KYVL for Kids Work Group Minutes

Present: Blenda Fields, Barby Hardy, Diane Culbertson, Becky Stevens, Susan Brown

1). Outline the kids' tutorial.
We examined the two existing versions of the tutorial. We liked the basic idea but felt that it needed to be simplified a bit. Through discussion and looking into reference works we decided to build around three major steps:
What do I need to do? (Plan)
How will I do it? (Do)
How did I do? (Review)
More detailed content can be seen here.

These were distilled from five steps:
Plan - What do I need to do?
Searching - What do I use to find what I need? How do I find the information?
Analyze - Which info is important for what I need?
Communicate - How do I tell others?
Evaluate - Did I do what I needed to? What would I do differently?

The second, third and forth steps all become major sub steps in the second step of the set of three. We liked presenting the steps in the form of questions to prompt students to think.

Becky and Blenda will test the process and language with some of their students to see if it makes sense to them. We'd like to find something more interesting to call it. All agreed that Research Roadmap might be good.

2). Brainstorming on design issues.
We brainstormed on how the whole Kids site should be designed. Ideas and suggestions that emerged:

• Low on text, high on graphics
• First page should have some movement to hook them (the Arthur site)
• Have animation but don't go overboard. We want to keep in mind that some school computers and connections will not be able to handle much.
• If characters are used, use animals, not people (representation issues)
• Not too cute
• Maybe: dinosaurs; Kentucky flavor
• No scrolling if possible - design for 600x800
• Bright, colorful, cartoonish
• In the tutorial, we could use an icon that leads to deeper information than we want to cover immediately (like notes).

• Folletts - Pathways to knowledge We liked the art work but the page loads slowly and sometimes times out on the school computers. The text in the balloons is small and there's probably too much for younger students.
• Alfy - the flash is a bit too much but it is bright and inviting.
• PBS Kids
• Arthur - This site has interesting characters (art work) and simple but engaging animation.
• Ben's Guide - we like the art on this one. It's very easy to understand where to go.
• FBI for Kids - we liked the moving bones. The art is good too.

Some artists that might be able to create art for the site: Paul Brett Johnson, Richard Griendling, Mark Wexler, the artist that did Ricky Redbird. Becky knows Paul Brett Johnson so might be a contact there. Do we want to employ someone to do only the art and create the website inhouse or try to get a firm that will both create art and the website? Do we have money for either of these options?

This page was last updated February 5, 2001.

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