Online EYLF Tools

[Lorina]

Hi Grandma,

Thanks so much for your continued support! We really appreciate it! All donations hugely helps us out and your contribution will always be remembered...

Hi Lindy,

Yeah, it's a good idea to add the follow up dates to the LS/DR, to show how it links to the curriculum plan etc. We will add it in! ATM we are preparing for the next version release of online tools and we will include the changes you suggested in the next release.

Cheers ,
L.A

[Lorina]

Hi Everyone,

Online EYLF Tools Version 0.0.3 Update!

Here is a quick update on whats coming up in the next version of the Online Tools (version 0.0.3). There are quite a few good changes coming up and I am pretty excited about the next release. Here is a quick highlight of some of the features that will be coming up in the next version.

Online Tools v0.0.3 Features:

1. Child Observation: As you all know by now, 3 different templates for child obs will be released in the next version. Template 1 is going to be a Written Ob, Template 2 is a design based on Belonging, Being, Becoming and Template 3 is a Photo Ob. As part of incorporating the EYLF it recommends that a variety of obs should be used to capture children's learning. We have designed 3 different methods of recording observations which all can be used in your centre.
2. Updated Learning Stories and Reflections Of Our Day: The following changes will be done to the Learning Stories and Reflections of Our Day forms. All of them are based on your requests.
   
   1. OSHC Version: These forms (LS & DR) will be updated for a OSHC version as well. The OSHC version will have Learning Outcomes to reflect My Time Our Place (MTOP). The version can be changed by clicking on the "version" buttons similar to the feature in the current curriculum Plan forms.
   2. FDC Version: A "FDC" version of Learning Story form will also be introduced. In the FDC version, when the "group" LS is selected from the drop-down list, the "Names" field will appear. Here you can type in the children names. There should be enough space to type in upto 5-7 names here.
   3. Date Of Follow-Up: A new "Date Of Follow-Up" field will be introduced to the LS and DR. You can use this field to link your extension ideas to your curriculum plan and validate where the idea for the experience originated from, also clearly shows how you are extending on learning opportunities by providing more opportunities to do so. Here you can either choose a date using the pop-up calender or just type in "No Follow-Up" if there are no follow-up required.
3. OOSH Curriculum Plan: There will be an updated version of the OOSH curriculum Plan to reflect My Time Our Place.
4. Completed Samples: The next version release will also come with completed samples of all templates so you can have a look at these examples to get an idea on how you can complete these templates. I know this will be useful to some of you.
5. Other Changes: Apart from the above changes to the form templates, there will be a few changes introduced to the online tools page itself and other minor bug fixes. We are also putting together a guide on how you can use online tools efficiently, etc. so users who are new to this can understand what this is about and how to put it to good use.
6. New EYLF Programming Article: I will also be writing an article on how you can create you own templates if you want. I know the last article I had written on EYLF programming & Documentation was quite a long time ago and the examples shown in that tutorial are basic templates so it is easy for all beginners to understand and get an idea on where to begin.
   
   Since then, I've discovered new possibilities and designed different ways to create user friendly and understandable programming based on my interpretation and my understanding of EYLF which gave way to these Online Tools today. Each template design compliments one another and shows clear links on how you are using elements of the EYLF in your documentation.
   
   So I thought its times for me to share with you on how I created these templates on online tools so you can use my work as a basis of how you can go about creating your very own documentations for your centre.  

I am hoping for the next release to be a complete set of all documentations that you will require in order to incorporate the various elements of EYLF and MTOP. "Aussie Childcare Network, your one stop shop for your Early Childhood needs". Im hoping all these changes and updates makes your paperwork easier since after all that's my aim for introducing these tools and sharing my work with all of you. We are just trying to create innovative tools that all educators can adapt to and focus more on children's learning and less on the amount of time spent on paperwork.

I thank you all for your feedback and do keep them coming. I like how this online tools is beginning to evolve as a collaborative work from all users participating here. So thank you all for that and your support keeps us motivated. We still have many ideas and ways to improve these tools even further after the next release.

The Child Obs templates have been finalized. We just need to make the other changes to the current forms and few more work to do on it then we should be ready to release the next version. I will be back once again with more updates once its good to go.

I do hope these tools makes your life easier.

Cheers ,
L.A

[LindyT]

yay!!
Thanks to you and Admin for all your hard work again!!

[sherry.mcc]

Thank you L.A. and anybody else who is involved in this process. It certainly does cut down on the paper work. Still cannot send them to parents though.
Cheers
Sherry

[Lorina]

Hi sherry,

If you are having trouble tell us more details on your problem so we can try to help you. It's hard to give suggestions if you just tell us "it doesn't work". You haven't got back to my questions in this post yet: 
http://www.aussiechildcarenetwork.com/c ... html#p5729

[Sonja]

Hi L.A and the Admin Team!
Just wanted to express my THANKS AND APPRECIATION (AGAIN!) for all the great work you are doing to make our working lives a whole lot easier. All my collegues are also very thankful for all the templates and I hope the donation our centre made goes toward helping in some way.

Cheers, Sonja

[Lorina]

Hi Sonja,

We really appreciate the kind generosity your cente has made through the donation to support this site. You have been a great supporter of ours from the beginning and I will always be thankful for your contribution and support.

Cheers ,
L.A

[sherry.mcc]

Hi L. A.
I did give details of what happens on the 06/05/12 when I try to send the online tools to parents.

When I try and attach to email it comes up with - This file is 9MB and may be too big to email. Would you like to send it as a link using Adobe SendNow online?

When I press 'No' the page comes up with - Select File and attach.
When I press attach the email comes up with


Please wait...

If this message is not eventually replaced by the proper contents of the document, your PDF viewer may not be able to display this type of document.

You can upgrade to the latest version of Adobe Reader for Windows, Mac, - 'I have a Mac' -

by visiting http://www.adobe.com/go/reader_download
- 'which I have done but I still get the same message when I try and attach them to emails'

For more assistance with Adobe Reader visit http://adobe.com/go/acrreader
'which I have tried to find'.

Cheers
Sherry

[admin]

Hi Sherry,

Although you replied on 06/05/12 you didn't give us enough details in order for us to try and support you with your issue. If you just tell us the error message, then the common solution would be telling you to update your adobe reader or try another browser. But reading your last post now, I can understand that Adobe Reader is not the issue for you. That's the reason why we always insist to everyone "if you have technical issues, provide as much info on the type of problem you experience and the methods you have tried in order for us to get an understanding of your nature of the problem." (If not, its like me starting in the middle of a conversation that only I was having!)

Alright, now before I suggest a few steps to resolve your problem, I want to clarify an important thing about viewing these Online Tools files in a "preview" mode. It can get a bit technical so I will try and explain this in a simple term as much as I can so it clears all common misunderstanding with these forms and error messages.

IMPORTANT - Viewing In PDF Preview: You cannot edit or view these Online Tools files in a "preview" mode! This also includes "Apple Preview". It is important to understand the difference between a pdf "preview" and pdf file opened through Adobe Reader. (PS: Just to clarify when I say "preview" mode, I am not referring to the "preview" buttons in the Online Tools Page). Usually, when you attach emails, it is common see the snapshot of the pdf file. These snapshots (or preview) are generated by creating a preview of that "pdf file". The same thing happens when you view these files as "Extra Large Icons" from the Explorer windows in your computer that usually shows a preview image of that pdf file. So if you are viewing (or attaching) a standard static pdf files, you will usually be seeing a small preview image of that file there. But when it comes to these "online Tools" forms, it is common to see the message you had mentioned instead or sometimes a "Please wait…" message. The reason why you see this message when you attach these pdfs and when you view it through a web preview or Apple preview is because these pdf previews cannot process the scripts in these forms through a preview mode and hence its unable to show a preview image of that file. That's why it shows the error message instead although its not really an "error". The reason for seeing this message in this scenario is completely different. In this case, seeing the message does not mean that you do not have the latest Adobe Reader / plug-in because without a proper adobe reader in your computer, you wont be able to edit these forms in the first place. It just means that, this file cannot be viewed through pdf preview. You would need to download and open these files through your Adobe Reader or from your browser using the Adobe Reader Plug-in. Does this makes sense?

Ok, now coming back to your problem. The first issue you are having has to do with the size of the file. Like you mentioned, your 9MB file was too big to email. The original size of these files are less than 1 MB so they are not too big at all. However the file size will increase once you start filling in the form since the end results of this file size hugely depends on the contents you add to this form. That is why by the time you complete filling in the forms and adding all the photos to it, the file size eventually ends up being bigger. We can't control the filesize since it depends on the sizes of each photos you also add to this document. I have already addressed this in the FAQ page on steps you can try to keep these file size to a minimum. Click here to read.

If you are able to reduce the file size, then I dont see a reason on why you will still not be able to email these forms to your parents. Then again, its hard for me to understand the steps you've tried and also dont know your OS. Although you may see the "error" message when you view the attachment preview, your parents may still be able to view these files by downloading them. All they need to do is download these attachments and opening it directly from their Adobe Reader in their computer. Doesnt that work?

Alternative Method -Saving these Online Tools forms as Images:

Here is a new solution you can try out. I haven't addressed this before although I tried testing this out with one of our support team member last week. You can try out these steps as well and see if you are able to reduce the file size of these forms by creating a image copy of the competed form in the end. The trick to this would be to print these forms as image using Adobe's "Print to PDF" feature. I will give you a few steps you can try to print these files as an image file and saving it on to your computer. Once you print it as an image file, you may be able to easily email it since the file size reduces a lot. You can even view these files on a preview window as well. So if you try these out, let me know if it worked for you or not. If it did, then it may be a good tip to add to our FAQ list.

How to Print To PDF as Image:

Note: This will only work if you have the "print to PDF" option. If you don't, then try googling or searching Adobe for more info.

Step 1:

1) Choose File > Print, and then click Advanced.
The location of the Advanced button depends on the version of Reader or Acrobat.
Mac OS: If you don't see the Advanced button, click the Down Arrow (to the right of the Printer pop-up menu).

2) Select Print As Image and Click OK to return back to "Printing options" screen.

Step 2:

For Windows:

Once you completed Step 1, select "Adobe PDF" under Printer Name and click OK. This will now create an image file of the completed pdf form. Choose a location in your computer to save this file.

For Mac:

The method can be a bit different for Mac. Hopefully this guide helps. If not, try searching Adobe site for info on your OS.
[attachment=0]creating-pdf-files-using-the-print-command-mac.pdf[/attachment]
Note for Mac: Recently, when I was trying to troubleshoot one of a MAC computers, I discovered that for some reason Adobe disables the print to PDFs in Mac. There is also other known problem with Mac in general returning a blank pdf form, etc.. I've found troubleshooting Mac to be a pain although the problem has nothing to do with these Online Tools Forms. I am not gonna get into that right now and I will try and look into more if you have a Mac and have problem with it. In which case, remember to provide more info.

If the above didn't work, then printing it out and scanning them would be the other way to convert them to image manually although its a bit of an old school method.

Hope this helps and let us know how you went with it all.

[sherry.mcc]

Hi Admin,
Actually I looked at the first email and sorry there is not much info there. I tried everything you said in the second email. In the end the adobe send on line worked so I will do that from now on. I was able to send via email in the beginning with the first online tools but not since I downloaded the new ones. At least I can now send via adobe online now.
Thank you for all your help. I appreciate it.
In regard to the photoes on the reflections of our day, I paste the photoes from iPhoto to the desktop. I then go back to the reflections page and click on where the photoes go and it brings up immediately desktop. I click on the photoes and they fit into where the photoes go. I don't have to stretch or fit which is so handy and saves times.
Once again thank you for your help.
All the best
Sherry

[admin]

Hi Sherry,

Thanks for updating on how you went. From what I understand, these are your 2 issues:

1) Size of the email attachment

2) Size of the Form after you complete them.

There hasn't been any change to the base scripts of these forms in the last version and I don't see anything new that could have caused a problem for you in the last version. The main reason you may be unable to send it by email now has to do with the huge file size. This is how it works when you add photos to the learning stories or reflection of our day: If the size of 1 photo (say for example) is 3MB, then when you add 3 photos with 3MB size for each into this Learning story form, then all of a sudden this form ends up being a 10MB file (1MB is the size of the Original File + 9MB due to adding 3 photos size of 3 MB each). So that's the reason why the file size is so large and it is common for a lot of email server settings not allowing to attach huge files in emails. I think this is the reason you are unable to email your parents. Maybe you are only having this problem now could be that only now your saved files are going above the limit of your email provider. So you need to find out the email attachment limit in your email server settings and change it if possible so you are able to email larger files. Anyhow, does this give you an idea now?

With the stretch and fit button, you don't really need to use it unless you are adding a portrait photo. All landscape photos gets resized perfectly. Its only some portrait photo that may be stretched and thats the only time you need to use the "stretch" or "fit" button. When you add any photo to these forms, the forms automatically resize this image to that box size. Although it shrinks the image to the box size, the original size of the photo image that you add to this form still remains the same and that doesnt reduce. If you really wanna cut down on the file size, then optimizing the photo to a smaller filesize before adding to the form should be the other work-around.

Anyhow, I am glad you can now send via adobe online. Thanks for the update.

[Yolande]

Hi again
I am having trouble with the learning stories template. In the main box when i hit enter the typing i put there spreads out like it is tabbed with huge spaces in between words. Cant figure how to fix this. It was fine on the first templates but the newer ones do this for me.
Can you help?

[Lorina]

Hi Yolande,

This is happening due to the "Justify" paragraph alignment settings in this box. No worries...this will be fixed in the next version.

,
L.A

[Lorina]

I'm our scheme it is something that's looked for.
I use a lot of the space in the LS to put names and DOBs which ends up with a tiny font to get the LS in. The other alternative is multiple Learning stories that need to be done which generates a lot of paperwork..

Hi Lindy, 

Awhile ago you mentioned that for  Learning Stories and Reflections of Our Day you would like the option of adding the children's names to these documents for FDC version. We have added this option in for you and just would like to know whether this is needed for the Curriculum Plans too. Do you need to add children's names to this as well? I was just thing since I'm updating LS  & DR, do I need to the same for FDC version of Curriculum Plans. I don't think it's necessary to include children's names in the Curriculum Plan itself but I thought I'd ask because I'm not sure if you have to include it in your fdc scheme. 

,
L.A

[LindyT]

Sorry I haven't replied earlier

I think just for the Obs and LS would be great.

sorry for the short answer have a full plate this week.

[admin]

Thank you Lindy.. We will leave the FDC version of the curriculum plans the way they are at the moment.

With the LS and DR, although we have added the "Names" field to include children names in the header area itself (only in the FDC version of the form), we still dont have space for you to add each D.O.B yet. For this, L.A was maybe thinking of another solution. Maybe we can update these templates with a new feature to add an extra page so users can use this page to input additional details, extra photos if needed, etc.. But these changes will not be done until version 0.0.5 or later. In the mean time, hopefully the changes in the next version will still be helpful to FDC carers. The testing for the next version should most likely be released this weekend to the support team so you can try out these changes before the final release.

[LindyT]

Feel sooo special!!

Thanks for taking the input aboard.

[Yolande]

Thankyou LA,you are amazing, oh and so is your team!!

[Lorina]

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick update...

Today, we have just released the next version of Online Tools 0.0.3 to the support team for testing.

We should have it available live on this site in a couple more days if everything goes well.

Cheers ,
L.A

[Lorina]

Hi Everyone,

Online Tools version 0.0.3 is now released!

We are happy to inform you that the latest stable release of "Online EYLF Tools" version 0.0.3 is now available. There has been quite a few changes in this release. Here is the full list of new features in this release:

1. Child Observation Templates:
   
   Finally the Child obs are here! We have released 3 new templates of Child observations for you to choose from. The Child obs templates available now are:
   
   1. Child Obs Template 1 - Written Ob template.
   2. Child Obs Template 2 - Belonging, Being, Becoming template.
   3. Child Obs Template 3 - Photo Ob template.
2. Learning Stories Template:
   
   We have included quite a few changes, added new fields and updated the previous version of Learning Stories template. The following changes are made to Learning Stories:
   
   1. “Date Of Follow-up” Added.
   2. New versions for Learning Stories are introduced in the control panel. You can now change the version to "LDC", "FDC" & "OOSH" depending on your needs. (default is LDC version when the form is opened but it can be changed by clicking on the version buttons in the control panel)
   3. Updated the OOSH version to reflect My Time Our Place (MTOP).
   4. Updated the FDC version to include children's names.
   5. Updated the Principles & Practices colour themes to match EYLF framework.
   6. [Bugfix] Paragraph alignment settings fixed for Learning Story Box.
   7. [Bugfix] “-” Font Size Button fixed.
3. Reflections Of Our Day Template:
   
   The following changes have been made to the previous version of Reflections Of Our Day Template.
   
   1. "Date of Follow-up" Added for all version (FDC, LDC and OOSH)
   2. FDC version can have children names. This field will auto-expand depending on the character limits and it can hold upto 50 Characters.
   3. OOSH version is now introduced to the Daily Reflections. This OOSH version has the Learning Outcomes reflecting My Time Our Place.
4. OOSH Curriculum Plan:
   
   OOSH Curriculum Plan template is updated with the following changes:
   
   1. Updated the Learning Outcomes to reflect My Time Our Place (MTOP).
   2. Fixed paragraph alignment settings for the experience boxes.
   3. Optimized and updated scripts.
   4. Learning Outcomes drop down lists in experience boxes are updated to reflect MTOP.
5. Weekly Curriculum Plan:
   
   1. [Bugfix] Finalize Form button scripts updated.
6. Completed Samples:
   
   Completed samples for all Online Tools documentation templates are now included so you can have a look at these examples to get an idea on how to complete and fill in these templates.
7. About Online EYLF Tools:
   
   A new page with information "about Online Tools" is now included. This is a detailed guide on what Online Tools are, how to efficiently use Online Tools, Difference between Online Tools and EYLF software, How to create your own Online Tools templates and much more. This also has some important information about these digital tools as well as clearing some common misunderstandings with Online Tools. This guide will help all users in getting started and understand the benefits of Online Tools better. Click here to read.
8. Updated License & Disclaimer:
   
   Please take a minute the read the updated License, Disclaimer and Copyright notice for Online Tools. These “Online Tools” are free to use for private (individual) use only. If you are a Business, Partnership, Company, Trust or any commercial for-profit organisation and are currently using these Online Tools, please consider making a Donation.
9. Updated FAQs:
   
   Online Tools FAQs page is now updated with questions about email attachments, emailing forms and other common troubleshoot related questions.

<-- Click here to go to Online Tools -->

It's been a busy few weeks putting all this together... I hope you like the new updates and changes that have been made!

Cheers ,
L.A