Design Journal # 9 - The end of the show!

And it's over..... ! Wow! I just can't believe that I :
1. Finally finished a project!
2. Created something that I had seen in my head at the beginning of the design process and actually made it come alive!
3. Created something that I REALLY like!
4. Won the BLUE SOCK Award!


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"the above text was not a typo. My little Elisa decided to leave her comments about the project. I decided to leave it, even though she is only 2 year old, I am sure she had a lot to say!"

I had never expected to win the blue sock award, it was an added bonus to being a part of the Studio. I am happy that I got to learn Photoshop (at least become comfortable because I know that there is more to discover) and to getter better at Dreamweaver. What I am most proud of is the friendships that I made in the classroom. The Studio created a safe environment of commrodorie that allowed you to open up your projects for review and criticism and not feel anxious about being shut down. Not all classrooms are made alike, and the Studio is definitely a special place. Two things that I did regret was that I mainly stuck to 6190 and I didn't branch out to the other classes until late into the semester and I didn't use my mentor as much as I should have.

Clinton and Rieber put it correctly in the Studio Experience at UGA as they said " As students go to various activities and events scheduled for their respective class, many of them organized by the participants themselves, they meet, help, and interact with a variety of their classmates. It is expected that the more experienced and skilled Studio participants will mentor those with less experience and skill. Of course, each participant has unique responsibilities associated with their respective course, but all have opportunities to call on any of the instructors and other participants for help, advice, and critiques as project development proceeds during the semester. This all-in-one structure helps to demonstrate and explain the requirements and dynamics of the more advanced courses for all participants from the very beginning of the studio experience. This structure also helps to legitimize established aspects of the Studio culture, such as the community service requirement , as each new group of students sees these in operation among their more seasoned peers." (9)

As far as reflection of the showcase, I believe it was successful. I don't have anything else to base it on, but I do know that I got some "customers" who were really interested in my project and found it to be very creative. The weather did put a bit of a damper on things with the amount of visitors who probably would have came, but I believe it was still a success.

Reflecting on my project, I am sure if I look over it again, I will find something to move or to recolor, because it is never 100% done, but I am very happy about where I stopped. It is exactly what I had dreamt it to be, way back in September. I love the colors, the accessibility, the pictures and the story it tells. I am just so proud of myself that I stuck to my guns and finished the project it its entirety.

For the accessibility of the site, I tested it through http://wave.webaim.org/ and http://www.contentquality.com/ and they detected no accessibility errors. I used css on my secondary pages and while the rollover effect created slices of my index page, I added alt tags to all of the images created because of the slices.


Thank you for a great semester, and I am looking forward to 2 more Studio experiences!

References:

Clinton, G., & Rieber, L.P. (2008). The Studio Experience at the University of Georgia: An example of constructionist learning for adults. Unpublished manuscript.

Clinton, G., & Rieber, L.P. (2008). The Studio Experience at the University of Georgia: An example of constructionist learning for adults. Unpublished manuscript.

Design Journal #8 - Never too late!

Hi Journal,
I am sorry, I seem to have forgotten about you! Maybe it was all of the work on the EDIT 6170 & 6190 Project and then through in Thanksgiving, and some things get pushed aside! But, better late than never!

Today I have been diligently working on my project. I am doing some final touches and adding some of recommendations from the showcase rehearsal. All in all, I heard some great feedback, like adding a PREVIOUS button to my scrapbook pages and changing some misspelled words. Also, someone pointed out to me that it would be nice to have some mouse over effects when they were maneuvering through the index page. I plan to add the final touches to that and upload the project by Wednesday. As far as the design, I am really proud of my project. I heard a lot of great comments from other classmates complementing the colors, attractiveness, and simplicity of the site. I am happy that I finally went back to the original idea, followed my instincts and created a project that I love, and I hope my daughter will love too!

For my literature review I read "Project Kid-Designer" by Rieber, Luke and Smith. I find this article interesting because I hope to use it's insight on helping my 14 year old study for his school tests. The article goes on to state that "while many children have difficulty in school due to physical or learning disabilities that are beyond their control, others do poorly because they do not take school work seriously." The article also declares "Children lack of motivation to "achieve" stems from them not seeing school tasks as authentic and meaningful." I feel as if that is the case with Andre. To combat this motivation, the participants of the article decided to use "play" as a learning tool for middle school students, and have students design their own games. "This is similar to the not so surprising phenomenon that if you want to learning something, well teach it." I found some the outcomes interesting in this article - group dynamics of students who before might have been outsiders, but by the end were included in the group and whose opinions were valued. Another interesting outcome was the view that the students had on the adults as initially teachers, and then as part of their group. The most interesting idea is that two of these groups were "low achievers, or at-risk" students who were able to come up and design "cool" educational games. I am wanting to try to use this idea on Andre, and maybe we can create a game that can help him study for his tests. My idea is a board game, who's cards can change with his particular subject. He can provide the subject information and questions and my husband and I can also play... maybe we should call it --- "stump mom and dad?"

Next steps:
Do final touches on my project
Upload to Moodle
Call it a day!

References:
Rieber, L. P., Luke, N., & Smith, J. (1998). Project KID DESIGNER: Constructivism at work through play. Meridian: Middle School Computer Technology [On-line], 1(1). Available http://www.ncsu.edu/meridian/index.html

Desgin Journal #7 - Boost of Inspiration

So, last week I was in a rut. I was frozen on ideas of my scrapbook pages and I still did not like the look of my front webpage. With time slowly slipping, I pulled myself up by the britches and told my self to get back to the basics. What is that you ask? During one of the initial studio classes (9/11/08 to be exact) we were discussing css templates. I was researching some things and I came across a beautiful template that was for sale. Of course, I was not going to pay for the item, but I loved the colors and functionality of the design. I had wrote down the link on some notes that I took that day and stuffed it into my notebook. During my rut of last week, I was just looking through my notebook and I came across the link to that design. I typed in the URL and as soon as I hit enter and saw the design, my spirits were renewed. I started to draw some sketches on a piece of paper, and by the end of my day, I can designed my version of the webpage that will hold my scrapbook pages. I was so excited that, yet again, I was able to move past a block and turn out a pretty product. I am looking forward to actually being able to say that I "completed" a project that I had set out to do. That is a big milestone for me.
For this upcoming showcase, I will not have my whole project complete. I am about 65% done. I still have to do at least 7 scrapbook pages to complete the "year" timeline. I also want to add some more functionality to the initial homepage with the use of some rollover images. There is still work to be done, but I am actually seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!

For my literature review, I read Weigert's chapter on Academic Service Learning: Its Meaning and Relevence. The article was written in 1998 and it discusses the importance of incorporating service learning into higher education. She discusses that "Institutions of higher learning have multiple purposes which focus on teaching, research and service." I am aware that UGA and the college that I work for (College of Agriculture) really stress the importance of these three components. What I was struck by was the comments by Boyer in 1990 as the direction of the "New American College - a vision of a new entitity as an institution that celelbrates teaching and selelectively supports reserch, while also taking special pride in its capacity to connect throught to action, theorey to practice". I think that we can parrallel that idea with the studio class and coin it as the "The New Classroom". In the Studio, teaching is celebrated by the instruction of new technologies and softwre. Research is selectively supported by choosing a authoring and multimedia program, but allowing the student to research their own program, topics and focus. The last idea of service is being obtained by reaching out to the community and connecting theorey to practice as we service others. Eighteen years ago Boyer had a vision and now the Studio has risen to the occasion.

WAY TO GO STUDIO!

Next Steps:

• Complete months 7-12 of the scrapbook pages
• Add rollover effects to the front page of the website

Resources:
Weigert, K.M (1998). Academic service learning: Its meaning and relevance. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, 1998 (73), 3-10.

Design Journal #6 - Running out of time

This week has been a rough week. I was sick with a horrible sinus infection that had me out of commission. When I finally got back to work, it was my turn in the queue to have my office remolded. I couldn't escape the smell of the paint and the new carpet which irritated my sinus headache even more. I could barely open my eyes, let alone stare at a computer screen. Unfortunately, this sickness has set me back in my project.
Currently I have created 7 scrapbook pages (bath, first-year, food, arrival, onemonth, twomonth, threemonth). My intent is to create one for each month of her first year. Right now, I would honestly be happy with a snapshot of her first 6 months. I plan to have that complete by the dress rehearsal of the showcase on Thursday. I have yet to complete my Dreamweaver site. I am starting to get in a bit of a panic mode because, as I spoke in a previous journal entry, I always think big and struggle to finish at the end. Right now I am in a bit of a mental block in regards to the layout of these scrapbook pages. I am trying to be creative with the pictures and the journal writing, but I feel as if there is only but so many looks you can create. I did some "inspirational" research and looked at a website named www.scrapwow.com which had about 30 different layouts. I have used this site to jumpstart my creativity. This weekend I plan to work on overload to try to complete this project, as well as my 6170 final project.
That is another gripe --- whenever it is crunch time, it just seems to be crunch time in every class!

Now that I am done venting, I can talk about the interesting article that I read, Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group by Miller, Chaika and Groope (MCG for short). The article was discussing the gender gap in "computer interest and skills begins in the early grades, persists in the home environment, and continues into adulthood." I can agree with this comment. My initial interferes into technology was through a computer applications course which I was only introduced to in high school. Then the article states that "boys conceptualize computers differently than girl; they like to play games and program. Girls tend to view the computer as a tool, a means to accomplish a task." I then majored in computer information systems in college and I really didn't enjoy it. I hated to program, and was searching for the more creative means to use technology. I fell into website design and I really am enjoying working with programs like Dreamweaver and Flash which are more the artistic tools. I was also interested in the part of the article that spoke on the different ways computer games are programmed. For girls, most of the "themes are oriented towards teaching, collecting pieces of the map, moving around in a spider web or landing on an airport. Many of the boys' game themes were adventure hunts, and exploration." Boys games were also more violent and involved death or the idea of powering "over the physical universe". I had made the conscious decision during college when I saw many of my male colleagues spend hours on end playing games like Bond, and Grand Theft Auto that I was going to ban video games in my house. My 14 year old step-son doesn't agree with the ban, but I feel as if there is enough violence just on tv, that we don't need to voluntarily sign up for it playing video games. I think, after this article, I am still going to keep my up my end of the ban!


Reference:
Miller, L., Chaika, M., & Groppe, L. (1996). Girl's preferences in software design: Insights from a focus group. Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An electronic Journal for the 21st century, 4(2), 27-36.

Design Journal #5 - ED and UD

Emotional Design (ED) and Universal Design (UD)

This week I have been sick, which is bad and good. It is no fun being sick, but when I got to stay home from work, I was able to work on a few scrapbook pages for my project. I have been having a lot of fun being immersed in the projects. The hardest part for me is not to get nostalgic when I am going through the old pictures and video. I can sit and look through those all day long!
Specifically, I have worked through the bath page and the food page. ( food and bath ) Although I am getting faster with Photoshop, creating the pages are still time consuming. I am thinking about the time that I have left and the amount of work that I have. Originally I wanted to have a page for each month. Lately, I have been considering combining the months (1&2, 3, 4 &5, etc..) so that I can complete my project on time.

For today's literature review, I chose to listen to Donald Norman's presentation of Emotional Design. In the beginning, he wanted to make a statement to all of the techies in the room that creating products that "are pretty is nice. Make it fun! Make it enjoyable!". This is what I am trying to do when I create Elisa's pages. But the ironic thing is that I am having fun and it is enjoyable creating the pages, so I hope that it shows through my project. Norman also stated that the "technology has to be flawless, but no one cares about it too much".... unless it doesn't work! I have not started creating the website that will encompass my project, but I need to make sure that it works so that it will display my scrapbook correctly. Another interesting comment that Norman discussed was the issue of the cognitive model. I want to make sure that I am reaching the goals that should be met by the brain. For instance, the visceral part of the model should affect the surface attractiveness. "Beauty is skin deep". I want my pages to be beautiful, enjoyable to look at and impactful. I want them to engage the audience and make them want more. The second part of the model is behavioral, its usability. This is the part that I haven't started on, but is one of my future goals. The last section of the model is reflective. This is the section that I hope, litterally, attracts Elisa because it asks the question of "do you see yourself in it? What does it mean to you?". I hope it means an insight to her past, but also a record for my family of her first precious life.

I was also drawn in by the reading of Rose, D.H. & Meyer's Universal Design of Learning. In their text they spoke of the three rules of universal design:

• To represent information in multiple formats and media.
• To provide multiple pathways for student's action and expression.
• To provide multiple ways to engage student's interest and motivation.

I thought about it and I am going to provide some rollover text on some images of my wall gallery to achieve the first goal of UD. I want to also post my scrapbook as individual pages and something that people can breeze through in a book format. I hope that checks off goal number three. I still have to think about goal number two!

Next steps:

• Continue hamering out my scrapbook pages
• Use Dreamweaver to construct my site
  

References:

Chapter 4 of Rose, D.H. & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.[On-line]. Available: http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/ideas/tes/

Norman, D. 2004. Emotional design. Presentation made at the 2004 O'Reilly Emerging Technologyconference. [podcast] Available: http://www.itconversations.com/shows/detail69.html

6210 Meeting Reflection

Team Alive

An immediate difference between this team and the previous team that I observed is the fact that papers have been replaced by laptops and papers. It seems to me that this group is at the stage where they are reviewing their content and structure that they have posted on the web. They are in the middle of implementation. There is a white board that they are using to create a sitemap for their data that will be used during their project. There is a lot of discussion about the learner and how they will use their product. It was interesting that the group wanted to include "reflections" because they wanted students to have an experience such as we do with our journal in the Studio. It was also interesting that the group members have had different impressions from the client and it is good that they have all decided to get clarification from the teacher. Another interesting thing is that they keep on bringing up Gagne's levels of instruction, which is something that we learned in 6190.

Interesting Links

Whether it is through conversation or surfing the web, one always comes in contact with interesting links. My plan is to post the links as I continue through this journey of design.

• ColourLovers


• Smashing Magazine


• Font Garden


• My Publisher


• Photoshop Tips


• LivE simply


• Picnik Photo Editing