Blog Finale

     I think that this class was a lot of fun and useful.  At times, it was difficult and challenging and at others times I felt that I knew exactly what I was doing.  I liked the visual vocabulary project, the digital stories, and even the podcasts.  Even though I didn't think the poster was "fun" to make, it was beneficial.  I think that learning how to put together an informational poster is a good thing to have experience in. 
     I learned that our Seton Hall issued laptops have great programs on them such as Adobe Elements that have many features I would have never really experimented with.  Also, I realized the vast amount of free online tools that allow for digital story making, photo sharing, podcast hosting, and more. 
     I'm glad that we learned about social bokmarking, RSS feeds, blogs, and wikis and got to experience them a little bit.  I am not sure that I will continue to use all of these functions, but I do think that it is important to know the technology that is out there, how to use it, and how it can be used in the classroom.
     I liked getting to talk with Will Richardson, and even though I did not ask him any questions, I learned a lot from his answers to the questions of others.  It is really interesting to learn that so many people blog, tweet, and stay updated through an online environment. 
     I think it was helpful to learn about the design techniques, but that some of them repeated themselves a lot.  Despite some redundant information, each design theory offered tips and ideas to consider whenever creating anything.  At first I thought that I already knew a lot of the information that we were covering in this class, but I think that we went into depth further and I learned a lot more than I already knew.  I'm glad that I took this class, and I think that it is always important to stay up to date with new technology and how to use it in the classroom.

Add some Flickr to your classroom!



My poster describes flickr.com and how it can be used in the classroom.  When making my poster, I considered many of the different design techniques we learned about while studying the design theories.  More specifically, the information processing design theory gave some tips on how to help viewers remember more information.  I used some of these tips, specifically bold words, information grouped in parts, graphics, and a plain (not distracting) background. 

Also, the cognitive load theory gives tips on how to reduce the cognitive load.  I took some of these tips into account when creating my poster.  I chunked or grouped similar information together, and use bullets.  Also, the dual coding theory was used because the visuals connect to the topics being described. 

Finally, many of the Gestalt principles were used.  There is order or horizontal symmetry in the design of the poster, making it visually appealing.  There is similarity in the fonts and colors used so as not to distract the viewer.  Also proximity is used because topics related to each other are in proximity to one another, and the poster is separated into different related sections.  Finally, figure and ground is used because it is clear that the background is the white part, and the rest is in the foreground. 

 I definitely used many of the design theories while creating this poster, and I hope that they all came together to create an effective informational poster, worthy of a good grade!

Episode 2: Do Good!

Podcast: Episode 1: Smile!

Digital Story 2: Kindness

Kindness Can Change The World.

Questions for Will Richardson

Questions for Will Richardson

1. If you could think of one powerful web tools that you believe to be the most essential and useful for a new teacher to use, what would it be and why?
   -- I chose to ask this question because I want to know what tool I should really invest my time in.  I will hopefully be a new teacher next school year, and I would like to use many of these tools.  I want to start off with a very important and useful tool.
   
2. How do you think podcasts could be useful in a middle school math class?
   -- I want to be a middle school math teacher and while learning about these tools, I always try to think of their use in my future classroom.  I did not have too many good ideas about how to incorporate math into podcasting.

Lake St. Catherine, Vermont

Lake St. Catherine, Vermont

Where my memories are made.

Using SlideBoom Instead!

VisualVocab

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Visual Vocabulary

The following is my Visual Vocabulary Presentation.  The actual presentation involves animation, but when uploaded into slideshare.net some of the animation was lost.  Check it out anyway!

Visual vocab

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Technocentric Design Theory

Visuals can help learning in many ways.  The power of visual aids is immense, because while doing different tasks, we are almost always seeing things.  Our eyes help us interpret lots of information, so reaching out through visuals is a great tool.  However, visual design must be taken into account whenever creating types of instruction using visuals or graphics.  The main goal of any type of instruction is for the student or observer, to learn and understand the material.  Visuals may often help this goal, but only if used in the correct way.  Different types or theories of design help figure out the best way to present information in a useful way.

Technocentric design theory is one theory or way to present information visually.  Encyclopedia.com defines technocentrism as “An over-identification with computer technology at the expense of human relationships.”  When applying this definition to visual design, it seems that the technocentric design theory will use lots of technology, which may be at the expense of an effective instructional product.  Rieber (2000) explains that technocentrism is when “a certain technology is put at the center of the process and all subsequent design decisions are based on their relationship to that technology” (p. 31).  This basically means that when using a technocentric approach, the user decides upon using a certain type of technology and then uses all possible features or gadgets possible with that technology to create a design.  It is possible that this results in an effective design, however, many times designers fall into “technocentric traps”, and forget about the purpose of the instructional product.

Rieber (2000) describes an important idea to always keep in mind, that “There are times when pictures can aid learning, times when pictures do not aid learning but do no harm, and times when pictures do not aid learning and are distracting” (p. 15).  This statement can relate to not just pictures, but any new gadget or additional feature that some technology may be able to contribute.  Sometimes, these additions may be distracting and may actually take away from the overall design of the product.  It is important to always remember the learner and his or her needs, and not just think about the technology and its capabilities.

Take a look at this comic, and see how it relates to the technocentric idea.

http://bokardo.com/images/comics/techno-centric.gif

References

DARREL INCE. "technocentrism." A Dictionary of the Internet. 2001. Retrieved September 15, 2010 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O12-technocentrism.html

Rieber, L. P. (2000). Computer, Graphics, and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.nowhereroad.com/cgl/chapter1/index.html