Course Reflection

The course embedded assignment for EDLD 5366 was to create a website with a group of peers in the class. The website would encompass all of the skills we had been working on in the previous weeks. These include the four design principles of Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity (Williams, 2008), logo design, and animation.

Throughout the course we were introduced and taught to use different Web 2.0 tools to complete the assignments. I started this class thinking that I knew most of the Web 2.0 resources I would need, but quickly came to the realization that I did not know much about graphic design. This is an area that I am weak in. I have never been able to purchase or learn Photoshop. To my surprise, I discovered GIMP, as a decent replacement for Photoshop and it is FREE. Another big thing I learned in the class was utilize YouTube to find tutorials on any piece of software I needed to learn. I am amazed at what is available. This will be directly implemented in my classroom as I lead my students to use YouTube to find their own tutorials on anything they need. I will also try to extend this by allowing my students to create their own tutorials to share with the world.

To start our group website, we utilized Google Docs and other collaboration software to brainstorm our ideas. It was suggested that we create a fake Charter School and design a website based off of that. I suggested that we make it funny like the “Derek Zoolander Center For Children Who Can't Read Good And Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too” (Stiller, 2001). But that idea was vetoed and we decided to make a serious effort at what a good school would look like. There are some funny tidbits hidden in the pages as inside jokes, but that was just for our group members. Each team member picked a page to focus on and we all went to work. I chose to work on the General Education/Teacher page because that is what I currently do and I felt comfortable sharing my knowledge in this area. I listed every website and resource I have used in my classroom and shared the ideas and uses for each piece of technology. I chose this approach because this is how I would want a Teacher page to look. It cuts right to the chase and gives examples of how to implement in the classroom. What it is lacking are resources I am not familiar with. As I stated earlier, I do not know everything and this page probably leaves out some very good resources that I have not come across, especially resources used in ELA and Social Studies. To improve this page, I would need to collaborate with other teachers from other subjects to compile a more complete list. The page should also include a place for people to suggest new or previously unknown resources. This way the page could stay fresh and up-to-date.

I believe the group website was a great project to incorporate everything we had learned in class, collaborate with my peers and create a product that can be shown to others. These are all real-world tasks that can easily be used in any field and should be taught to all students.


References:

Williams, Robin (2008-02-12). Non-Designer's Design Book, The (3rd Edition) (Kindle Location 1050). Pearson Education (US). Kindle Edition.

Stiller, B (Producer & Director). (2001). Zoolander [Film] Los Angeles: Paramount Pictures.

Ancient Text and Design Principles

As part of this weeks assignment for my grad school, I was to analyze an ancient text and see how the author used design principles to show the importance of the subject. I thumbed through a few texts available on the British Library's website; Sultan Baybar's Qur'an, Mercator Atlas of Europe, and Elizabeth Blackwell’s Curious Herbal. Each of these books were beautiful and full of detail, but for the purposes of this assignment I will analyze Elizabeth Blackwell’s Curious Herbal. The design principles I am looking at are Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity (CRAP, what a lovely acronym).

Curious Herbal is beautifully illustrated book of plants from MDCCXXXIX (1739). Each page is full of drawings with bright, contrasting colors. At the bottom of each page is a description of the plant and its parts. Each drawing includes a general view of the plant and a dissection of each of its parts. Each page has the same layout and alignment, bringing continuity to the book. Each plant occupies a single page and often times the dissection view is in close proximity to the part being dissected. Each part of the picture is numbered to give the reader a reference for the description at the bottom of the page. The same type of font is used throughout, but the author increases the size of the headings to help separate the pages into a logical manner. The author/illustrator uses the same shades of green throughout, but also uses very bright colors for the flowers to help create contrast to the pages. There is a clear left and right margin on each page and the use of white-space gives the book an airy feel. Overall the book is a great example of the four design principles; Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity.

New Car

We bought a brand new 2012 Nissan Rogue S Special Edition. We bought it from Don Davis Nissan in Arlington, TX. Our salesman, James Whitehouse, was GREAT to work with. He knew what he was doing and didn't try to play games. Overall we had a great experience and I would recommend them to anyone.

US Bank, however, is a TERRIBLE company to work with. US Bank held the lease for the Toyota Camry we traded in. We tried calling them to get a trade-in payoff amount, but they would not give us that info. Only a dealership could get that info. And US Bank would only allow a trade-in if we proved that we were buying a car fe that dealership. So we could not have traded in the Camry at CarMax and then bought a car at Don Davis. That scenario is not likely, but it should be an option. The first CSR we talked to at US Bank was rude and gave us wrong information. Luckily the second time we called we got a nice CSR that seemed to know what she was doing. All-in-all, I would NOT recommend leasing through US Bank. I will probably never do a lease again. I don't necessarily think leasing in general is bad, but I don't think it is appropriate for me.

Public Service Announcement (PSA) Reflections

The last assignment for EDLD 5363 Multimedia Video Tech was to work with a group and create a PSA.  The group comprised 5 people all in different parts of the state/country.  We had two weeks to create the PSA and were given some very simple guidelines.  The video needed to be 60 seconds and everybody had to participate in some way.

Our group started off a little rough, mainly because we didn't know each other and we are all working on different timelines.  I am a bit of a procrastinator, but one of our group members was leaving out of the country before the end of the class.  So he was pushing to get it done.  This motivated me and the other members to get in gear and create something.

We started slow on the ideas, but the Prof suggested AGAINST "Cyber-Bullying" so we went with "Texting."  I'm also a bit of a jokester and I figured if we had to make a PSA we should have some fun with it.  So we took the serious topic of excessive texting and went of the deep-end with it.  I think the result is hilarious.

My group pulled it together and got everything done.  It was a little scattered at times, but it worked.  In the future I think it would be beneficial to:
1) Know your group members before hand, or try to build in some "get-to-know-you" activities if the groups are randomly assigned
2) Set a timeline of events and meetings.  Try to coordinate with everyone's schedules
3) Web conference with people to be able to see their faces.  I was able to do this with one of the team members and it made it much easier to relate to him.

A special thanks goes out to Shawn P.  His video editing skills are what really put this assignment over the top.

Finished video

Web Conference - EDLD 5363 Wk5

These are the highlights of this weeks discussion (12/15/2011 8pm)
No final Exam Reflection Paper

Next Class is in January (Jan 12,15, or 18, there are conflicting reports)

Show Proof of collaboration

Everyone gets 100s for discussion board.

Everything we do goes in our e-portfolio (google site)

Everything we submit for this assignment needs to be submitted to TK20

Web Conference - EDLD 5363 Wk3

Brief Overview of the web conference:
Week 4 and 5 are ONE assignment, so I do not have to submit anything this week.
There was an error in the grading system for the Wk2 assignment, so we will all be getting a 100% :-)
Dr. A repeated several times that we should film a bunch of extra footage for our PSA, so that we have plenty of material to cut and "leave on the editing floor"  The opposite scenario would be terrible.

Web Conference - EDLD 5363 Wk2

I attempted to participate in the web conference on Monday (11/21), but Dr. A was not able to get the web conference software to work.  Due to it being Thanksgiving break, I had family obligations for the week and was unable to attend the other conferences.  I did however have a chance to meet with a classmate that gave me an overview of what was said.
The important parts for me were that our wiki/google-site IS the eportfolio mentioned in the assignment.  There was also discussion about the PSA we will be working on in the next few weeks.
I also learned that we have a few other people added to our group for the PSA project, a husband and wife and another gentleman.  I look forward to working with them.  I have developed a great core group of classmates that I can bounce ideas off of, get clarification from, and just chat with.  This class has been rather confusing and without my classmates I would be lost.