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.