Owl Jr. Project
Welcome to our class counterpart of the Sugar Labs wiki.
The Owl Jr. Project is modeled after the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL), which provides literacy help guides for college students. However, the Owl Jr. is aimed at a younger audience and will provide command of language materials for K-12 students. It was initiated by faculty and students from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, under the guidance and direction of John Tierney.
As part of the service learning coursework in a Literacy, Technology and Civic Engagement course, our class divided into teams and completed multiple projects over one semester. Our objective was to investigate Sugar strategies and challenges to classroom use, while also finding creative ways to circumvent common problems. In doing so, our goal was to expand SugarLabs' efforts by providing additional literacy resources.
This project was conducted in two parts. The first half of the semester, five teams conducted preliminary research and background investigations.
A link to the first half of the project can be found here: User:Owl Jr. Project/semesterproject1
During the second half, the class was reconfigured into seven teams who produced reports, multi-media presentations, educational materials, a petition and game ideas. Links to each of these materials can be found in the following sections of this page.
Our website is: http://owljrproject.weebly.com/
Sugar / Literacy Connection - Peer Review
(Focus: Software / User / User Needs Assessment)
This group goals of this group were as follows:
• Walter Bender said he would love to see more peer review materials for writing in Sugar, and this is something that clearly aligns with best practices in our field
• Investigate existing tools in sugar for peer review (if any)
• Then, propose how we can integrate peer review into sugar
• All suggestions should be rooted in current best practices for literacy education and be supported with research
The following link takes you to this team's recommendation report.
Teacher Needs and Sugar
(Focus: Education, Ethnographic Research, User Needs Assessment)
The goals of this project were to:
• Investigate what teachers need to better use Sugar and come up with a list of recommendations and/or materials
• As per Walter Bender's suggestion, determine what/how lesson plans for teachers could help with classroom integration of Sugar resources
• Utilize Group 4's investigation of Sugar usage in Title 1 schools
• Root all suggestions in current best practices for literacy education and be supported with research
The following is the end-of-semester report for Fall 2011.
File:Teacher Needs & Sugar-Usability Report.pdf
Sugar / Literacy connection - Journaling / Diary activity and Writing to Learn
This group was instructed to:
• Investigate ways that we might take already existing sugar activities and encourage more literacy activities-based on our discussion with Walter Bender (This might include revamping the journal, writing lesson plans for teachers, etc.)
• Think of how we might encourage developers to implement peer review/reflection into the Journal activity by conveying 1) their importance and 2) teacher demand for these capabilities
• Root all suggestions in current best practices for literacy education and be supported with research
The following two documents contain 1) a report on the value of writing to learn and 2) a petition for Journal revision to be signed by teachers.
File:Journal Revision Report.pdf
File:Petition for Journal Revision.pdf
Resources for Teachers-OWL Jr. Materials
(Focus: Research, Educational Content Development)
The following are the end-of-semester literacy materials developed for Fall 2011.
Face of the Project (Web)
(Focus: Web Development, Graphic Design, Multimedia)
The following is a report discussing our options for creating an online presence for Owl Jr.
Face of the Project (Video / Multimedia)
(Focus: Graphic Design, Multimedia)
The following contains links to the end-of-semester multimedia projects for Fall 2011.
The Gaming Group
(Focus: Graphic Design, Multimedia)
The following contains screen shots of a proposed Sugar literacy activity, created Fall 2011.