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!