eCOVE Classroom Observation Software

Advanced Edition Comments Bug 11/10/08

2008-11-12T06:19:00.000-08:00

A bug in the Advanced Edition comments was reported by a user last night. I want to alert you and offer a work-around.

The bug: if you type extensive comments into any one comments window, either the individual comments or the general 'Add Comments' windows, only the first page of the comments will appear in the reports.

The workaround: open additional comments windows using the 'Add Comments' button, bottom of the screen when in an observation. Title them Comments 1, Comments 2, etc. Limit the amount you type into any single window, and all the text will appear in the report.

Our solution: we're wrapping up an update, due out by the first of the year (2009), and we'll include the fix in it. We'll notify everyone on how to update. This is a free update for Advanced Edition license holders.

NOTE: if you are experiencing any other issues, this is the time to let me know. The new edition will add Palm and PocketPC to the Advanced Edition, plus fixing as many of the nagging issues as we, and all you observers, can find. Email me at john@ecove.net

The New Teacher Travel Tool

2008-08-21T14:23:00.000-07:00

In the Basic Edition there is a 'Teacher Travel' tool that can be used to track where a teacher (or a student) moves in the room, and can also be used to track discussions - what part of the room is participating in the discussion.

That tool is not in the default set of tools, and that was a mistake. We'll be adding some form of tracking movement, and here are three ideas. I'm VERY interested to see if you think these will work.

The LOCATION TIMER Tool.

This tool is similar in function to the Basic Edition tool. It tracks 9 areas of the class (front left to rear right) and an 'Other Location'. Click the button that matches the desired location. This is the tool to primarily track movement or area of focus.

The LOCATION COUNTER Tool.

This tool is used to track incidents in room locations, e.g. call outs, hand raised, misbehavior, questions, etc -- just about any individual behavior. Just click to record the location of the behavior. The 'Other location' button is for locations not in the set of nine, e.g. teacher's desk, out of room, etc. Describe the location in a general comments window.

The LOCATION-GROUP TIMER Tool.

This tool is similar to the Location Timer except that it has five groups identified to enable the observer to gather data by group rather than physical location. The default tool has 5 groups, but on the laptop there can be up to 9 groups (plus the 'Other location' button.

PLEASE leave a comment. Will these tools work for collecting location data? Should there be a Location-Group Counter tool? Other ideas for location data?

You can create these tools in the Advanced Edition/Preferences/Manage Toolsets/New Tool area. Be sure you choose the Timer or Counter Template as needed.

Response to Misbehavior Tool

2008-07-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Ever wonder how consistent you are in responding to student mis-behaviors?

Here's another of the new tools in the eCOVE Software Advanced Edition that will help answer that question. The Response to Misbehavior tool will track the teacher's response to misbehavior incidents. Some discussion about what constitutes 'misbehavior' is worthwhile so there is common understanding. For example, there is a difference between a student forgetting a rule and flaunting a rule, and you can collect one or both - just make a note in a comments area for later reference.

Teachers ignore misbehavior incidents much more than they realize, and also attend to certain individuals' or groups' misbehavior different than others, again often without being aware of it. I'm not talking about keeping on top of the kid with the regular outbursts, but about two kids who misbehave at the same rate, but one gets corrected more often than the other.

The "Call On Student" button tracks how often the teacher handles a misbehavior with a content related response - "OK, Billy, what's the answer to problem three?" There's no judgment or recommendation about this practice - just want to let people know what they are doing so they can test the effectiveness of it.

The "Physical Correction" can range from holding a student's hand briefly to stop him/her from tapping on the desk to a total physical restraint with an out-of-control student. It's a good idea to identify the details in a comments window.

[a blog note: if you'd like to be informed of new postings, please sign up. You need to sign up for both blogs separately. Here's the link to the Data-Based Observation Model blog ]

Observing the Classroom: Improved Class Learning Time Tool

2008-06-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

The Advanced Edition is in full swing and is being very well received. There is an simple way to gather data and a more focused way, and both are easy. The increased power in creating reports brings new insights to the classroom.

Among the new tools is an update of what I think is the most powerful tool in the set of 40 - Class Learning Time. This is a tool that generates what I call 'keystone data'; if you can improve the amount of class learning time, you will increase student learning (and the scores, too).

The Class Learning Time tool in the Basic Edition has two buttons - Learning Time and Non-Learning Time. In the Advanced Edition it now has three buttons - Learning Time, Non-Learning External, Non-Learning Internal.

Non-Learning External is clicked when the interruption to the learning comes from outside the classroom - PA announcements, someone at the door collecting a student, etc. It's anything that draws the attention of the class that is beyond the control of the teacher. The data here will indicate a school problem, not a teacher problem; it's likely to be fairly consistent across classes.

Non-Learning Internal is clicked when the interruption is within the class - a class management issue that stops the learning or a transition that doesn't include learning/reviewing, etc. There will always be some non-learning time within a lesson; it's useful to know how much. Remember, the tools are floating now so you can run more than one at once.

Go to the website, eCOVE Software, to download the trial version.

Advanced Edition Home screen

2007-10-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

Exciting times as the Advanced Edition moves through the beta testing process.

This is the home screen. Although this is a much more powerful program, we've tried to keep the navigation simple.

The Observation Room is where you set up your classroom, import and arrange students. You'll proceed from there to do an observation.

Create Report is where you pick from the 5 types of reports (which now include bar graphs of the data).

Observation Review is where you can look interactively at previous observations, viewing the data with different configurations of students and tools.

More later -- back to testing.

Beta testing of the eCOVE Advanced Edition

2007-10-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

This is really an exciting day for us. After almost 4 years of working on the eCOVE Classroom Observation Software: Advanced Edition, the laptop version is now in public beta. I'm working on simple 'How-To' instructions and will be sending the package to those who have volunteered to be beta testers next week. The PDA beta will be coming when we finish with the laptop.

The Laptop version is finished as of February, 2008; the PDA version is still being in the works. If you'd like to help with the beta testing, please email me at John@eCOVE.net.

The Advanced Edition, Laptop version is, well, advanced. It has a seating chart, importing of class lists of students, importing of student attributes and values, multiple tools operating at once, ability to create tools and toolsets, five different types of reports, and more. You can even change the color of the tool buttons, delete a single observation, and do an interactive review of any observation without printing. The Administrator version will come with 40 tools. There will be Special Education and Second Language Instruction versions, and I'm working on a Classroom Teacher version, each with their own specific set of tools.

Student Question Type Tool

2007-10-06T08:07:00.001-07:00

This tool tracks the type of questions asked by the students. The six buttons are Procedure, Clarification, Content-Low, Content-High, Management, Unrelated.

If questions are all about procedure or clarification of instructions, the student's mental engagement with the content is probably low, or the instructions by the teacher unclear. Likewise, low level questions related to the content ("Is this the right answer?" "When was the automobile invented?") indicate a matching level of engagement.

Best, of course, are higher order questions by students related to the content, such as "How does Roosevelt's involvement with Europe compare with Clinton's?" or "How is the US human rights policies better than those of China?".

Upper level questions (Bloom's) or divergent, opened ended questions by students indicate a richer mental engagement by the students. Management ("Why can't we line up at the door before the bell rings?") and questions unrelated to the class ("Mrs. Jones, do you have a pet?") also reveal the focus of the student's interests and mental engagement.

You'll find this tool in the current Basic Edition of eCOVE under the Generic Counter. Look for the 'label list' and pull down to choose Student Question Type. This will insert the button labels in the fields and you can immediately gather data.

In the Advanced Edition of eCOVE, this tool is one of the included 40 tools.

Using eCOVE in the Classroom

2007-09-10T15:10:00.000-07:00

Most of the time the classroom teacher does not have an opportunity to focus on data collection while also teaching and managing the classroom. There are, however, several ways that eCOVE can be easily and very effectively used in the regular classroom.

Individual students. Many of the eCOVE tools, such as Time on Task or Positive/Negative – even Teacher Travel (track the student movement, not the teacher), can provide very useful data for a conference with the student and/or parent. The Generic Timer and Counter tools can be used to create new tools specific to the individual student behavior in question. The Comparison Timer and Counter tools are used to compare two individuals (target and control). Gathering data for as short as 10 minutes can provide the basis for good discussions.

Whole class. The class can join with you to change group behavior, but the students need an objective and factual basis for decision-making. Providing data on the class behavior to the students and guiding a discussion about acceptability and potential changes can establish a sense of class engagement and unity. Following the changes with further data collection can provide evidence of the effectiveness of their efforts.

Teaching Practices. While in the midst of teaching it’s quite difficult to determine what we actually do and say, and how that is impacting the student’s behavior. Having another’s opinion of what happened isn’t nearly as effective as some simple objective data. With the help of another set of eyes, the data can provide the teacher with insights concerning current practices and the effectiveness of a new approach to increasing learning or changing behaviors.

Who Gathers The Data?

Since the eCOVE Software is so easy to use, and the task is to simply recognize the behavior without making judgments, the variety of useful observers is broad.

The Teacher The teacher can gather data but typically only for short periods while the class is engaged in an activity that does not require close teacher attention. A variety of tools can be used to observe individual students or the class as a group. It’s not very effective for the teacher to gather data on their own actions.

Peer Observer Inviting another teacher to drop in for 15 minutes (or longer) to observe and gather data on something of interest to you is very effective. The observer may or may not function in a mentoring roll, and a discussion/brainstorm about the data and possible changes is very beneficial for both parties. However, simply gathering the data for you will be very helpful in your efforts to improve your teaching skills or to provide you with individual student data prior to a parent conference.

Classroom Aide An aide can be a convenient person to gather data on an individual student, the entire class, or the classroom teacher. Again, since there are no judgments involved, the process is simple and the data collected valuable in your decision-making and communication.

Parents and Volunteers It can be useful and enlightening for a parent to gather data on their own child’s behavior. Community volunteers are also useful as long as the confidentiality of data on individual students is clearly understood. The process of data collection can shift the way they view the classroom from their opinion of how well things are going to a focused, factual and informed basis.

Students As Data Gatherers This is an extremely powerful way to affect student behavior, either individually or as a group. When you’d like to change an individual student’s behavior, have that student use eCOVE to gather data on another student or students (i.e. Time On Task). The act of watching another and making repeated decisions regarding the observed student’s on and off task behavior will build the ability to become aware of and monitor their own behavior.

For whole class behavior, identify one student to act as data-gatherer using a tool such as Positive/Negative. The data gatherer would sit outside the group and, for example, observe a group discussion and track the number of positive, negative, and neutral statements made by the students. The data is then presented to the entire class for reflection and interpretation, and where indicated, a plan for change. The class discussion about class behavior can both build unity and a common set of values.

Follow Up Data Collection In all of the above instances of data collection, the process is not a one-time event. Data can be collected to establish a base line of what’s currently happening. If desired, a change can be implemented and follow-up data collected to determine the effectiveness of the changes. The data will provide evidence of progress or the need for additional changes – all in a clear and objective manner.

The Next Steps

1. Start simple by picking a tool you’re interested in.
2. Ask a colleague to stop by and collect data for 15 minutes.
3. Volunteer to collect data in another classroom.

It’s that easy!

Creating new tools-Basic Edition

2007-08-12T06:31:00.000-07:00

With the free update released in February, 2007 it's quite easy to create and save new tools on either the laptop or PDA.
On the laptop or PDA versions, go to any of the four open ended tools: Generic Counter, Generic Timer, Comparison Counter, Comparison Timer. On the PDA version there is an additional open ended tool - Attention to Diversity.
Once there, enter the behaviors to be tracked as button labels. In some cases you might also want/need to enter the target (boys/girls, table one/table two, etc). You can use the tool immediately and when you exit the tool you will be asked if you want to save the tool. Say YES and the tool will be available in a dropdown/popup window in your next observation.
Differences between laptop and PDA version: The laptop saves the new tools within the type of tool used to create it -- Generic Counter, Comparison Timer, etc. The PDA version saves the labels in a single list. Since the set of button labels for a timer might not be suitable for a counter, be careful when you select a list during an observation. We recommend adding a two letter code at the end of the tool name to indicate the appropriate template, i.e. (GC for Generic Counter; CT for Comparison Timer, etc). You only need to do this in the PDA version.
On the PDA version you can also click on the Settings button on the Home screen, then click Label Lists. There you can create as many label sets as you wish and they will be available in the next observation.
You'll find sample tools that were included in the update in the pull down/popup lists. You can edit these and save under the same or a different name. If you find you've created a tool that doesn't work they way you want just edit the button labels and you can update the tool. There is not limit to the number of tools you can add.
If you have any difficulty creating tools, or just want feed back on a tool you've created, send me an email with the tool labels - glad to help.

Comparison Counter/Timer Tools: Calculating Level of Similarity

2007-05-04T06:40:00.001-07:00

Here's a technique for calculating the level of similarity when comparing two individuals over the same observation data.

The use of the eCOVE Comparison Counters/Timers increase the validity as your are gathering the data over the same behaviors in the same setting at the same time. You can use the technique to calculate the level of similarity across different observations, but the different time/ location/ observer adds another factor to be considered.

And it's simple: just divide the small number by the larger number and multiply by 100. The result will be the percent of similarity. For example, Billy, the special needs student with an IEP focused on getting him to increase his on-task behavior. He's being compared with James, a typical student used as a control. Billy was on-task 65% of the time; James was on-task 83% of the time. Dividing 65 by 83 = .78; When you multiply .78 X 100, the result is 78, so Billy's level of on-task behavior is 78% of a typical student in the class.

A second example: Billy is on-task 65% of the time, but due to the conditions in the classroom, James, the typical student, is on-task only 72% of the time. In this case, Billy's level of on-task behavior is 90% of a typical student in the class.

If the IEP goal is to have Billy's on-task behavior within 10% of a typical student in the same setting, he would have met the goal in the second example. This simple procedure is more accurate and appropriate than just comparing the raw on-task percents.

This approach can also be used to calculate observer reliability. There are other more complex ways to calculate the comparison between scores, and for serious research they should be considered.

Gender Praise (new tool)

2007-04-10T21:41:00.001-07:00

There's a new tool on the latest update (1.44 PDA / 1.66 Laptop) called Gender Praise. You can find it by going to the Comparison Counter and clicking on the "Select Label List" pull down menu. You can enter any two groups or individuals at the top (Boys/Girls or Latino/Anglo or Mary/Susie). The button labels are Effort, Accomplishment, Behavior, Attitude, Appearance, Other. On the PDA these are abbreviated, but easy to understand.

The left column of buttons (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) will track the left target (Boys) and the right column will track the right target (Girls). When finished you have a comparison of the amount and type of praise by gender (or whatever the other target labels you used).

The literature strongly suggest that the most appropriate thing to praise is effort. This research was looking at content learning, not classroom behavior. The findings indicated that when you praised accomplishment, students were pleased and worked hard. But if you then increased the difficulty of the problems (they were using math as a subject area), the students who were praised for accomplishment quit trying. They were afraid of getting wrong answers and losing the praise.

Those who were praised for effort continued to exhibit effort when the harder problems were presented, as it was the willingness to try that gained the praise. It's very enlightening to teachers to find out what it is that they actually praise.

In another article it was noted that girls are more often praised for appearance than boys. I'd be very interested in what eCOVE users find in their data gathering. I've noticed in other tools that the current data collected by administrators show a positive change in attention to gender from when the original body of research was conducted. There has not been enough results reported to me to really be confident of a change, but there is certainly an indication that progress is underway.

If you use this tool, or the other Attention to Gender tool, please email me with the results (no names, please). I'll keep a tally and report the results here.

Slash in filename fixed in laptop version

2007-03-12T06:35:00.001-07:00

As of 3/10/07 the slash problem in the laptop version is fixed. In Windows, there is now a somewhat cryptic message about the file name not being valid - that's a Windows operating system message, not ours. Just change the dashes to something else.
On the Macintosh, eCOVE will automatically change the slashes to dashes. For example, if you named the file "Tom Jones 2/2/2007", what will be saved would be "Tom Jones 2-2-2007"

We also fixed another bug where the Comments text was not deleted when you ended the observation.

To get this update, just download from the Home page - www.ecove.net - and install. If you are a licensed user, it will automatically read your license number.

Don't use a slash in file name

2007-03-08T07:17:00.001-08:00

Macintosh users: when you save a report, don't use a slash in the file name, i.e. Tom Jones 2/14/07 If you want to add the date to the name, use a dash or a period, i.e. 2-14-07 or 2.14.07
The slash is treated by the Mac as a path so it's trying to find a folder named '07' that's in another folder named '14', and since there isn't any such folders the data does not get saved. This is true in any program - a slash in the file name will cause problems.
I've sent this to the programmers to see if we can come up with a fix or a warning.

Using Bloom's to track student engagement

2007-03-04T09:28:00.001-08:00

The traditional use of the Bloom's Taxonomy tool is to track the level of questions asked by the teacher. That's useful feedback to be sure, but there are other ways Bloom's can be used.
Instead of tracking what level of questions the teacher asks track the level of questions that the students are answering. To do this, wait until a question is answered by a student and then click the level of that question. If the question is not answered or answered by the teacher, don't record it. This will very often present a different picture than the traditional approach.
Another use is to only record the level of questions that the student's ask. This use appeared in research about the mental engagement of students. If students are only asking knowledge or application level questions their mental engagement is low; if they are asking analysis, synthesis, or evaluation questions their mental engagement is high. You'll be shocked to see how low the student's questions usually are.

Time On Task for the entire class

2007-02-10T15:14:00.001-08:00

This request came from a user....

"A suggestion on the on task timer. I'd like one that identify's the number of students off task rather that just on/off task. That is the way I learned it. Every three minutes you note how many students are on/off task out of the total, and it is great if you can add who they are from a seating chart. It is more useful since one student can mess up the statistics pretty well while the class is 99 % on task." -- Steve

You can do that with the Generic Counter and the Interval Reminder that's on that tool. Enter labels of On Task and Off Task. Set the Interval Reminder to xx seconds (I generally use about 2 seconds per student as a setting). Click the Interval Reminder Start and then look at the first student and record On/Off; immediately look at the second student for On/Off, third student, fourth student, etc -- you're doing a sweep of the room. When you finish with the sweep, wait for the Interval Reminder Red screen to flash and start over with the first student, second student, third student, etc. Do 5 sweeps and you'll have a pretty solid picture of the 'Class' On/Off level. Divide the number of On/Off clicks by 5 to get the average per sweep; the % On/Off is accurate for the entire observation.

If you're too rushed with the 2 seconds X number of students, just increase the seconds so you have some time to make a comment or two at the end of the sweep and before the next Flash.

If you want to get even more detailed you can make the labels OnTask, Off Task-social, Off Task-academic (working but not on the right assignment), Off Task-behavior, Off Task-other. This set of labels is built into the new update. You can then track the types of Off-task behaviors rather than lump them all into one label.

License keys have been sent

2007-02-09T16:24:00.001-08:00

We've sent nearly all the replacement license keys for the laptop upgrade (PDAs don't need them). If you're in a district or institution contact either the tech support or next most likely person. We sent them to the person on the original order - if you can't locate them, email me and I'll help hunt.
There were a few without email addresses on the original order and we've snailmailed them.

Here are a couple of comments that we've received as folks downloaded the new version...

"Ecove is a great data gathering device. I have had very good success with it." -- Elementary principal

"Thanks so much! My teachers love the feedback they receive with the help of your tool." -- Middle School principal

We appreciate the feedback. Let us know your most used tool.

An Alert! The current laptop version, as of 2/9/07, has a minor problem - you have to type in the license key instead of pasting. Everything else works fine (we hope), but don't try pasting. We're fixing that and I'll put notice in the blog.

Related research

2007-02-08T18:55:00.001-08:00

I get regular requests to include the research that's related to the various tools in the reports, and that was my original intent. Then I found that since I was no longer considered an 'educator' but a commercial enterprise instead, a different set of rules apply. I can't legally copy abstracts or research documents and post them. I can point you to the research - BUT a great deal of the research is owned by on-line companies that charge a bundle to provide access. As a business, I can't copy and post any of that, and I've been trying to find a way to provide the research information to you.

In a webinar today a participant came up with a new thought - he suggested that I include my observations of observations -- for instance, we find that the first period of the day in middle and high school has a lower percentage of class learning time than the other periods (last period is second). Generally it's because of outside interruptions (attendance, PA announcements, etc), but if that's not taken into account in scheduling, the students in those classes have a reduced opportunity to learn.

My hesitation is that there's nothing in my observations of observations that remotely looks like research. I'm not setting out to determine the truth about a practice or condition; it's just my conclusions based on a growing number of experiences. I'm afraid that my informal conclusions would take on a life of their own.

But another thought occurred to me that might strengthen it somewhat. How could I create a system where all of the observers could share their observation data (no names, of course) with me/each other. I think we'd all be better informed if we could get a feel for the global norm. Maybe? Serious researchers will cringe about this, but if we're careful to not draw firm conclusions and apply the global data to a specific situation without careful inspection it could be more valid than my single person experiences.

Also, I think I need to do some description on how easy it is to do some focused action research with eCOVE. That's when it really starts to get useful to you and your particular situation.

So Please Tell Me..... do you want the formal research even if you have to pay someone (not me) for it? Would my informal conclusions be of value, in spite of their validity weaknesses? Would a global norm be useful and would you take the time to send in the data? Are you interested in a simple system for doing action research with eCOVE?

Download Basic Edition upgrade now !

2007-02-03T10:23:00.001-08:00

The free update to the eCOVE Basic Edition is ready for download. And it's worth doing - easy to do.

Laptop changes are the most striking as we worked to bring the laptop features in line with the PDA features. The five big differences are 1. no more way-too-long license key. It's now a three part, easy to read and enter, including pasting, reasonable key; 2. observer and observee names are saved from observation to observation so that once a person has been observed once all you need to do is select their name from a drop down list. You only have to type it in once; 3. a revised Non-Verbal Behavior tool with the buttons organized into Positive/Negative behaviors, a couple of new buttons, and automatic % and totals; 4. the four open-ended tools (Generic Timer and Counter, Comparison Timer and Counter) will now save the button labels you enter. The next time you want to use one of those tools, you can just select from the pull down menu of previously saved tools. Makes creating your own tools very easy: and 5. four new tools, one for each of the open-ended tools above. These are 'seed tools' for you to use and/or change to suit your needs. You access them in the pull down menu that's in each of the four open-ended tools.

Licensed PDA users: just download and install (always from the computer you sync to). It will automatically read your license key, and you won't lose any of your observations EXCEPT if you've gathered data using the old Non-Verbal Behavior tool. If you have, sync your PDA first, and save/print the data; then install and sync.

Licensed Laptop users: you're going to get a new license key. We're in the process of sending those out. In the meantime, you can download the update - just don't put it in the same place as the old version or it will overwrite it. Since the laptop saves reports to your computer, you won't lose anything in the process. And I promise, the new key is quite easy to enter - just copy the entire key and paste into the first box; it does the rest.

Tried eCOVE but the 30 days ran out? Email me with your raging desire to try the new version and I'll send you an 'extender'. Install the update eCOVE, then install the Extender and you'll have an additional 30 days. (it only works once). Let me know if you need the Laptop or PDA extender.

Never tried eCOVE? You'll love it! Just go to the website (www.ecove.net) and download the trial version. It's the full version with a 30 day limit. And go to the Free Resources link, left side of home page, for several useful documents.

And we're still working on the DataBased Edition. No projected dates yet. Owners of the eCOVE Basic Edition will get a BIG discount - cheaper than waiting to buy.

Solution to hidden characters in eCOVE

2007-01-31T10:45:00.001-08:00

Hidden characters have been a pain in several areas. In both laptop and PDA license keys a hidden character, such as a carriage return or tab or even a space, could cause the key to be rejected when it looked just fine.

And on the PDA, a hidden character in the name could cause data to get sent to never-never land when syncing. A "\" would really confuse things when syncing to a Mac.

And the good news is.... the latest version, which is being posted on line as I type, fixes all that. You can type the name/key as you like, but the program is now smart enough to ignore characters that don't belong.

[side note: I'm using Firefox to write and post this blog, so if it look funny, blame them]

Last 2 bugs in Basic Edition (V1) update

2007-01-29T12:56:00.000-08:00

We're down to the wire - only two small bugs left (unless we discover more or create some new ones). These are picky items in the reports - size of the font and missing header in two of the tools. We also fixed a problem that would have caused users of earlier PDA versions (such as 1.39) headaches when they upgarded.

I need some feedback from Firefox users. Anyone having any problems with either the laptop or PDA versions? One Palm user is having trouble syncing with Firefox, but I can't tell if it's a person specific problem or something with eCOVE. Appreciate any details - email me at john@ecove.net or leave a comment here.

HOT FLASH: I just this minute got the last of the Basic Edition updates from the programmer. A day of testing (you have to test EVERYTHING every time) and I'll get on the website for downloads.

Basic Edition V1 update progress report

2007-01-13T07:26:00.000-08:00

The laptop upgrade is finished and tested, ready to go on-line. Since it will require entering a new license key for all licensed users (because we changed that horrible long key system), we're waiting to post the laptop upgrade on the website until we have emailed all users their new license key.

That's because when a licensed user downloads and installs the new version, it will overwrite the previous version - and you'll need a new license key to run it. That will come in the email to licensed users, but.....

Here's one problem we're anticipating - licenses were purchased by districts or universities, and then distributed to the end users. The end user downloaded, but the software is actually owned by the district. Most often we don't know how the licenses were distributed, so can't be of much help in knowing which of the 30 license purchased by the district goes to person X.

We can direct you to the person/office where we sent the license keys, and will be our typical super-responsive selves. If you have any problems, call or email us.

There's another group that will get special attention. These are folks who downloaded sometime in the past and for whatever reason let their 30 day trial period run out without purchasing. The upgrade will know this and give you the 'sorry, trial period expired' message. However, not to worry... Just email me john@ecove.net and I'll send you an 'extender' program. Run it and it will give you a one time 30-day extension to the trial. Or you can just purchase a license - you're going to anyway :-)

First time folks can just download and install. The 30-day trial is the full program; all you need to do is to enter the license key.

PDA: One minor bug left, and a problem with the PocketPC. The bug is a simple one (doesn't mean it won't take a day to fix); the PPC issue is kinda simple to fix. The problem: we're including some 'bonus tool' in all the versions. These are label sets that you can 'drop' into the Generic Timer and Counter, and into the Comparison Timer and Counter tools. On the laptop and Palm we could build these right into the installer, but that's not possible on the PocketPC it seems. We're exploring how to do that, but worst case would be that the user would have to install a separate file from the computer to the PocketPC. That's pretty easy, actually, but we want to make it as simple as possible.

Unless we come across something unforetold, everything should be available next week.

Basic Edition update coming real soon

2007-01-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

The programmers and I are in the very last stages of an update to version one of eCOVE, both laptop and PDA. The PDA will have increased data security in case of crashes - if one happens call me. Some tool improvements, especially the Non-verbal tool, improved report formats, fewer problems entering license keys, minor text fixes. Oh yea, and four new tools. They are imbedded in the Generic Timer and Counter and in the Comparison Timer and Counter tools - just pull down the label list to access them.

The laptop will have the biggest changes. Most requested (or complained about): no more long license key. It's now a three part key that can be easily pasted in. The only negative here is that all current licensed owners will need a new license key to use the update, but we'll be sending them to those folks automatically. The problems will occur where the 'owner' is the school district - we'll send them to the original address on the order, sometimes that the business office. I'm sure that will cause problems, but we'll work with you to get you the key.

The other big feature on the LT is the ability to save observer and observee names in a drop down list (like the PDA version has now). And you can also save the labels and drop them into the Generic and Comparison tools. We've included four new tools as samples. Plus improved report formats, improved Non-verbal tool, other misc fixes.

The V1 (Basic Edition) update is not posted yet - still testing, but it's close - 7 to 10 days ( I hope). It's a no-cost update to license holders.

V2 (DataBase Edition) progress stalled while we get V1 out, but we'll be back working on it shortly.

Anyone want to contribute your thoughts or teacher comments? Favorite tool? Most aggravating 'feature'?

If you haven't seen eCOVE, go to www.ecove.net and view videos, download trial version.