Progress 04/15/10 to 08/14/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audiences for the VLS are teachers, training & curriculum specialists, and new management staff in the military child and youth development system. However, in the best tradition of the university land-grant system, the VLS is also available for public use as well, allowing college students, public and private child care workers and providers to use the site to enhance their skills as a child care professional. In 2015, the virtual laboratory school will also add a track for the home-based care providers. Because the VLS courses are still under development, the VLS has not yet been fully deployed to these audiences. Beginning courses have been, however, successfully piloted with staff at two military installations in the past year and the VLS has been introduced to officials at the Administration for Children and Families, who distributed an article on the VLS in their newsletter. Changes/Problems: Over the course of this grant period, there have been some changes in scope as work progressed with our military partners. This along with the extensive review needed both within the Department of Defense and by outside experts has altered the original timeline. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project director and lead scientists conducted a workshop on the use of the VLS at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference in 2013. The pilots of the VLS system provided training to over 70 personnel working at two military child development centers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Since the VLS is still under development, extensive dissemination has not taken place. However, we have had conversations with senior officials at the HHS Adminstration for Children and Families (ACF), and we wrote an article about the VLS for the ACF newsletter. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
Over the course of this project, the OSU VLS project team worked with military family and child leadership to conceptualize and create the Department of Defense Child Development Virtual Laboratory School. This involved developing the learning management software, web design, narrative content, as well as video and other learning materials that support this online professional development system. The VLS offers 6 tracks: 4 direct care tracks for infant/toddler, preschool, school-age, and homecare providers, 1 track for training and curriculum specialists (coaches), and 1 track for management/administration. At the end of this reporting period 12 courses have been written (Safety, Cognitive Development, Child Abuse Prevention, Child Abuse Reporting, Healthy, Learning Environments, Communication, Physical Development, Guidance, Self, Families, and Creativity) and 4 have been published to the website (Safety, Cognitive Development, Child Abuse Prevention, Child Abuse Reporting). Two courses were piloted at two different military child development centers and feedback was positive. The website continues to be refined and features brought online. We also produced a promotional video for the site. It can be seen at www.virtuallabschool.org.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Meeker, K. & Buettner. C. K. (November, 2013). The Virtual Laboratory School: A comprehensive online professional
development tool for early childhood professionals. Oral presentation at the National Association for the Education of
Young Children annual conference, Washington, D.C.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Buettner, C.K. & Meeker, K. (November, 2014) Going Online with Professional Development: The Virtual Laboratory School. Oral presentation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference, Dallas, Texas.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2014
Citation:
Meeker, K., Mouzourou, C. & Buettner, C.K. (October, 2014) Gateways to Professional Development: The Virtual Laboratory School. Poster presentation at the Division for Early Childhood 30th Annual International Conference on Young Children with Special Needs and Their Families, St. Louis, Missouri.
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Progress 04/15/13 to 04/14/14
Outputs
Target Audience: The target audiences for the VLS are teachers, training & curriculum specialists, and new management staff in the military child and youth development system. However, in the best tradition of the university land-grant system, the VLS is also available for public use as well, allowing college students, public and private child care workers and providers to use the site to enhance their skills as a child care professional. In the coming year, the virtual laboratory school will also add a track for the home-based care providers. Because the VLS courses are still under development, the VLS has not yet been fully deployed to these audiences. Beginning courses were, however, successfully piloted with staff at a military installation in the past year and the VLS has been introduced to officials at the Administration for Children and Families, who distributed an article on the VLS in their newsletter. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided? The project director and lead scientists conducted a workshop on the use of the VLS at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference. The pilots of the VLS system provided training to over 70 personnel working at military child development centers. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Since the VLS is still under development, extensive dissemination has not taken place. However, we have had conversations with senior officials at the HHS Adminstration for Children and Families (ACF), and we wrote an article about the VLS for the ACF newsletter. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals? We will continue to produce new courses and we will refine materials based on pilot feedback and results of the pilot.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The VLS project team developed additional VLS courses and related materials for military review and eventual deployment. To date, courses in Safety, Cognitive Development, Child Abuse Prevention, Child Abuse Reporting, Healthy, Learning Environments, Communication, Physical Development, and Creativity have been created and are in various stages of review/revision. Two courses were piloted at a military child development center and feedback was positive. A second pilot is currently underway at Camp Lejeune. The website continues to be refined and features brought online. We produced a promotional video for the site. It can be seen at www.virtuallabschool.org.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
Meeker, K. & Buettner. C. K. (November, 2013). The Virtual Laboratory School: A comprehensive online professional development tool for early childhood professionals. Oral presentation at the National Association for the Education of Young Children annual conference, Washington, D.C.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2013
Citation:
The Department of Defense Child Development Virtual Laboratory School: Safety,Cognitive Development, Child Abuse Reporting, and Child Abuse Prevention Courses
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Progress 04/15/12 to 04/14/13
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary goal of the virtual laboratory school project (VLS) is to increase the professional competencies of supervisors, trainers and front-line youth workers in the military child care centers and youth development programs through a virtual lab school environment. The VLS will also eventually serve the public through a land grant university system partnership. During the reporting period, the major activity has been developing content across three functional tracks (direct care, training and curriculum specialists, and management), and three developmental tracks (infant and toddler, pre-school, and school age). Content experts using a matrix of courses and lessons tied to the 13 Child Development Associate (CDA) competencies and reviewed and approved by the military advisory panel, have been working on the core course materials and supporting video. The project team has also carried out extensive filming at military installations around the US during the reporting period. As a result, we have compiled a large repository of video clips (more than 1500 hours) designed to enhance the training lessons being developed. We will pilot the first three courses with staff at Wright Patterson AFB in June and anticipate those courses being launched in early fall. PARTICIPANTS: Cynthia Buettner, Ph.D., Principal Investigator is responsible for the project in its entirety, including supervision of project design and reporting/dissemination. Kathleen Artman-Meeker, Ph.D., Co-investigator, is responsible for generating and obtaining expert content for the site. In addition to writing training courses and lessons, Dr. Artman-Meeker has also reviewed the content of others, making certain the content is accurate and relevant. Aaron Robertson, M.S. has served as the Project Director and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project, managing staff members and ensuring that project components are being completed in a timely and appropriate manner. Daniel Buettner, is the Technical Director and has overseen and managed all technical aspects of the project. Jim Pickett is the Manager of User Services and serves as a technical design specialist. Kevin Satterfield is the Video Production Manager and is responsible for managing all aspects of video collection, editing, storage as well as ensuring compatibility with existing technologies related to our project. Brian Roberts serves as the projects Videographer and has traveled to partner video collection sites to obtain high quality video of best practices in the classroom. Jamie Gottesman contributes to the content for the supervisory track in the VLS system. Pamela Hardin serves as an Assistant Education Specialist. Amy Palmer was the Program Assistant and was responsible for tracking video release forms as well as other various office related tasks. In addition to the staff members working on the project, in the last year we have engaged the following collaborators: Lieny Jeon and Rachel Hur provided research support; Dr. Erin Barton, Dr. Chryso Mouzourou, Dr. Kristin Tenney-Blackwell, Donna Ruhlen, Holly Scheibe, Meredith Schilling, and Nichole Moore, and all served as content consultants; Blink Reaction is a web development company that we contracted with to design and built the VLS content management platform; Acquia is the website hosting company that is managing the hosting of our web-site for the project; Amazon Public Sector Cloud Services provided hosting space. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences for the VLS are teachers, training & curriculum specialists, and new management staff in the military child and youth development system. However, in the best tradition of the university land-grant system, when fully implemented, the VLS will also be available for public use as well, allowing college students, public and private child care workers and providers to use the site to enhance their skills as a child care professional. The virtual laboratory school changes the way we think about "brick and mortar" lab schools as well. The creation of the virtual laboratory school will allow military trainers, as well as professors and other instructors at land grant universities to avoid assigning hours of inefficient student observations by providing a searchable site that allows users to view any number of situations or instances that they may or may not see in a typical lab school setting. Lastly, as the site is fully implemented, extension faculty and staff at land grant universities will also benefit through the availability of these learning lessons to be packaged and distributed statewide in support of child care providers in non-military settings. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The virtual laboratory school is still in a development and feedback phase so intermediate and long term outcomes cannot yet be assessed. However, we have worked closely with military personnel serving on our advisory panel and as they review the materials we are preparing they have expressed continued confidence that the VLS system will be beneficial for their programs and will help to meet their current and future training needs. We will obtain feedback from pilot users in June 2013 and as each of the competencies roll out beginning in late 2013, we will be able to obtain additional feedback from ground level users as well. More extensive evaluation activities are planned once the core content is in regular use.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 04/15/11 to 04/14/12
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary goal of the virtual laboratory school project (VLS) is to increase the professional competencies of supervisors, trainers and front-line youth workers in the military child care centers and youth development programs through a virtual lab school environment. The VLS will also eventually serve the public through a land grant university system partnership. During the reporting period, project staff has refined (in consultation with military partners) the pedagogic approach, the technological architecture, and the nested framework for course content. Back end databases and programming to support the video capture and editing system have also been expanded and refined. Content experts using a matrix of courses and lessons tied to 13 core competencies and reviewed and approved by the military advisory panel, worked on the core course materials and supporting video. The demonstration classroom was used as a filming site the project, which is distinguished by, and relies on, a large repository of video clips designed to enhance the training lessons being developed. We also filmed at highly ranked early childhood classrooms and after school programs located at various military installations. PARTICIPANTS: Cynthia Buettner, Ph.D., Principal Investigator is responsible for the project in its entirety, including supervision of project design and reporting/dissemination. Kathleen Artman-Meeker, Ph.D., Co-investigator, is responsible for generating and obtaining expert content for the site. In addition to writing training courses and lessons, Dr. Artman-Meeker has also reviewed the content of others, making certain the content is accurate and relevant. Aaron Robertson, M.S. has served as the Project Director and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project, managing staff members and ensuring that project components are being completed in a timely and appropriate manner. Daniel Buettner, is the Technical Director and has overseen and managed all technical aspects of the project. Kevin Satterfield is the Video Production Manager and is responsible for managing all aspects of video collection, editing, storage as well as ensuring compatibility with existing technologies related to our project. Ruth Lang serves as the projects Videographer and has traveled to partner video collection sites to obtain high quality video of best practices in the classroom. Amy Driscoll, M.Ed. served as a Content Spotter for the project accompanying the videographers to partner centers and classrooms and identifying best practices in the classroom and interactions for video collection. Jamie Gottesman served as the Demonstration Classroom Director. In addition to serving as the lead teacher in the demonstration classroom, Ms. Gottesman contributes to the content for the supervisory track in the VLS system. Pamela Hardin served as an Assistant Education Specialist and is the second teacher in the demonstration classroom. Emily Bennett served as the Fiscal/Procurement staff member and was responsible for the purchasing and procurement needs of the project. She also managed travel associated with the project. Amy Palmer was the Program Assistant and was responsible for tracking video release forms as well as other various office related tasks. In addition to the staff members working on the project, we have engaged the following partner organizations and collaborators: Dr. David Andrews, Dean College of Education Johns Hopkins University, served as consultant on the project contributing to content in the area of child guidance; Lieny Jeon and Rachel Hur provided research support; Dr. Erin Barton, Donna Ruhlen, Holly Scheibe, Meredith Schilling, and Nichole Moore all served as content consultants; Blink Reaction is a web development company that we contracted with to design and built the VLS content management platform; Acquia is the website hosting company that is managing the hosting of our web-site for the project; Amazon Public Sector Cloud Services provided hosting space. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences for the VLS are teachers, training & curriculum specialists, and new management staff in the military child and youth development system. However, in the best tradition of the university land-grant system, when fully implemented, the VLS will also be available for public use as well, allowing college students, public and private child care workers and providers to use the site to enhance their skills as a child care professional. The virtual laboratory school changes the way we think about "brick and mortar" lab schools as well. The creation of the virtual laboratory school will allow military trainers, as well as professors and other instructors at land grant universities to avoid assigning countless hours of inefficient student observations by providing a searchable site that allows users to view any number of situations or instances that they may or may not see in a typical lab school setting. Lastly, as the site is fully implemented, extension faculty and staff at land grant universities will also benefit through the availability of these learning lessons to be packaged and distributed statewide in support of child care providers in non-military settings. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The virtual laboratory school is still in a development and feedback phase so intermediate and long term outcomes cannot yet be assessed. However, we have worked closely with military personnel serving on our advisory panel and as they review the materials we are preparing they have expressed continued confidence that the VLS system will be beneficial for their programs and will help to meet their current and future training needs. As each of the competencies roll out beginning in late 2012, we will be able to obtain feedback from ground level users as well. More extensive evaluation activities are planned once the core content is in regular use.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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Progress 04/15/10 to 04/14/11
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The primary goal of the virtual laboratory school project (VLS) is to increase the professional competencies of trainers and front-line youth workers in the military child care centers and non-military youth development programs through a virtual lab school environment. In addition, advisors from the military child and youth development programs have requested that we also develop comparable training for supervisory personnel in the child and youth development system. During the reporting period, project staff has created (in consultation with military partners) the pedagogic approach, the technological architecture, and the nested framework for course content. Backend databases and programming to support the video capture and editing system have been developed. Commercial partners (hosting, content management programmers, etc.) have been identified and contracts with those entities have been executed. Content experts created an initial set of courses and lessons and solicited feedback from the working group of the military advisory panel. We also established a demonstration classroom as a filming site for the virtual laboratory school, which is distinguished by, and relies on, a large repository of video clips designed to enhance the training lessons being developed. Highly ranked early childhood classrooms across Ohio have also been used to generate video. In addition, necessary mechanisms (e.g., approved video release forms) and site selection has taken place to begin video collection at military installations. PARTICIPANTS: Cynthia Buettner, Ph.D., Principal Investigator is responsible for the project in its entirety, including supervision of project design and reporting/dissemination. Kathleen Artman-Meeker, Ph.D., Co-investigator, is responsible for generating and obtaining expert content for the site. In addition to writing training courses and lessons, Dr. Artman-Meeker has also reviewed the content of others, making certain the content is accurate and relevant. Aaron Robertson, M.S. has served as the Project Director and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the project, managing staff members and ensuring that project components are being completed in a timely and appropriate manner. Daniel Buettner, is the Technical Director and has overseen and managed all technical aspects of the project. Kevin Satterfield is the Video Production Manager and is responsible for managing all aspects of video collection, editing, storage as well as ensuring compatibility with existing technologies related to our project.Ruth Lang serves as the projects Videographer and has traveled to partner video collection sites to obtain high quality video of best practices in the classroom. Amy Driscoll, M.Ed. served as a Content Spotter for the project accompanying the videographer to partner centers and classrooms and identifying best practices in the classroom and interactions for video collection. Jamie Gottesman served as the Demonstration Classroom Director. In addition to serving as the lead teacher in the demonstration classroom, Ms. Gottesman contributes to the content for the supervisory track in the VLS system. Pamela Hardin served as an Assistant Education Specialist and is the second teacher in the demonstration classroom. Julianne Wolfe, M.S. served as the project Research Assistant serving as substitute teacher in the demonstration classroom when needed and providing research support for the VLS content developers. Emily Bennett served as the Fiscal/Procurement staff member and was responsible for the purchasing and procurement needs of the project, as well as managing travel associated with the project. Amy Palmer was the Program Assistant and was responsible for tracking video release forms as well as other various office related tasks. In addition to the staff members working on the project, we have engaged the following partner organizations and collaborators: Dr. David Andrews, served as the Co-Principal Investigator on the project overseeing the after-school youth segments of the training. Blink Reaction is a web development company designed and built the VLS content management platform. Acquia is the website hosting company that is hosting our web-site for the project. Murray Krantz, Ph.D. is a faculty member at Florida State University who providing consulting services in the area of child guidance content. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audiences for the VLS are teachers, training & curriculum specialists and new management staff in the military child and youth development system. However, in the best tradition of the university land-grant system, the VLS will also be available for public use as well, allowing college students, public and private child care workers and providers to use the site to enhance their skills as a child care professional. The virtual laboratory school changes the way we think about "brick and mortar" lab schools as well. The creation of the virtual laboratory school will allow military trainers, as well as professors and other instructors at land grant universities, to avoid assigning countless hours of inefficient student observations by providing a searchable site that allows users to view any number of situations or instances, that they may or may not see see in a typical lab school setting, at the click of a button. Lastly, as the site is fully implemented, extension faculty and staff at land grant universities will also benefit through the availability of these learning lessons to be packaged and distributed statewide in support of child care providers in non-military settings. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The virtual laboratory school is still in a development and feedback phase. However, features of the project have been shared at the Forging the Partnership conference, where enthusiasm for the project was expressed by workshop participants. In addition, military personnel serving on our advisory panel have expressed anticipation and continued confidence that the VLS system will be beneficial for their programs and will help to meet their current and future training needs. As the pilot rolls out, we will be able to obtain feedback from ground level users as well. More extensive evaluation activities are planned in the next phase.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
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