Journal Entry 8

        We recently had our showcase dress rehearsal. It was neat to see some of the different projects people are working on. One project I got to see was Donna Mitchell’s GPA calculator. What a cool project. She is using Captivate for her project, which was neat to see because that is the program I am using. I was able to get some tips from her in regards to buttons in Captivate. Another student, Diego was able to give me some good tips as well. He helped me understand the different buttons in captivate better and how to create roll over buttons to make my buttons more noticeable. He walked me through the steps of creating these types of buttons and showed me an example from his project. Having more noticeable buttons is also something I need to keep in mind for 508 compliance. The user will clearly be able to identify the buttons. He also showed me how to create closed captioning for my videos. I had planned to just create a script for these but this is a much more efficient and cleaner idea. It looks pretty professional too! By having the closed captioning I can maximize my slide space too by making my video viewer bigger. It is always nice when others are able to look at your project and offer outside advice. Many times what we think is great can be better based on the user’s thoughts. Nelson and Stolterman (2003) state “to design is to be creative and innovative, but more importantly design is to cause things and/or people to stand together as a unified whole—a composition” (p.  207). I completely agree with this statement and that is why I think having the showcase dress rehearsal and desk crit assignments are so important for us in this program. We are able to learn from one another and grow as designers. These activities allow us to truly focus and make our projects the best they can be. “Once the designer dives in fully, it is one of the most inspiring and rewarding activities imaginable” (Nelson & Stolterman, 2003, p. 223). This statement is so powerful to me because I do feel like I have to devote and learn all that I can to make my project the best that it can be. This not only helps me as a designer, but also gives my user the best experience they can have. I cannot wait for my classmates to try my final project!

                                                           

References

Nelson, H. & Stolterman, E. (2003). The design way. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Journal Entry 7

      This week in class we had another group desk crit. I decided to participate in this session again. I really enjoyed the group desk crit session last time and it really helped me enhance my project. Since the last group desk crit, I have come a long way. My project was all on paper and very basic, but now it is in PowerPoint and much more detailed. I received some great feedback in regards to my project. My pictures do not pop out enough from the background, so I am going to look at putting a frame around them to create a clean, crisp look against my background. In one of my pictures, I need to resize Walker to make him look more proportional. In my about me section, I have quite a bit of text. An idea that was presented was to take pictures of me and break up the text. It will almost be a photo story effect. In my pictures I could create speech bubbles to keep the cartoon theme going. I really enjoy the clipart in a real photo effect. I can also use this idea in the Where’s Walker section. Throughout the project it was recommended that I have less text and more audio. I agree with this recommendation since my audience is children. I will just have to figure out a way to create a script to be in compliance with the 508 rule.         

       Sitting in these group desk crits has helped me realize that there is more to the project than the content itself. The design of the project is what grabs your audience’s attention. There are looks or aesthetics that are important to the project. Wilson (2005) discusses that “designers don’t fully determine or control the learning experience, but they fashion available resources to help learners have a particular kind of effective learning experience” (para. 37). I want my students to have that “effective learning experience” when they complete my media center orientation. I may think that something looks good, but after allowing other eyes to see it I can learn how to make it look better. Creating an all around good look for my project as well as keeping my content intact is part of being a designer. This is something that has stuck out to me this semester as I have continued to learn about design and the process of being a designer.

                                                           

References

Wilson, B. G. (2005). Broadening our foundation for instructional design: Four pillars of practice. Educational Technology, 45 (2), 10-15.

Journal Entry 6

      Well, I am about done with my PowerPoint prototype. I was able to create more graphics for my program. I inserted my eagle clipart into the pictures of the media center for the guessing game. I really like how they look! This project is really coming together and I get more excited about it every time I work on it. I like the hand drawn cartoon look I have created for this project. It looks very child friendly. I inserted my shelf marker song video into the prototype as well. The only thing I need to add is my demonstration video for using Web Safari for the students. Web Safari is our online catalog. I was planning to use my home computer, however I will not be able to start from the desktop icon like the computers at school. I think for it to really benefit my users, I need to demonstrate it as if they are using it. All of my parts are coming together nicely.

       This week I read Wilson’s article on “The Four Pillars of Practice” was an interesting read. It allowed me to look deeper into what designing instruction should be. All of the pillars are important when it comes to design. The second pillar really stuck out to me. Wilson (2005) states, “These second pillar principles help designers keep in mind the need authenticity, rich information resources, and links to the world outside of instruction” (para. 25). I like that he mentions as designers we must look past the instruction and how it will help the learner outside of the instruction itself. I feel that so many times we are concerned with the content, but not so much how the learner can use the content to further their learning. It is important for my project to help my students learn how to find resources independently. I am hoping that my project is a fun learning experience they can come back to whenever they need to, to enhance their search skills, even for use outside of school.

       My goal for the upcoming week is to obviously have things ready for the upcoming showcase dress rehearsal. More specifically, to finish my prototype quickly. Then I need to get my prototype into Captivate as a working interactive media center orientation module. Hopefully putting it all together in Captivate will not be too challenging! I can’t wait to see my first draft of the project in Captivate.

                                               

References

Wilson, B. G. (2005). Broadening our foundation for instructional design: Four pillars of practice. Educational Technology, 45 (2), 10-15.