This class has been very interesting to me on many levels. I have never had to look objectively at articles or advertisement layouts before, only being an observer, but this class has given me newfound respect and I objectivity look for things such as contrast, alignment, repetition, and placement. One of the things that I have never given much thought to was the placement of items in movie posters. It is interesting for me to see the great thought that the designers put into placement of the times on the advertisement to represent items in a movie.
In week two we discussed personal branding, and one of the areas that I thought I was doing pretty well in, a business card, there was a suggestion in the reading that made me rethink the design aspect of my card, adding a picture on the card. One simple line “The card should contain a picture” (Schawbel, 2009), made me seriously rethink my current business card, as well as business cards that I have received over the years from business contacts. A photo on the card can personalize the card, as well as help the recipient remember who you are. This can help set you above the crowd, especially in a time when a company can have dealings with vendors and businesses from around the globe.
In week three we had to create an animation, but the real revelation for me was the discussion of how we, as a people, learn. More specifically how short term memory objects can so easily be lost and how to create those short term memories into long term memories. I knew that using audio as well as video and other stimuli would help to increase the likelihood that the information would be transferred to long term memory, but I never really understood why. The reading also stated how too much information at the same time can overload the short term memory, and to only focus on the core items that we need to teach, verses adding “fluff” around the edges. This is something that I can use when helping to create workshops for the teachers, since there can be a tendency to add extra items that in the past I have been deemed as extras to enhance a presentation. Blooms digital taxonomy was another new concept for me, but the breakdown of the levels of understanding combined with digital techniques was really eye opening. Having this knowledge going forward can help me create workshops that will allow the teachers not flow up the chart of understanding so that they will be on a higher level, publishing work, by the end of the class.
Week four was mostly about getting the newsletter done, which was gratifying in its own way, but one of the things that stuck out that week was in the discussion thread where Jason Greer stated that he used Halo to teach and excite the kids about history and historic battles. His innovation in using a non-educational tool and molding that into something that was exciting and educational was amazing to me. This is something that I have already discussed with the technology director and we are looking into how we could do something like this at our district.
Moving forward from this class I will be able to take the knowledge that I have gained, especially how to create effective long term learning, and integrate that into workshops that will help teachers understand the mechanics, and implementation of these mechanics into the classrooms. Before all of this, I will have to craft my teaching skill to effectively integrate those tools into the workshops, which is something that will only get better with time and practice.
Churches, A. (2007, April). Bloom's digital taxonomy. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670
Schawbel, D. (2009). Personal Branding 101: How to Discover and Create Your Brand. In Mashable/Business. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from http://mashable.com/2009/02/05/personal-branding-101/
Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K12 Classroom. (2008, September). Retrieved from http://www.brainpop.com/new_common_images/files/76/76426_BrainPOP_White_Paper-20090426.pdf
