May 4th-May 8th

15/5’s

This is the final week of the course and in typical fashion our site had a security breach and more corruption issues. I was mortified to learn that the mobile site for MTVT was taken over by a  Russian Porn Site. Kim has been extremely helpful in speaking with representative from blue host trying to troubleshoot the problem.  I am a bit relieved that the normal internet version is not experiencing these issues. We met as a team on Sunday for about an hour to discuss the remaining loose ends, the project documentation, and a few questions we had for Dr. Mims.

The program Maleware was purchased to eradicate the site issues unfortunately it did not work. Unfortunately, Dr. Mims had to purchase Site Doctor a $270 Program to clear out any threats.  Hopefully, this will rectify the problem. We were informed that the site will be down for a few days. I was shocked to learn how common this for Wordpress.  Especially, with the wordpress plug-ins.  Its just frustrating that someone would do this to an educational site. In any event,   I’m thankful this happened before Dr. Mims presented the site to room full of educators. That would have been really bad!

This week we focused on completing the testimonials videos.  I spent about three hours making a screencast using screen flow for my testimonial.  I also uploaded more teacher testimonial videos. Rick also had teachers submit testimonials that were uploaded to YouTube so that I could embed them into to the MTVT site. Kim also has submitted teacher and student testimonials. Since the site is down I will have to add these next week. Rick contacted Dr. Mims to get the final sign off on the project,  which we hope to have completed by Thursday (since in the last day of class).

I really enjoyed this class.  I think I have also developed an interest in instructional design. Once I complete this degree, I really would like to pursue this aspect of the degree or even build/create online courses or freelance for companies.

Wordpress was all trial and error and self teaching.  As I reflect on the this project, it is clear that having a site document all our work in one place is a great idea.  I am sure I will refer to this later on and even after graduation.  I learned so much this semester ( granted it was extremely time consuming dealing with the trial and error of Wordpress ) and found it extremely rewarding. I really enjoy the hands on approach to actually creating a final product.  I can write numerous papers but until I actually get first hand experience you don’t develop quite the same knowledge or appreciate.

My plan of action for the upcoming week is to add the testimonial videos and catch up on all my tv shows and sleep!