WPP: PART A -Description of Need or Opportunity

Definition of my WPP:

For CEP 812, I have chose the topic of "The Kindergarten Font" for my Wicked Problem of Practice. Just this morning, my Kindergartner looked at a worksheet and pointed to an "a". He said, "Mom, what's this letter? Is this "a"? I'm going to try and write it like that." I said, "You don't have to, that's just a fancy "a", you can write it normal." He replied, "No, I want to write it like this." This is a problem in early childhood education. New readers and writers are seeing the squiggly "a" all over the place and it's creating some confusion. I even remember as a child trying to master writing the "a" all squiggly and fancy. Why do we write the "a" one way, and type it another? It's not just the letter "a" that is misrepresented in text, the "t", "y", "1", "4", "8", and "9" are not correctly represented in most fonts. There is a great need for parents, and early childhood educators to have a Kindergarten Font available. "Comic Sans" is often the font early childhood teachers choose, but it still does not offer a true representation of: 1, 4, 8, and 9. We need "The Kindergarten Font" because it address the Universal Design for learning; children need to see accurate representation of the content and be given multiple ways to express themselves with the content (Center for Applied Special Technology). 

My Plan to address this problem:

New readers and writers need a font that accurately represents their writing. They need this medium to express themselves. The Kindergarten Font will provide numerable means for students to be active with the content being learned (reading and writing). Students will be able to engage with letters, create sentences, explore math, and technology in a clear and real context. Why do educators teach students to write one way and read from different letters and numbers? This can be confusing for a new reader and writer. This has been a long standing problem. 

Today, educators can download fonts online from sites like fontspace.com. The problem is that even the fonts offered at this website do not have true representations of the written 1, 4, 8, and 9. So, for the scope of my WPP, there is no added benefit to downloading fonts from fontspace.com than there is from using "Comic Sans". 

Thankfully we are in an age of apps and new web-based technologies that offer cost efficient and easily accessible solutions. There are apps available for the iPhone and iPad that allow the user to custom design their own font. This is the avenue I choose go. Below is my review of the apps available to create custom fonts:

iPad/iPhone App: Font Maker
Cost: Free
My review: You cannot create original work with this app. This app will not help solve my WPP.

iPad App: ifontmaker
Cost: $6.99
My review: I have not purchased the app to review it. I decided to explore other free apps before, since keeping costs down is part of my WPP solution.

iPhone/Android/Samsung/Windows8 app: MyRealFont
Cost: Free
My review: This app is available on a number of devices. It allows you to create original work for letters, numbers, symbols, etc. It is not available on the iPad, and it is hard to mimic handwriting by using finger. A stylus would be helpful. I would choose this app to solve my WPP.

iPhone app: MyFont
Cost: Free
My review: This app is a lot like MyRealFont, (see above). This app would work as well to solve my WPP.

An alternative to using an app would be to use "Comic Sans" and whiteout - the whiteout is for numbers 1, 4, 8, and 9. Teachers would need to rewrite these. Obviously, this is not technologically advanced and definitely not convenient. All joking aside, this is a real problem that we have overlooked. If we are reforming education to be Universally Designed, we need to provide accurate representation of content. 

Logistics:

After researching what web-based technologies and apps are available I have decided to go with MyRealFont, an iPhone app to create the font. This technology is free and allows me to create a font that accurately represents written letters. (1) Once I create the font via MyRealFont, (2) I will email the font to my daughter's Preschool teacher, and my son's Kindergarten teacher. I will ask these teachers to use the font in their class and provide me with feedback. (3) After ironing out any wrinkles, (4) I will then distribute the font through online social media and social bookmarking sites, like Delicious.com and Pinterest.com. (5) I will also send the font to my school district. My hope is that the Kindergarten Font will go viral. Or at the very least, educators will no longer need to say, "I wish I could make my own font." Instead, I want them to do it via technology.

My WPP timeline:

During this course:
I plan to create the Kindergarten Font and distribute to my children's teachers, and to social media and social booking marking sites. I will create a survey using Google Forms and have each teacher complete the survey testing the validity of the project. To see the survey, click here. 

After the class:
I plan to distribute the font to my school district. I also hope to teach a class to teachers in my district about "How to create your own font". I may do this via an online screencast and distribute it via email to the early childhood teachers in my district.

If I see teachers using either my Kindergarten Font in their class or even if I see evidence that teachers have created their own font I will feel that I have succeeded in solving my WPP. Success is going to be determined in the text around me. When I see typed student work having letters and numbers accurately representing early writing, I will know that my WPP made a difference.

Source:

Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). Transforming Education through Universal Design for Learning. © CAST, 2012. Web. 8 Nov. 2012.