Design & Communication
Ch 4 & Ch 5 of Meaningful Learning with Technology
Learning through Design
Designing Process (73)
- Identify a need or opportunity
- Generate design ideas
- Plan and make a prototype or product
- Evaluate and reflect on the design
Examples of Design Software for Students
Scratch: users can create object-based programs that manipulate digitized video and audio (80)
iStopMotion: users (as young as elementary students) can create animated movies and time-lapse recordings (80)
GarageBand: Music composition software (83)
Impromptu: students can create music compositions (83)
FIRST Robotics and Lego Design Competition
21st Century Media
Asynchronous Communication
Using Discussion Boards
Learning how to construct an argument (95)
- Relevance: is there an adequate relationship between the contents o the premises and conclusion?
- Sufficiency: does the premise provide enough evidence for the conclusion?
- Acceptability: Are the premises true, probable, or reliable?
With using discussion boards, as a teacher you may have to explicitly teach students how to explain and construct an argument.
ePals
VoiceThread
Blackboard
Using Discussions Boards: Things to Consider
- Include a grading criteria for writing mechanics
- Be aware of shallow conversation (I agree or me too...)
As a teacher you can model how to use discussion boards.
You also might want to have another discussion thread that students can write any questions they have for the class or any other miscellaneous information.
-Pg 101
Synchronous Communication
Presentation Technologies
PowerPoint
"death by PowerPoint": "endless bullet-pointed slides that fail to convey connections or depth of thought" (106)
Effective PowerPoint Features
- "AutoContent" wizard: sets of "canned" slides for a specific type of presentation
- Outlining: a view that shows only the text and its hierarchical organization
- Linking: Links to other applications
- Notes: Students can take notes on their slides to help them remember information
Non-Effective PowerPoint Features
- Font-itus: using too many fonts and colors
- Overzealous slide transitions
- Incongruous slide templates: the template not matching the information presented
- Too many slides
Other Presentation Softwares
Google Doc's Presentation
SlideShare
Prezi
Videoconferencing
IVC: Things to Consider
- Teachers may need training with technology
- Students may need coaching on how to be respectful and taught the norms of IVC.
- Plan follow-up activities with students
(117-18)
Podcasting
Have students create a podcast.
Examples: Radio WillowWeb, Our City, Ram Radio
Podcast Process
- preproduction
- recording
- postproduction
- publishing