruined things for everyone and those teenagers would be defined as people who misbehave on group outings. Both these outcomes take away from the overall benefits of the trip and may have shaded how those particular teenagers were viewed in the orchestra from that point onward.

Instead Zander reframed the event in a more positive way: there were individuals who were elated at their performance and just happened to get carried away because they were still so excited from earlier that night. He gave the individuals a second chance and he kept the event from weighing down the group. Had he verbally reprimanded the teenagers who misbehaved they likely wouldn't have misbehaved again, but the group morale would have severely dropped. Instead he gave everyone the chance to not only brush off the event, but also to focus on what good they could do during the rest of their trip.

When terrible or disappointing things happen to or around us it's important to try to reframe the event in the most productive way. That's not to say you should always put a Pollyanna-type spin on everything and sweep negative thoughts or feelings under the carpet, it's more to say that you try and view things in a way that allows you to move forward positively after the fact.

For example, back in 2008 I left a job where I was paid well and respected by my bosses but wasn't doing something I loved (I was working as an executive assistant) and moved to a job where I was going to be paid terribly but was doing something I was passionate about: teaching (that's my old classroom there on the right). I was quite excited about the opportunity, but it turned out to be a massive bust. As I've complained in class before, the school I worked for was a private institution that cared only about making a profit and truly didn't have the students' or the teachers' best interests in mind. I became so run down and put out by the situation that I quit my job after only 11 months even though I didn't have another job lined up.

I could have looked at that experience as a massive mistake. I left a good job at a company that really cared about doing their job well and moved to a horrific company that didn't care at all about doing a good job. I could have seen this as a terrible error and let that mistake haunt me... except I don't. I learned so much in that job about teaching adults, what I didn't want in a future job, and how I still really wanted to follow my passion for teaching; just not there. I think it was an important experience for me, even though it was also a pretty painful one as well. I was able to frame the experience in a way where I actually don't regret making that decision, even if it turned out to be a bad place for me to work in the end.

Week 4 - Post 3 - Media Project Link

I finally got it running properly! Hooray!

Introducing my Media Project:

Working With Angry Customers: A Customer Service Simulation

The project is a website containing a customer service simulator created in Udutu. It allows retail workers an opportunity to practice giving high quality customer service under the pressure of an angry customer.

My thesis is on the use of simulator software to rehearse skills that must be performed under high amounts of stress. The media project demonstrates just one aspect of the proposed software: branching dialogue.

Chances are you're most familiar with branching dialogue from "Choose Your Own Adventure" books. In a story you're presented with a series of options. Depending what option you choose the story from that part is different. This process continues until the story completes and can create a large number of potential story paths.

Somewhat poorly-written children's fiction isn't the only place this branching dialogue can be utilized. It can also be used to simulate realistic interactions as well. This can be seen treated in a sophisticated manner by recent video games like Heavy Rain, in which a considerable number of choices have severe ramifications on the game plot. It can also be seen in some training materials as well.

For the media project, a simple branching dialogue simulation was created using Udutu. In this simulation the user is a retail clerk attempting to assist an angry customer with a complaint. The interaction choices range from the best service possible to the worst and the simulated customer responds directly to the type of service they are given. The simulation ends only when the customer is satisfied with the situation or has become so angry that she asks to speak to the manager about the user’s poor customer service skills.

This simulation creates a safe practice area for the user to rehearse what responses best serve a customer without the potential to offend actual people. It also gives feedback based on the user’s performance so that they can improve in customer service skill weaknesses.

In the case of the media project, a simple branching dialogue simulation was created using Udutu. In this simulation the user is a retail clerk attempting to assist an angry customer with a complaint. The interaction choices range from the best service possible to the worst and the simulated customer responds directly to the type of service they are given. The simulation ends only when the customer is satisfied with the situation or has become so angry that she asks to speak to the manager about the user’s poor customer service skills.

This simulation creates a safe practice area for the user to rehearse what responses best serve a customer without the potential to offend actual people. It also gives feedback based on the user’s performance so that they can improve in customer service skill weaknesses.

Week 4 - Post 2 - Comment on Mohamed Bahrani's posting

This is my comment posting to Mohamed Bahrani's blog entry Week4 - Blog # 2 - PC vs Mac

I have been a PC user for the past fourteen years, and I am still using PCs in my work. However, I started using Macs after registering with Full Sail University last year. There is no win-win in this argument. It is a matter of opinion, preferences, and maybe, it is just what you have to use as part of your business environment.




I still use both Mac & PC, though here are some of the facts, Mac is safer, as fewer attacks targeting it Mac OS X comparing to Windows. Design wise, I think Macs are more appealing and have a futuristic look and feel. Operating system wise, you can install Windows on Mac, but you cannot install Mac OS X on Windows.
I also think that the default programs (iWeb, iPhoto, Garage Band, etc) that come with Macs are better and useful compared to the ones that comes on the PCs. 

My Response

I'm a hardcore Mac person myself, but I honestly believe that it's not for everyone.

There are a lot of fantastic benefits to Macs in general. First, as you noted, there's BootCamp, so you can install a partition with Windows on your hard drive and dual boot if you need to (you can do this with software like Parallels and run both concurrently as well). Second, the software that comes with the Mac is lightyears beyond what comes with Windows and encourages creativity. Third, I personally find OSX more intuitive to use than Windows. Fourth, Apple clearly cares about both form and function as their software is nice to look at but also functions beautifully. Fifth, because we have much less of the market share we're targeted by viruses much more rarely. Finally, and this is a small point but one that matters to me a lot, there's additional integration between Macs and iPods, which allows me to sync up my calendar and contacts with my iPod easily.

But, like I said, Macs don't make sense for everyone. First, many businesses don't offer tech support for non-Windows computers (alas, this means Linux as well), so using one at certain workplaces is near impossible. Also, certain genres of software have very few Mac options (e-learning is unfortunately one of these areas). If you're someone who likes changing out the components in your computer constantly, most Macs won't work either. People who like gaming on their computer are out of luck on the Mac as most games either never come to Mac or come much later than their PC counterparts (this is a great spoof Apple commercial on the topic from a few years back). Finally, Macs cost a bit more than their PC counterparts. While I do believe the additional expense is worth it for the programs that some pre-installed on a Mac, not everyone has that kind of money to spend on a computer.

It's for these reasons I'm glad there's multiple options out there for operating systems. There's a good fit for everyone, especially with all the different flavors of Linux out there these days.

On a side note, you can technically install OSX on a Windows set up and create a Hackintosh, but it's tricky. Here's one set of instructions for doing it.

Week 4 - Post 1 - Getting past the wall

*sigh*

I had the worst problem getting started on my media project. Well, to be more specific, I had the worst problem getting started on the media portion of my media project. I'd had my idea, a branching dialogue customer service simulation in Udutu, solidified since our first week. I had the whole idea all mapped out, but when it came to actually creating it in Udutu I had the most terrible time getting started. I hummed and hawed and vaguely poked in its general direction until just finally getting it properly rolling and working today (status update: got a great chunk of it in order and I feel confident about having it more than 75% done by the time I do my presentation).

It's not that I wasn't excited about the media project; in fact, I was kind of elated to be putting my thesis materials into practice finally. It's more that I'm starting to just get TIRED.

I've been pushing myself in both my school and work life for the past 11 months and it turns out pushing myself past exhaustion is finally starting to catch up with me. I just want to crawl into a fetal ball and sleep for a month or so to recover. Alas, there's still 5 more weeks to go, so no recovery hibernation for me just yet.

I thankfully hit a second wind (or, well, maybe eightieth wind to be more accurate) today and getting the project to work finally will definitely get me through this week at the very least (although I'm hoping the delight of finally getting a breakthrough will boost my energy for longer).

I'm hoping this will all work out like the exercise class I took the other week. It was my first yoga/pilates/tai chi-style class in a long time and around the middle I honestly thought I couldn't go any further. Not long after that, though, I caught a second wind and by the end of the class I felt fabulous.

So here's to us ALL catching that second wind, making it through the rest of the program, and coming out the other end feeling amazing and refreshed... or, at least surviving the next 5 weeks. Yes, just surviving would suffice ;)

(Anime self portrait made with the help of the Anime Face Maker v1.0 by ~geN8hedgehog, which is an excellent stress reliever, might I add)

Week 3 - Post 4: Reading - BTFI

The idea of BTFI in chapter 8 made me grin from ear to ear when I read it. I really think those moments are some of the most important that we can have. Sometimes they're about letting go of control, sometimes they're about letting go of fear, sometimes they're about letting go of caring what others think, but they're also about freeing yourself up from whatever is holding you back and just letting things happen.

I love a good BTFI moment. Sometimes they're small. Today, for instance, I was working on a crochet project and at some point I realized I was off on my row count, but I wasn't sure by how much. To fix it I would have had to start from scratch, which is always frustrating. I could have been stressed out by the discovery, but then I took a look at what I had done, decided it looked great, acknowledged that the project really didn't require precision, and gave myself permission to internally say "f*^k it", and just finished the project in a way that perhaps wasn't an exact copy of the directions, but still looked fabulous. Stressing out and redoing my work would have probably killed the fun I was having... letting go and being okay with what I had done kept the project fun and didn't make my end product any less nice.

Sometime, though, those moments are much bigger. For years I wanted to own a Vespa scooter. Unfortunately in order to drive a motor scooter where I live you have to have a motorcycle license. Since I didn't own a scooter I knew I was going to have to take a driving course where they supplied the vehicle in order to pass the first of the two driving tests needed to get a full motorcycle license... but none of the driving courses used scooters; they ALL used standard motorcycles. Plus, they weren't cheap either.

For years fear of driving a motorcycle that I'd have to manually shift gears on (or rather, completely failing at driving a motorcycle that I'd have to manually shift gears on) and fear of spending a lot of money on a driving course I could fail miserably at kept me from my goal of being able to drive a scooter. This summer though, after chatting with a student who also was longing for a motorcycle license, I finally got to a point where I just thought "f*%k it, I'm going to get that license already". Later that week I took the written test, passed it, and found a two-day motorcycle course to sign up for.

When I got to my course I was the only person there who didn't drive standard and one of the few who hadn't been on a motorcycle before. The motorcycles? They scared me senseless. I also SUCKED beyond belief for at least half of the first day. Really, I was just awful and clearly the worst person in the class. But I tried not to let it affect me and sometime after lunch I managed to get the hang of it. I was never the best person in the class, but letting go of worrying about being so far behind everyone else and just trying to learn what I could helped me to progress well beyond what I had initially thought I was capable of.

In two days I went from not being able to get a motorcycle started to being able to zip about, take obstacle courses, cleanly shift gears, and, most importantly, pass my first driving test. I also, thanks to a kind classmate who shared my interest in scooters, was able to borrow a Vespa and drive around the parking lot on my second day of class. And yes, it was bliss.

I don't have a Vespa yet (I'm still saving up for a used one), but by getting to a BTFI moment I'm way closer to my scooter dream than I was this time last year.

Week 3 - Post 3 - Personal 20-Percent Time

Lifehacker did another posting on Google's 20-percent time. For those of you unfamiliar with the concept, at Google employees are given one day a week to work on whatever projects they feel like. It's basically structured experimentation time and it's worked exceptionally well for Google. Some of Google's best-loved offerings (including Gmail) came initially from the experimentation done in this 20-percent time. In the Lifehacker article today they discussed creating your own personal 20-percent time so as to increase creativity and innovation.

Now that we're coming closer to the end of our program I'm starting to think about what I'm going to use all my spare time for, and some 20-percent time style personal development sounds just about right. The last few years I've been in and out of classes both for my Canadian teaching certification (my original Florida certification didn't transfer over completely) and now for training for my new career in instructional design. I love learning, but I'm getting a bit tired of taking classes mostly for career growth. I'm also a bit sick of grades altogether. I'm thinking of following up Full Sail with some fun non-graded classes just for me. I'm also thinking of working on some fun projects on my own.

Here's a short list of the things I'm planning to work on and learn in the year or so after graduation:

• I promised myself I could take a glassblowing workshop after I finished grad school. I've wanted to do this for years but it's not cheap so I kept putting it off. I deserve a treat after finishing grad school though.
• Nate mentioned a PowerPoint alternative called Prezi that is ridiculously pretty. I'm going to play around with it a lot I think. I also picked up a spiffy program called Timeline 3D in a Mac software bundle I bought up this week. I don't have a need to create timelines for anything right now... but the program is just so spectacular I think I'm just going to have to make things with it anyway just for fun.
• I've been working on a home decorating project as part of my New Year's resolution (shameless plug: here's my blog for it) . I've done a few small projects for it, but once school finishes it's time for the big projects like refinishing a cool (but banged up) vintage vanity, drafting and sewing a slip cover for my currently boring black office chair, and finally matting and framing all the great prints I've bought in the last few years (most of them are from Imaginism Studios, whose work I adore).
• I've gotten a lot more into graphic design since I started at Full Sail. Because of this I just need to bite the bullet and become friends with Adobe Illustrator already.
• Language class time. Which will it be: Spanish (which would make my Abuelita delighted and be useful on Caribbean vacations) or Japanese (which would make reading manga and watching anime easier and would be useful for when I FINALLY go to Japan... and likely blow my life savings in Akihabara)

What I suppose I'm hoping is that these side projects will function to keep me creatively invigorated, which will lead to more innovation both in my personal life as well as my professional work. I'm also hoping some of the side projects I do might have parts that will transfer to other areas of my life as well. It's surprising how this can work sometimes. For example, back in one of our early classes at Full Sail I made a video that was an introduction to Twitter and blogging. Just recently I showed it to my boss as an example of what we could do on our company website, and she pitched the idea to a client of ours who has now contracted us to create a similar video to promote a training program she's leading. Who would have guessed that what I thought was a one-off class assignment would have turned into the opportunity for me to create a promotional video? If I do even more personal creative exploration, who knows what opportunities I'll be able to take advantage of in the future.

Week 3 - Post 2 - Comment on Bob Walker Jr's posting

This is my comment posting to Bob Walker Jr's blog entry Response to the Rise and Fall of the Music Industry:

Joe Bustillos sent me a link to his post with this interview. The link can be found here:
http://web.me.com/edm613/edm613/Tech_%26_Media_History/Entries/2009/6/18_Important_Media_History__the_Rise_and_Fall_of_the_Music_Industry_(NPR__Fresh_Air).html#

This is my first reaction:

Steve Knopper’s book, Appetite for Self-Destruction is now on my must read list after listening to the interview on NPR. There is quite a bit of information on the price increase the record labels put on CDs in order to get more money. Some of this information fell through the cracks with me as a smaller, non-label musician in the early to mid 90s. I may also have to blog about the various topics discussed in other posts as there is quite a bit of information in this discussion. 

I do find it interesting that the title and the focus seem to be aimed toward the Music Industry as a whole, when in reality this is the destruction of the major record labels. Within the history of the recording industry there have been bad negotiations and decisions that have led to mergers and closings of record stores. 

The end of the interview covers the positive side of this new technology. Ultimately, it is about the music and musicians who create. There are now more opportunities for non-major label musicians to be heard. The technology allows for minimal costs of distribution and immediate world-wide releases. This used to be a large undertaking with vinyl, cassettes, and cds. The multi-million dollar records may have dwindled, but the wealth is now spread around where a struggling musician can still get music out there and for sale and manage to make ends meet. This can be done through bypassing the major’s cut and pay minimal costs of distribution. 

I would describe this shift as the small mom and pop businesses taking back the market in recording. I do worry about the hype of focusing the industry in just recordings. The industry covers quite a bit more such as scoring for film, TV, and games. There is also this world of live performance where ticket sales are the money maker for the musicians. Within the touring there is work for a number of skilled people outside the direct lines of the music such as promoters, venues, merchandise, etc. The large live shows also bring people into the towns of venues which continues to drive local economies. This change and direction of the recording industry I see as a positive one. Stay tuned for more. 

My Response

I was just reading two fascinating articles/books on this very topic.

The first was an article on the Gizmodo blog a few days ago that more specifically addressed the need for record labels to, as the article put it, "change or die."

There was a time in which the labels held all the power because they had the means of production: the recording equipment, the ability to produce records, and the means of distributing those records to stores. The advent of the internet and computer recording solutions is, in a sense, to music as the printing press was to the printed word: it put the means of production in the hands of the many rather than the privileged few. If you wanted to record and sell your music now you could record and master your CD on your Mac, upload the tracks to CD Baby, and through there end up with your tracks on the iTunes store extremely easily with absolutely no intervention at any point with a traditional label. Sure, you'd also have to promote the CD on your own, but that's increasingly easier for bands to do thanks to the internet.

The second thing I read that may be of interest to you is the book The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. In this book Anderson examines how easier access to niche products has made it so that there are fewer "hits" and much more moderate successes. From the data Anderson examined it seems that the main reason there used to be massive hits within the music industry was due to a lack of other options easily available. Now that services like Amazon and iTunes can offer a much broader selection of music to purchase, people appear to be gravitating towards more specific music genres rather than settling for what they could easily pick up at a brick and mortar music store.

Record labels built their business practices around the idea that there would always be mega hit recordings and to succeed it was just a matter of discovering those artists before the other labels did. Now the reality of the music industry has shifted with consumers more interested in access to a broader selection of artists and the artists themselves less in need of the services offered by labels.

As Gizmodo noted, the labels are either going to have to adapt to this new model or they're just going to go out of business.

Week 3 - Post 1 - Thesis

Technology and Training: The Use of Simulations to Train and Practice High-Stress Skills

Bianca Woods

Masters Thesis for Education Media Design and Technology
Full Sail University
March 21, 2010

Abstract
Training is key to the development of skills, but how best should these skills be trained? This paper shows that the problem of insufficient practice, particularly of skills that must be performed under stress, can be addressed using computer software and a distinct development method. Research indicates that significant rehearsal is needed for skill mastery, that stress degrades the ability to perform tasks, and that increased task practice can lead to improved task competency. This paper suggests that the solution to skill rehearsal requirements for high-stress jobs, taking into account research regarding the effects of stress, is the use of simulation software to provide a means for individuals to explore deliberate practice with the goal of skill mastery.

To read the full thesis, click here.