Week 5 Assignment
Course Embedded Assignment Reflection
EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics and Web Design
Self- Assessment
Creating the animations and our group website during this course was a real challenge and tested my abilities. At first everything seemed overwhelming when I read that we were going to have to develop two different animations and create an entire group website that needed to be published but as we worked our way through each assignment week after week I could see myself growing with the use of technology and learning new skills every week. I was able to self-assess my work week after week using reflective practices. The value of reflection shined through during this course as I was able to look back on what I created and see how it can be improved or implemented in different ways. Gerstein makes an excellent point in her web article about reflection when she talks about how reflection makes learning more meaningful and not just an activity that was meant to occupy time (Gerstein, 2011). The information I knew about design principles was totally blown out of the water with the new information I gained such as the C.R.A.P. principles when it comes to design. I can now design things in less time that are far more effective and simple. My designs before were too busy and crowded with no purpose. The information I have gained in this course will continue to be used throughout my teaching and administrative career.
Learn as a Learner
When I began thinking about how I would take on the assignments of creating animations and especially creating two different pages of our group website I did not know where to begin. I learned that if I just take one task on at a time the overall task becomes more manageable and less stressful. With the first assignment, I took Schawbel's advice when it comes to branding. I took some real time to think and research about my passions and how I can bring these into my own personal brand (Schawbel, 2009). So much of my learning that took place in this course took place with the help of my amazing colleagues. My group decided to make our own personal facebook group just for collaboration between the four of us. This was extremely helpful and it allowed me to get quick answers from my team instead of trying to contact them each directly. During this course one of my favorite learning aspects was posting on the discussion board. I enjoy looking back to see feedback on my discussion post and getting constructive criticism. My colleagues in this course are all teaching professionals and one would really miss out if they chose to ignore the help their group can offer.
Lifelong Learning Skills
One of the most important things I will take away from this course is how to learn from a variety of sources. Formally as a student I was just search for learning opportunities when they came from my instructor. In the last five weeks I have learned so many different things from my colleagues and the professors set us up for this success with the required group collaboration. I now hold the skills to be a lifelong learner and I feel that in my school I can find new ways to learn from my colleagues by asking the right questions and initiating professional discussion that leads to new learning. As a lifelong learner I still want to know how to motivate my colleagues to work more collaboratively instead of independently. I have learned the true value of collaboration in this course I want to bring this practice into my building. I plan to keep researching and finding new practices that will give me ideas to find success in this area. Hopefully within my research I will be able to create, plan, and administer more professional development sessions during our teacher workdays to promote healthy collaborative practices. Throughout the readings in this course I came across Bloom's Digital Taxonomy and totally agree with the idea that newly learned skills need to be implemented as soon after instruction as possible in order for actual learning to take place (Churches, 2008). We need to find ways for instruction to be in the hands of our learners within the same class period so they will go home remembering the lesson from the day. This brings me into my next topic of implementation.
Implementation
Websites can be implemented into the classroom by any teachers from K-12. In the elementary level most of the websites need to be for parent use. Teachers can post relevant information for the parents which will alleviate many of the questions that teacher might receive in emails or phone calls. If a teacher keeps a website up to date then he or she can make their life a lot easier! We need to remember that students are proficient with technology at an amazingly young age in this current time period. They are far more advanced than we are when it comes to learning new technology. Students from middle school or even fifth grade and up can easily navigate a web page and pull important information. With upper level classes students can post discussions and comment on one another's inquiries. This is a way for students to learn from one another instead of always from the instructor. Even in our graduate level classes we use websites to collaborate with one another and 90% of the time we answer one anothers questions when someone has missed something or us confused and I know this saves the IA's and course professors hundreds of emails. Websites are a way for the teaching and learning to extend beyond the classroom and class time. Teachers can post assignments and blog about topics that will spark student interest and will maximize learning.
REFERENCES:
Schawbel, D. (2009, February 5). Personal branding 101: How to discover and create your brand. Retrieved from
Gerstein, J. (2011, August 16). Where is reflection in the learning process?. Retrieved from http://usergeneratededucation.wordpress.com/2011/08/16/where-is-reflection-in-the-learning-process/
Churches, A. (2008, April 1). Bloom's taxonomy blooms digitally. Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/studies-in-ed-tech/0020/blooms-taxonomy-blooms-digitally/44988
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