tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-402414274617660772.post3042260987945198147..comments2011-06-12T20:23:34.856-07:00Comments on Technology in Instruction: From chalk to stylus...Evylynhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11611657199659750445noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-402414274617660772.post-50376129398571866722011-06-12T20:23:34.856-07:002011-06-12T20:23:34.856-07:00Hello Evylyn,
That sounds so frustrating to be a ...Hello Evylyn,<br /><br />That sounds so frustrating to be a part of that school system and to see all of that money wasted on technology that cannot be used. Seems like they wanted to give you all the best tools but they did it in the wrong way which caused more problems then what you began with, "the natural tendency of the client, as well as project team members, to try to improve the project's output as the project progresses" (Portny, Mantel, Meredith, Shafer & Sutton, 2008, p. 350). After reading your experience with scope creep, it made me realize that many problems begin before the project even starts. It begins with the planning and in your example, it shows that they did not do a proper analysis of the classroom. What a waste of time, money, and other valuable resources. <br /><br />Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.ericafeckohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08842044048800969054noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-402414274617660772.post-43508561183961852542011-06-12T14:00:54.260-07:002011-06-12T14:00:54.260-07:00This example of scope creep sounds very familiar t...This example of scope creep sounds very familiar to me. My district is currently going through the installation of smartboard at my high school. You had a great idea about creating a timeline and responsibility chart. This sounded like a huge project your school system untook. I hope they had a project manager. We learned back in week 1 that the bigger the project the greater the need for a project manager. One of the keys to a successful project is creating a plan and establishing how the project will be accompolished. We all know that stuff happens with projects but a good project manager will inform everyone on what is going on in the project with clear and concise communication. <br /><br />Reference<br />Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008). Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-402414274617660772.post-82452264546799711832011-06-11T18:58:27.083-07:002011-06-11T18:58:27.083-07:00Message from Terri Williams
Hi Evylyn,
This is a...Message from Terri Williams<br /><br />Hi Evylyn,<br /><br />This is a great project for the school and it would have gone a lot better if things were planned a little bit better. This is excellent for the schools and the students, only if it works. Without training and proper planning it is a waste, it is like money going down the drain. It is important to plan ahead especially with such a huge project. There should have been a PM assigned to this project, a budget, a project plan, and ID or an IT and everyone who was involved with this project should have been apart of the plan and the preliminary meeting. According to Portny (2008), All organisms have a life cycle. They are born, grow, wane, and die. This is true for living things, and organizations, companies, and projects. A project begins with a concept, the idea is birth, then the define phase; a plan is developed; the start phase, is when a team is formed; the team begins the work and that is called the perform phase and the project ends and that is the close phase. (Portny 2008). If the team at your school had used these life cycle phases it would have saved a lot of time, effort, and maybe lots of money. <br /><br />Reference:<br />Portny, S., Mantel,S., Meredith, J., Shafer, S., Sutton, M. (2008) Project management: Planning, scheduling, and controlling projects: Wiley: New YorkEvylynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11611657199659750445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-402414274617660772.post-531920423728227982011-06-11T17:32:30.613-07:002011-06-11T17:32:30.613-07:00Evylyn,
Your experience with the interactive boa...Evylyn,<br /><br />Your experience with the interactive boards reminded me of a similar experience I had with a technology service learning project, and one of the greater risks the PM needs consider “newer technology” (Portny et al., 2008). The concept for the project was to provide technology to classrooms in a few inter-city schools with college and high school students acting as the technology deployment team. After the work was done the team was ready to work the teachers to train them with the interactive boards and learned the teachers and staff had minimal computer experience, so that portion of the project schedule needed to be amended and the student volunteer needed to redo all their training materials. These very excited student volunteers experienced exactly what you posted “…only thought about the equipment; they forgot the technical support, the training, the software, pc’s vs. mac’s and teachers technical expertise.” the next time this project was carried out the PM remembered all of these in the planning stage.<br /><br />Gerri<br /><br />Portny, S. E., Mantel, S. J., Meredith, J. R., Shafer, S. M., Sutton, M. M., & Kramer, B. E. (2008)., Project Management Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling ProjectsGLhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09635229594962550013noreply@blogger.com