Goal
2
Employs
appropriate approaches for
envisioning, designing, producing, and evaluating a variety of Design
projects.
Envision
Dr.
Carson said, “The envision
brainset is the brain activation state that facilitates imagination”
(2010, p.
106). When envisioning a design, one imagines how the design will
ultimately
turn out. In my IT classes, projects were required to help us learn
designing.
In all of the IT classes I have taken, I needed to envision how these
projects
would turn out. I will use several projects I created to help
illustrate how I
used envision in this program.
IT
486
My
reflection paper from
IT 486,
Web Design for Instruction, spells it out clearly what I
was envisioning when I started the semester. We were charged with
making a
webpage that taught something. I chose to do mine on oral health.
According to
my paper, I could clearly envision what I would like for my chosen
audience of
2nd and 3rd graders. I
wanted to take these youngsters
through a typical dental visit from x-rays to the exam. I wanted the
children
to know what the dentist and hygienist are looking for in each part of
the
visit as well as why it’s important to keep one’s teeth and mouth
healthy.
I
started my design process in IT
486 with a larger audience in mind than the one I ultimately chose. My
initial
intent was to have children from Kindergarten through 3rd
grade. My
thought was that many children come to the dentist for the first time
for their
required (in Illinois) dental exam just before their Kindergarten year
and they
have no idea what to expect and may be afraid of this unknown. Upon
consideration of reading levels, though, I changed my targeted
learner’s age.
Here
is an excerpt from my IT
486 reflection paper:
Because
I treat
children for the preventive visit daily, I had no trouble envisioning
things
that I would like to include in my design. I knew that I needed to
create a
site that was fun, engaging and educational. I felt that introducing
the
different instruments and other items used during the preventive exam,
it may
help not only to educate the child, but to help relieve any fears they
may have
about the dental office. I knew that I wanted to
take them through
the whole appointment and show the different things that the dentist
and
hygienist are looking for during the visit.
In
IT486, we discussed the need to
use storyboards to help keep the site organized. The storyboards speak
to how I
envisioned the website would look like when it was completed. As I
built the
site, I constantly referred back to the storyboards to be sure I was
executing
the plan. You
may view my storyboards here.
For
this project, I needed to
visualize how I would split up the components of the preventive exam. I
felt
that making a page for each part of the exam would work best for the
website. I
thought about how I move children around the office or how I move from
one
thing to the next in the exam and split the website up accordingly.
I
also needed to imagine how the
learner would navigate through the site. I needed to imagine what I
would do if
I were a child exploring this site. In order to help me in this quest,
I
questioned children from this age group. This allowed me to further
create a
vision in my mind of how I would like the site to look and what
components I
would like to have. In talking to one child in particular, she made me
imagine
a game for finding carious lesions on a radiograph. Unfortunately, this
dream
was unobtainable with time constraints and ability. However I have
stored this
vision for later use. Dr. Carson in “Your Creative Brain” suggested
that for
ideas that one likes, they can store it for later use if it doesn’t fit
the
project at hand (2010).
IT
500
For
the design project in IT 500,
Major Concepts in IT, I chose to do another oral health topic:
Smokeless
Tobacco and Oral Cancer. This project was theoretical in that it never
was
completed through to production and publication. Here I envisioned
creating a
unit for high school students. I wanted the learners to be active in
the
learning. In my mind’s eye, I saw the learners creating dialogue to
further
explore how tobacco and oral cancer might affect their lives. I wanted
the
students to be involved in their learning in a way where it would be
meaningful
to the students and therefore would last in their minds.
In
this class, we talked about types
of interaction a learner can have. This helped me to focus my vision by
creating ways that the learners would interact with each other,
themselves, the
content and the expert. One way I envisioned interaction with the
content was
simply the emotional reaction the learners would have with pictures of
oral
cancer caused by smokeless tobacco. Yes, it’s graphic, but, because of
the
strong emotions that it causes, the learner, hopefully, will question
whether
they would like to be the one to have the cancer or to have a family
member
with it. I also wanted this to help the learners become engaged by
asking
questions of each other, themselves, and the instructor.
I
needed to envision how the
high school student learns, where they are in their development, and
design
accordingly. Thinking
of this age group, I felt it was a good idea to follow Piaget’s stages of
cognitive development. At this age, the learners are in the
formal
operational stage and are able to think logically and abstractly
(Blessing,
2011). I needed to use this information to create a design appropriate
for this
age level. This excerpt from my design document talks about how I would
use
this information:
I would like to
honor the
logical mind of this age by making stopping points in the slide show
where
there will be guiding questions. The guiding questions help create
rehearsal at
maintenance level as well as at the elaborative/generative level,
depending on
the question (Knowlton, 2009). They would encourage active
participation among
the students ("Learning theories knowledgebase," 2012). By using the
guided questions, the students, should come up with questions on their
own
about what they are thinking about tobacco use and oral cancer. Through
this
questioning, the students are heading towards metacognition
(Livingston, 1997).
You can see my final
document here.
IT
597
This
class is an independent study
course where we were asked to create a design for instruction. Having
already
completed my website on “A Visit to the Dentist”, I knew I wanted to
create a
video on how to brush teeth because I was not satisfied with videos
available
on Youtube that I ultimately used for the website.
I
anticipated an informative video
that would motivate children and adults alike to improve their dental
hygiene.
I knew that I wanted my main focus group to be children, but also hoped
that
adults would watch it with the children and learn something as well. I
could
see parents watching with the children and helping them modify their
brushing
techniques. I also envisioned parents using the phrase, “germs and
their poo”
to help motivate their children to brush their teeth well.
In
planning this video, I tried to
remember the criteria I looked for when creating my website for IT 486.
I
visualized how I wanted to present my information during the video. I
imagined
being able to clearly explain why it is important to keep one’s teeth
clean. I
also wanted to be sure that I clearly presented proper tooth brushing
technique.
I
planned out the video using a
script, but couldn’t memorize it well enough to actually use it.
Besides, it
was way too long. Using the script as a base, I created what I called storyboards
for myself to keep me on track as I created the video. It
looks more like an
outline than storyboards because I didn’t have anyone to flip them as I
read.
IT
580
The
design I was asked to do for IT
580 was a group
project in creating an activity to introduce incoming
freshmen
to the SIUE campus, departments and services. During the envisioning
process, I
had a difficult time in getting past the introductory video that Dave
had us
watch where students were creating treasure hunt games for other
students. I
kept thinking of doing a treasure hunt rather than letting my mind
wander to
new, innovative ideas.
In
the paper I wrote on envisioning
for IT 580 I said,
Dr. Carson
(2010) recommends letting the absorb brainset lead the envision
brainset
through absorbing one’s environment. As I write this, I wonder what
would have
happened had I gone out to the campus and just wandered around. Would I
have
discovered something new that would help me envision how a new student
would
view the campus? Maybe.
I
think I would have been wise to
start at that stage rather than just trying to envision different
products.
After
deciding on a product, our
groups vision was to have the students chose to investigate 3 topics
from 4
IT
510
In
IT 510, Instructional Systems
Design, I designed a project to teach a beginner how to use Excel. Being
that we were following a formula based on the model in Designing Effective Instruction (Morrison, Ross, Kemp & Kalman, 2011), my envisioning process took on a more formulized
process than with the other projects which was more informal. My
initial
thoughts about this project in consideration of the learner were that
the
learner would be an adult. I envisioned creating a lesson booklet that
would
help a person with basically no knowledge of how to use Excel become
proficient
enough that they could create basic spreadsheets and graphs. I needed
to
envision how these learners would use the booklet and how to design it
geared
to the adult mind. I saw the learner using the booklet in conjunction
with
their computer and the program to progress through basic steps. I had
to use my
imagination to find trouble spots where the learner would have the most
difficulty and how the language I used would affect their actions.
Having
read about Adult Learning
Theory in IT 500, I was able to apply this knowledge to this project.
According
to Conlan, et al, an adult learner is someone who “is problem-centered
and
interested in immediate application of knowledge” (Conlan, Grabowski,
Smith
2010). This told me that I needed to be able to present the problem yet
let the
learner create the answer right away with little lag time. I knew that
I needed
to create a booklet that would let the learner proceed at their own
pace in
their own time as well.
I
also needed to envision how the
physical appearance of the instruction would look to best engage the
learner.
Dave asked us to be sure to include many graphics to help the learner
see what
they should do. This helped me know that I would need to do tons of
screen
shots along the way. I envisioned the use of the graphics clarifying
any
questions the learner had from the written explanation of steps.
I
had many questions that I knew I
would have to keep in mind when I first started dreaming up the design
for my
instruction booklet:
How
would I make it creative enough
to keep the interest of the learner? This was a much harder question to
envision at the beginning of the project. I needed to have a level of
creativity to begin, but I also needed to continue and expand it as I
proceeded
with the design and production.
How
would I display the graphics to
entice the learner? I thought I would best display many graphics
throughout the
booklet. What I didn’t envision was exact placement of the graphics.
This was
pointed out to me during the evaluation process that I should have been
more
consistent with the placement of the graphics as it was a bit
disconcerting.
Without tons of work, I couldn’t move graphics easily to make them all
match. I
learned that this should be clearly
planned at the beginning.
How
best to display the graphics to
maximize usefulness for the learner? I knew that having graphics that
were
large enough for the learner to be able to see, even if they were
larger than
the icon on the program, would be best for an instruction booklet. I
felt the
use of the space was well spent making the graphics clearly displayed.
How
do I best organize the
instruction? I felt that organizing the instruction was best
collaborated with
the subject matter expert. Although I had ideas of how it should be
done, if
the subject matter expert went in a different direction, I could easily
change
my vision to match his. This didn’t happen, but I was prepared to do
so.
However, I would have specifically asked him why he wanted to do
something
first so that I could better understand his reasoning.
As I created the design for the instruction booklet, I kept the answers to these questions that I envisioned in mind.
Design
Objectives
In
the projects I have done for IT
486, 500, and 510, I was required to develop objectives to help guide
the
design. This is not a new concept as I was required to write objectives
when
completing my Bachelor’s Degree in Elementary Education. Objectives
help the
designer stay on track and make sure the design is actually teaching
what it is
meant to teach. What was new to me was that there are different types
of
objectives. I was introduced to both Mager and Gronlund objectives.
According
to Knowlton’s slide shows, Mager objectives are used for behavioral
objectives
whereas Gronlund objectives are more for cognition (Knowlton, 2010;
Knowlton,
2010).
In
IT 486 class, I was first
introduced to Mager and Gronlund objectives. I chose to use Mager
objectives as
they fit best for the behaviors I would like to see from my learners. I
felt
that Mager objectives were more focused for me as a beginning designer
than had
I chosen Gronlund objectives. As a beginning designer, I needed to be
very
specific in what I expected of myself as the designer as well as the
learning
outcomes of the participant. Using Mager objectives helped with this.
Not only
that, but they were more similar to the objective model we used in my
undergrad
studies so I was more familiar with them and therefore more comfortable.
These
are my objectives for the
website:
IT
500, on the other hand, I didn’t
use either Gronlund or Mager objectives as they had been presented to
me in IT
486. I wrote out my objectives as I was taught to in my undergrad
studies.
These
are my objectives for the oral
cancer project:
For
my project in IT 597, I created
a video on proper tooth brushing technique. I needed to create
objectives (although
I called them goals) for this project as well. I felt it was very
important to
include why one should brush their
teeth, so I made sure that these were part of my objectives as well. I
used
these objectives to guide my task analysis.
My
objectives for this project were:
Generally
I feel that the objectives
for IT 486, 500, and 597 were basically the same. They helped me to
focus on
the specifics I needed to include in the design. They were the main
guiding
feature. With IT 510, though, we went a little further with the
objectives. We
first had general goals. Each of these goals had their own objectives.
Around
these we created initial presentations, generative strategies and
assessments.
What I liked about this was that I had a general overview with the
goal. Then
the goal was broken down. So I had focus and then magnification of that
focus.
I think that this made me think clearer about what I needed to do.
Sequencing
Part
of the design process is to
know what should come first in an instructional design. Morrison, et al
(2011),
say, “Sequencing is the efficient ordering of content in such a way as
to help
the learner achieve the objectives” (p. 136).
One
way of keeping track of
sequencing I did was to refer back to the storyboards I created for IT
486, a
website “A Visit to the Dentist”. I initially created them during the
envision
process, but being mindful of sequencing, I needed to rearrange as
necessary. According
to my design
document, I did need to change the original
storyboards by
taking out some elements due to lack of time. However, the sequence
remained
the same as I envisioned it. By guiding the learner through the
preventive exam
from start to finish, I figured that my sequence was fixed to that.
Within each
element of the exam, I broke it up into individual parts to help the
learner
build knowledge as they went along. They would get little chunks that
they
could then add to as they proceeded through the website.
The
project that I most deliberately
focused on sequencing was my Excel
project for IT 510. In this project,
I worked with a subject matter expert (SME) who suggested a sequence.
Some SME’s
may suggest a sequence that doesn’t make sense for instruction
(Morrison, Ross,
Kalman, Kemp, 2011) but in this case, my SME was a former teacher so he
probably
innately suggested the best route to go. I agreed with his initial
sequencing
structure. The sequence of instruction pretty much suggested itself as
well. In
learning a new program, it’s best to start with the most simple and
most
duplicated function. Then build from there. It simply wouldn’t have
made any
sense had I started with graphing and led to how to enter data into a
cell. My paragraph about sequencing on page
28 of my documentation for my Excel project sums this up nicely,
The sequencing strategy chosen for this project was based
on Posner and Strike’s concept-related sequencing. Morrison, et al, said the
logical prerequisite scheme “prescribes that concepts necessary to understand
another concept be taught first” (p. 142). Prerequisite concepts will be taught
first (logical prerequisites) in order to lay a foundation for the learner. For
example, learning what row, columns and cells are before teaching how to input
data into specific cells. Sequencing will also organize the content by
sophistication; teaching easier skills first.
Strategies
The
strategies I applied to help the learner to actually
learn were similar in all of the projects that I have completed.
For
my website, the sections on radiographs, I was
teaching a concept: what is a cavity and what does it look like on a
radiograph
(x-ray picture). In the initial presentation, I showed many of the
things that
a dentist might look for on a radiograph. But my main goal was to show
cavities. I showed large cavities and smaller cavities. At the end I
had a
short “can you find the cavity?” section. Here I used radiographs with
large
lesions working down to smaller lesions. Then, I had a self-assessment
PowerPoint
of identifying carious lesions on a radiograph. (Link to
the assessment for
radiographs) The child was given information
initially on what to look for
with several photos of radiographs and lesions. In the assessment, they
were
given other photos of radiographs and asked to find the lesion. In the
following slide, the lesion was identified for the learner. In this
manner the
learner is applying the knowledge they gained from the PowerPoint I
created for
the radiograph section.
In
the exam section of the website, I used basically the
same strategy. The learner was given a PowerPoint presentation of what
the
dentist is looking for during the exam. Here the learner was also
learning
concepts: healthy and unhealthy. The assessment
for the exam section was
recall from what they learned in the presentation as I had the learner
match
healthy and unhealthy pictures to the words, “healthy” or “unhealthy”.
I
had a short PowerPoint presentation to show what was
used during this section of the exam, but the main focus was videos on
brushing
and flossing. This is a psychomotor skill where I chose a video to
model the
appropriate behavior ((Morrison,
Ross, Kalman, Kemp, 2011). For
the purposes of the website, I could
not actually go and see if the child learned how to properly brush and
floss
their teeth. I used a self-assessment
for simple recall. I asked simple
questions such as “How often should you brush your teeth?” Then the
answer
would appear with the question on the next slide. The learner was
simply
recalling facts they had learned in the presentation.
Having
completed my website in IT 486, I knew that I was
very unsatisfied with the videos I found on-line for brushing and
flossing.
They didn’t meet my intended objectives for them. So, for my
independent study
project for IT 597, I created my own brushing video. This was also a
psychomotor skill. In this video, I
modeled (Morrison,
Ross, Kalman, Kemp, 2011)
how
to hold the toothbrush at a 45° angle, how to brush in small strokes or
small
circles, etc. I also added verbal cues as I went along to enhance the
learning (Morrison,
Ross, Kalman, Kemp, 2011).
My
Excel project
for IT 510 was basically teaching procedures. “A procedure is a
sequence of
steps the learner performs to accomplish a task” (Morrison, Ross,
Kalman, Kemp,
2011, p. 160). For this, I created many screen shots of how the task
should
look on the learner’s screen as well as written explanations. I would
give the
learner thinking points along the way such as: “To
help remember that
columns in a spreadsheet run vertically up and down a page, try to
think of as
many types of columns as you can. Use the space provided to write your
examples
down. Compare your examples to the ones provided on the next page.” In
this
manner, I was having the learner organize and elaborate before
practicing the
step, if there was one (Morrison,
Ross, Kalman, Kemp, 2011).
The group project I cooperated in creating for IT 580 was created for incoming freshman at SIUE to learn about the campus. According to Morrison, et al (2011) this would be considered a concept learning skill. We had the student research 4 topics about the campus then present 2 of their findings in a video. The students had to research the facts of the categories themselves but then they needed to apply them by organizing, make their own definitions by creating the script for the video and applying those definitions in the creation of the video.
Rapid
Prototyping
I first really heard about rapid prototyping in IT 430. As we started our first project, one of my classmates kept submitting updated versions of his project in response to our classmate’s comments. It was suggested that he be sure to save the iterations as examples of rapid prototyping. Being that I was ignoring working on Jury 2, I didn’t really follow that we could use this for our Jury, but started saving anyway.
By designing and redesigning many
different prototypes of one mini-project, I was able to see how slight changes
could affect the product, either good or bad. I was also able to use the
feedback from peers and my instructor to change the designs and possible go off
in a total different direction if their words sparked new ideas in my brain.
With the first project, people
commented on the style and color of the background. Lindsay said, “It’s
colorful, which conveys a happy fun quality about you.” Micah said, “I really like how the contrast of
purple changes (being brighter in the center and darker on the outer portion of
the page).” Allyson said that she liked the rectangle on the top right whereas
Dave “hated” it due to its effect on function. Dave suggested a change in the
background to see what would happen to the overall effect.
My second try was to change the
background to a plain color: black. In my notes, I said that I didn’t want to
choose black, but due to the constraints of working on SkyDrive that was the
only plain color. Then when I was able to use the actual application
PowerPoint, I changed it again to blue. With each iteration, the tone of the presentation
changed. Even though I didn’t intent to use black, I ended up liking it the
best because it really shows the pictures well. Although with the black
background, my name, which I created using GIMP didn’t work well in the purple
rectangle, then.
With each of these projects in IT
430, I learned that taking an idea and making subtle changes to see how it
effects a design is a great way to create a great final product. With each
change I made, I was able to see how I liked it or if it created better or
worse functionality of the design.
Here are the links again so that you
can see some of the iterations:
Produce
In
this section, I will describe
some of the different programs I have used in designing my projects.
SkyDrive
Window’s
SkyDrive is a free storage
space on the web. It gives me the option of easily sharing files. This
site also
gives the html coding to allow me to embed files I have stored. You
will see
that my project “Using Gimp” is embedded on the link
but
it is stored in SkyDrive.
In
uploading my html, jpeg, PPT, and
MP3 files onto my SIUE site, I found that having all that data can be
very
clogging to such a small site. I ran out of space quite quickly. By
using
Window’s SkyDrive, I was able to find a way to get all my files onto
the site
without using up all the amount of space provided to students by SIUE.
The biggest
problem I found with using this site is that it takes away the
animation in
PowerPoint presentations.
In
creating my video for IT 597, I
could have stored the video on Youtube, but chose instead to use
SkyDrive. This
helped me be more secure that the video would only be seen by those I
chose to
give the link to. I know that Youtube has that same function, but I
feel safer
with SkyDrive simply because less people know about it and probably
wouldn’t
cruise it for videos.
SkyDrive
has helped me with many of
my projects in storing my files. I also found that after the crashing
of my
computer, I had some files that were not lost since I had stored them
here. I
also learned that everything I might possibly need for my jury process
needs to
be stored outside of my computer so it will not get lost, again.
Audacity
Audacity
is an open-source audio
editing program. Since I wanted to have audio files incorporated into
my
website, I needed a way to edit these files prior to publishing them on
the page.
This program is very simple to use and did everything I needed,
basically cut
and paste. I have used it for other projects in my life since finding
it for
this class. Because my computer crashed and I lost most files, I am
unable to
provide multiple artifacts for this section. However, I was able to
find one
that connected to the x-ray page of the website. You may listen to it here:
When
designing the website, I came
across the problem of my learners possible reading limitations. Because
I
wanted to be able to use correct language, the reading level was too
high for
my learners. My idea then was to use audio to give the learners a
crutch if
they were not yet capable of reading the text I used. So in the
production end,
Audacity helped me with editing my recordings of me reading the text.
I
found that I needed to cut out a
lot of “ums” and “ahs” that occurred in the making of some of my audio
clips. I
was able to accomplish this using the cut tool. After discovering this,
I
started just recording and if I made a mistake, I would wait a couple
of
seconds and start reading over again. Usually my clips were only a
sentence or
two so it wasn’t much of a big deal to do this. Prior to discovering
this tool,
I would stop the recording and start over. This created tons of files
on my voice
recorder. This was really the only feature I used repeatedly in this
program.
Movie
Maker
For
IT 597, I chose to do a video on
how to brush teeth. I needed to find a program that would allow me to
edit the
video I took in order for it to be publishable. After multiple attempts
to
create the video in one take, I found that if I broke my dialogue up
into
sections, I could easily edit and create a more cohesive video. I never
used
Movie Maker before this class so I had to learn as I went. I found that
I was
unable to simply video myself and plaster a finished product up for
review. I
needed to do a lot of cropping as well as adding transitions so there
weren’t
strange jumps.
The
first transition that I make is
at 22 seconds. I found that if I chunked the information so that I
could create
titles for each chunk, if I messed up in my presentation, I just
started at the
beginning of that junk…usually with a sigh which needed to be edited
out.
Along
with adding titles for
sections, I found that I needed to make sure that the transition of the
title
was long enough to read. At 1:35, the title is relatively long, so I
made the
transition rather slow so that a reader would have enough time to read.
The end
product of the video isn’t Hollywood perfect, but I was able
to create a
learning tool that could be useful.
Power
Point
Power
Point is a program for
creating slide show presentations. Prior to the IT program at SIUE, I
had very
minimal experience with Power Point. I have used it for several
projects now
and feel that I have become more than just a beginner in using it. I do
not
feel as if I have mastered the program, yet. For my IT 486 website, I
made
quite a number of slide shows to help present different aspects of the
preventive visit.
When
designing my website, I wanted
to have tons of pictures on the pages for illustration purposes and to
help
understanding. I believe that using pictures really helps the learner
to
understand concepts faster. I found that having the photographs
directly on the
page was not the best for my website as it made pages too long and
clogged my
SIUE account. I decided that since they are photos, that using a slide
show
would work well for these design and production problems. So, I went
from my
initial imagining and designing of pictures across the page to slide
show
presentations in my production of the pages. The biggest problem,
again, was
that I couldn’t use the animation feature because I was storing the
files on
SkyDrive and the links wouldn’t translate that feature.
If
you look through all of the
examples I provide, you will also find that I used the slide show
format for
simple delivery of text. I felt that by using this format, the learners
were
getting small chunks of information at a self-regulated speed. Here are
two
examples of some of the slideshows from the website: X-rays,
Exam
I
also used Power Point to present
my project, “Using GIMP”,
for IT 596, Design Studio I. I felt this was the best program to use to
present
all the photographs I would be displaying. Here, again, I
could see that a
slide show would work best since the original usage of slide shows was
for
displaying photographs. With the addition of text in the slide show, I
was able
to also explain my journey in learning GIMP.
In
EPFR 515 I was required to create
a slide show for my presentation of Bruner’s Modes of Representation. I
was thankful to have had much more experience with PowerPoint by the
time I
took this class. I was able to add some animation to the presentation,
although
you won’t be able to see it since it is now stored on SkyDrive.
I
also created a slide for IT 430
using PowerPoint. It was just one slide as we had to contain all we
wanted to
say to one sheet. In this I added a new skill. I stuck in a video clip
of my
chorus. I hadn’t done this before using PowerPoint. I edited the video
with
Video Maker first so that it was only about 40 seconds long. I found
that it
was incredibly easy; all I had to do was hit the insert tab and then
video. I
chose my video and sized it accordingly. The only thing I would do
differently
is to give the viewers a clue that the video is a video and not a
picture. No
one commented on it so I think they must have thought it was just
another
picture. You may see this project here. The video is
under the title:
Singer.
I
have since started using
PowerPoint presentations at work. I have been put in charge of creating
some
presentations to be played in the reception area for parents and
children to
watch as they wait. In this, I am learning more about timing and
recording as
well as more animations. Since the shows will be played automatically,
I needed
to learn how to time the slides to my audio using those features.
Jing
and Camtasia
For
IT 580, our project included
instructions for uploading video onto Youtube. I had created a document
on how
to do this, but through use in another setting found that some people
still
found it confusing. So, my group decided that we could use Jing to
create a
video on uploading so that it might be easier for the user to
understand. Jing
is a free source program used to capture and share images from your
computer
screen. I was able to use this program to create a video with
audio to
show the user how to upload video to Youtube. (I
used my initial document that I had created as a guide for the video.) Jing was very simple to
use. I
simply used the mouse to define the area I wanted to capture and
recorded my
voice as I went through the process of uploading to Youtube. You will
find that
I was able to pause during the video so that people wouldn’t have to
sit
through waiting for my computer to do its thing. I then used Camtasia
to edit
and save the video.
With
Camtasia, I cut out parts I
didn’t want the viewer to see. I actually used and experimented with
Camtasia more
for a video I prepared about creating channels that
we chose not to use
in our project. I also was able to block certain areas of the video
that I didn’t
want the user to see such as my user name (I missed one!). I could
adjust
volume levels of specific parts. I needed to edit a small section of
the audio
and the volume didn’t match. By using the volume adjusting features, I
made it
less obvious that it was an edit. I wanted to give you a time setting
to hear
this, but I cannot hear where I did this so I must have done a pretty
good job.
Publishing
Programs
I’m
going to lump several programs
under this title because they all basically do the same thing, create
publishable products such as flyers. In IT 430, we created 4 different
mini
projects that were basically flyers of some sort. The first one I
already
mentioned under PowerPoint. The second mini project
I used Microsoft
Publisher (although to include it here, it shows as a Word doc). I found this program really easy to use as it is similar to
all of
the other Microsoft product with which I am very familiar. The thing I
really
liked about this program was the ease in manipulating the information
on the
page. I added boxes to the flyer to try to contain different thoughts
(courses). In doing so, I also found that I could change the shape of
the boxes
as well. This helped in creating a professional looking flyer.
The
third mini project was
completed using Scribus, a free source program for desktop publishing.
Initially I really didn’t like the program. The learning curve for me
was
pretty great. However, once I figured it out, I think I liked it much
better
than Publisher because I was able to have more freedom in design. I
created
text boxes and was able to move them easily around the page. I also was
able to
manipulate graphics. What I mean by this is that I inserted the logo
for the
Dojo (I’m assuming it was their logo) and then made it a water mark
behind the
text. I also sized it so that it was the majority of the page. I also
was able
to manipulate colors of the text. I took the name of the Dojo and used
their
colors of red and yellow, having the shadowing of the red text as the
yellow.
For the fourth mini project, I used Serif, a desktop publishing program that can be used free but with limited capabilities. In my reflection paper for IT 430 I said that I thought this program allowed even more creativity on the part of the operator than Scribus. The learning curve was pretty large with this program as well. I spent a great deal of time simply playing with the different buttons to learn what they do. This project was basically a checklist of things that need to be done for the IT program. I wanted the product to look like a checklist with boxes. The hardest thing was to line the boxes up. I had to figure out how to use the tools such as select and align for this. After figuring this out, it wasn’t terribly difficult.
I also did a little brochure for
EPFR 515 using Word as my desktop publisher. I wanted to use Publisher, but we
were required to have it as a Word doc. I did find this very easy, but stifling
to my creativity. I gave in and used a premade template from Word. After all of
the emphasis that Dave has made on creativity, I felt that this was cheating
and am not particularly proud of it. I mention it because it shows that I have
grown in the program. Two years ago, I would have been very pleased with the
final product. Now, I feel as if I just threw it together with little thought
because there was little creativity involved.
Kompozer
Kompozer
is an open-source program
that allowed me to easily create html files. It is a WYSWYG (What You
See is
What You Get) program so I was able to use it right away without having
to
relearn html programming. This was very helpful and saved me tons of
time and
energy, allowing me to focus on building the website. In producing my
website,
I used this program to take my ideas from the imagining stage through
to the
end product.
While
using this program, I was able
to layout my pages and see how they would look right away. The
complications
came when I needed more space than my SIUE site allowed.
I
then needed to embed links from
SkyDrive into my site. Because Kompozer is a WSWYG program, I couldn’t
just
place these embedded objects onto that page. In “normal” view if I
pasted the
embedding coding, that’s what the view would see. I found that I did
need to
understand html some to be able to do this. Luckily I have a little
experience
with html coding. However, without using Kompozer or another WSWYG
program, I
would have been at a loss as to how to program the website as my html
language
skills are pretty basic. I found that if I clicked on the “source” tab,
I would
see the html coding there. At this point, I could paste the embed codes
here.
By knowing a smattering of html coding, I could figure out where I
needed to
place the embed codes. I was also able to quickly add some things like
extra
lines if the “normal” page didn’t register that I hit “return”.
Inserting
audio was much harder. I
had a very difficult time getting the audio to play. One of my peers,
Chris,
said in a Blackboard comment that when he clicked
on the audio to play
it would take him to blank page and he would need to hit the back
button to get
back to the site. This was very frustrating. I resolved this by looking
up
audio players on-line and copying the html coding. I then inserted this
coding
into the “source” tab on Kompozer. I had to change the file name to my
file
name and make sure that it worked properly. This was extremely
frustrating, but
I did learn tons about researching viable alternatives. I also
refreshed my
memory more on html coding.
You
will notice on my x-ray page
that there are radiographs at the top. I wanted to represent several
types of
radiographs for the learner to view on the page. Using the image button
in
Kompozer, I could easily just insert and image. This would place the
image left
justified. Boring! I wanted the images to be displayed across the top
of the
screen as I have them. I decided that the easiest way to do this would
be to
create a table and insert the images this way. This was simple as all I
needed
to do was hit the “table” button and select the size of my table on the
pop-up
window. Because they are all different sized, this posed a problem for
me. I
really wanted the panoramic radiograph (the one in the center) to be
much
larger since in real life it is probably 20 times larger than the other
two.
But, this just wouldn’t work for the display, so I sized the images
using the
sizing boxes like I would in Word. I then had to take out the borders
on the
table by using the table properties window and making the border 0
pixels
instead of 1 pixel.
In
the summer following creating “A
Visit to the Dentist”, my computer crashed and I lost many of the
files. I was
able to get a “cached” version of some of the pages from the website. I
didn’t
adjust the code so if you really wanted to see what I did, you could.
However,
my player objects have been lost in the caching of the page, so it
doesn’t look
exactly as it did for the final grade if you view it through Firefox.
It seems
fine in Explorer. I had fixed this problem for the final, but I’m not
sure what
I had done. You may view the x-ray page here.
(Please note that the
links on the x-ray page no longer work.)
GIMP
GIMP
(GNU image manipulation
program) is an open-source photo editing program that is very similar
to Photo
Shop. This is the program I chose to learn for IT 596.
One
of my favorite things that I’ve
learned in the IT program is photograph manipulation. Prior to starting
this
program, I knew basic photo editing techniques such as cropping,
sizing,
adjusting brightness and contrast. Although I took a digital
photography class
several years ago where other things were introduced, I had maybe a
beginning
understanding of the other manipulation techniques. In EPFR 586, The
Art of
Creative Living, I was able to start exploring further photograph
manipulation
with my project for this class. This
project was to create a photo book
of the vacation my family took that summer. I further explored the
editing
techniques I already had in my arsenal as well as page composition. I
continued
this exploration in IT 596, Design Studio 1, by learning and attempting
to master GIMP.
Through
the use of the free
tutorials offered on the GIMP site, I learned how to adjust the RGB
(red,
green, blue) settings to enhance the color of the picture. I also
learned other
techniques for adjusting color settings. My favorite technique that I
use most
often in photo manipulation is color levels. I’ve found that I use this
on
about 90% of the photographs I want to publish. Some of the neat
applications
of the program I learned were colorizing the image to look black and
white or
sepia (slide 13), foreground select to highlight one
aspect of the photo
(slide 14), creating a floating text (slide
38), and how to
combine techniques to create a more interesting photo (slides
60 and 61).
The
absolute coolest thing I learned
in this project for photo manipulation was the clone tool. By learning
this
tool, I took a photograph I had taken of my boys at the Leaning Tower
of Pisa
with tons and tons of tourists and manipulated it so that only my boys,
the
buildings and grounds were visible in the picture.
Although I didn’t really use GIMP to produce any project so far, I think by learning this tool, I will be able to use it in the future if needed. I learned some great techniques that will help me to create more dramatic photographs to accompany designs. As I have stated before, I feel that the use of pictures enhance a design. I’m very happy that I chose this application to learn.
Evaluate
Dr.
Carson said the evaluate
brainset is where we look at our creative ideas and endeavors and judge
them
impersonally (2010). The first class that I took that required
evaluation of
one of my designs was IT 486. In that class, Dr. Knowlton asked us to
use the
Speak Aloud Protocol to evaluate our website. By having users speak
aloud their
thoughts while viewing the website, I was able to gain a clear
understanding of
where the site could be improved. I also found things that were really
clear to
the learner. According to my evaluation document,
Andrew,
one of my evaluators, said
that he thought the slide shows were too small. Had I had time, I would
have made
sure that I include a direction so the user knows how to increase the
size of
the slide show.
In
IT 510, we were required to do
evaluations on our project. One of the evaluation techniques I used was
to have
my subject matter expert review the final design document as well as
the
instruction booklet. In reviewing the design document, I learned where
I left
out specific steps or glossed over steps I should have been clearer
about. Since
my SME is a former teacher, he also made some additional comments about
instruction that helped clear some of my materials.
I
was also asked to have my project
for IT 597 evaluated. In my design document, I
state that I will have at
least one dental professional and two children evaluate my design. They
were
given a survey to complete that helped me to revise the video. I found
that for
the most part, I was on target. I did like giving the video to others
to
evaluate because it gave me perspective and other ideas that might be
implemented. The dental professional I asked to evaluate the video made
suggestions
that he would like to see if this were used for his patients. I added
to the
video that inflammation can cause problems in the rest of the body
because Dr.
Drum thought this was a very important point I needed to make. You can
see this
at 1:13 on the video.
In
preparing my Jury 1, Dave
Knowlton and I evaluated what I had prepared and got together through
Black
Board Collaborate. We were able to both view my jury webpages and go
through
them together. I learned that I had a long way to go before Jury 1 was
complete
let alone completing Jury 2. You may see those
transcribed notes here.
In
all of my IT classes, we were
required to give each other feedback along the way for each of our
projects. As
the project progressed, my peers, as well as instructors, would
evaluate the
projects to help make them better. My classmates in IT 486 were
particularly
good at giving great feedback and evaluating the process as well as the
product. Here is one
example.
References
Blessing,
M. (2011). Teaching and learning resources.
Retrieved from http://teachinglearningresources.pbworks.com/w/page/31012664/Cognitivism
Carson,
S. (2010). Your creative brain. San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Conlan,
J., Smith, K.,
& Grabowski, S. (2010, April 19). Adult
learning: Emerging
perspectives. Retrieved from
http://projects.coe.uga.edu/epltt/index.php?title=Adult_Learning
Knowlton,
D. S. (2009). Information processing [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved
from https://bb.siue.edu/bbcswebdav/users/dknowlt/PrinciplesofITONLINE/ContentPRINCIPLES/PPTShows/ONLINEInformationProcessing.pps
Knowlton,
D.S. (2010). Gronlund objectives [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://bb.siue.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-17982-dt-content-rid-92040_1/courses/IT-510-701-201235/ISDOnline/ContentISD/GoalsObje/GronlundObj.ppt
Knowlton,
D.S. (2010). Mager objectives [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://bb.siue.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-17982-dt-content-rid-92040_1/courses/IT-510-701-201235/ISDOnline/ContentISD/GoalsObje/MagerObj.ppt
Learning
Theories Knowledgebase (2012, March). Cognitivism at
Learning-Theories.com.
Retrieved March 13th, 2012 from http://www.learning-theories.com/cognitivism.html
Livingston,
J. A. (1997). gse.buffalo.edu. Retrieved from http://gse.buffalo.edu/fas/shuell/CEP564/Metacog.htm
Morrison,
G. R., Ross, S. M., Kemp, J. E., & Kalman, H. (2011). Designing
effective instruction. (6 ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.