Blending Differentiated Instruction and Technology

    
     The article “Reaching Different Learning Styles Through Technology” by Rebecca J. Reynolds EdD focuses on Howard Gardner’s 8 intelligences and ways to differentiate instruction when using technology and multimedia tools.  Below are the intelligence categories and Reynold’s suggested technology focuses or tools.  I have included a brief reminder of each level of intelligence.

Linguistic:  Strengths are written and spoken language.    

• Make recordings or videos of lectures or information presented for student
• Have students video tape, record or write responses to your lecture or information presented: blogging, posting on class website, Youtube
• These students will be good at internet searches, Google, because they can pick words that will enable them to have successful search results.
• Other suggestions:  Word manipulation programs and word games

Logical-Mathematical: Strengths are analyzing problems, mathematical operations, and the scientific method.

•  Teach through use of video games and computer simulations
•  Have student use Excell or data compiling software
•  Other suggestions:  Challenging or innovation programs that include logical thinking and categorization               

Musical:  Strengths in identifying musical patterns, composing, performing, and evaluating music.

• Teach with music added in to the lesson
• Put a musical background to mnemonics or turn into a song
• Teacher/students should use electronic music software to create songs with information to present
• Have students create poems or songs using vocabulary or key content information then create background music for their writing.

Bodily-Kinesthetic:  Strengths are expressing themselves or learning through bodily movement.   (Quick side note the author connected ADD misdiagnosis with students that are high in this learning style)

• Put the student in charge of the technology to be used:  run Powerpoint presentation, projectors, Smartboards, laptop distribution, etc.

Spatial:  Strengths are in visualization, interpreting images and recognizing shapes, patterns, and space.

• Teach using PowerPoints or visual presentation software
• Have students create Mind Maps:  Mindmeister
• Allow for students to incorporate design elements into projects, including paint programs, symbols, word art, etc.
• Have students create presentations using digital programs or video

Naturalistic:  Strengths are in identifying natural relationship with the world, especially with human relationships to nature and identifying patterns in nature.

• Rotate the technology tools that you use so students do not become bored, change their environment
• Build upon the students ability to identify the similarities and differences of the technology tools used in class
• Have students use Nvivo: Tool that allows a user to collect and analyze data from a variety of sources

Interpersonal:  Strengths are collaborating and leading others.

• Implement webcam communication for presentations, lectures, group work
• Allow students to create videos for projects
• Include links to videos within PowerPoint presentations
• Have student create online surveys for the class to take, then compile and synthesize the data.

Intrapersonal:  Strengths are self-reflection and self-awareness.

• Have the student create a blog or online journal
• Allow student to create concept maps using online tools
• Assign student to do independent internet research

     When choosing this article, my main focus was on research to back the success of Web 2.0 tools within the classroom or ways to build student motivation and achievement through technology.  It became a difficult search and I accidentally left AERA and wound up at Academia.edu.  This article seemed a little basic and had a big focus on Microsoft tools with little mention of other Web 2.0 tools (When writing the summary I had to stop myself from adding in my own ideas for which tools to use).  But in the end I found this article very helpful in terms of applying the basic principles set forth to the large variety of Web 2.0 tools that exist.

     There are a lot of connections this course that can be made from the article.  When dealing with lessons that apply to spatial intelligences, teaching students design elements that we have learned would make them more successful and enhance their natural abilities.  Walker, Jameson & Ryan emphasize the importance of students and teachers collaborating to share their varied levels of technological understanding and knowledge.(2010)  Applying the ideas of a participatory classroom environment and collectivism to the Bodily-Kinesthetic and Interpersonal students could have great benefits for both.  The Bodily-Kinesthetic students in charge of technology and assisting others in room allows that student more movement while encouraging the hands on experiences that will enhance their learning.  The interpersonal student could take the leadership role of disseminating information throughout the class.  The MDMC project allowed for us to view many different Web 2.0 tools in an academic environment and applying the basic concepts of which types of technology enhance the different learning styles of the class will easily help in identifying which tools are the right ones for the class.

http://www.academia.edu/1868796/Reaching_different_learning_styles_through_technology

There are also helpful charts/diagrams and a sample lesson if you scroll past the article.

Rebecca J. Reynolds EdD. “Reaching Different Learning Styles through Technology”.  Academia.edu. 1868796.

Walker, S., Jameson, J., & Ryan, M. (2010). Skills and Strategies for E-learning in a Participatory Culture. In R, Sharpe, H. Beetham, & S. de Freitas (Eds.), Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age:  How Learners Are Shaping Their Own Experiences (pp. 212-224). Routledge: New York, NY.

Reflections: Blog 7

A few weeks away from the blog and already it is missed.  Thankfully it scrolls in the opposite order of the education I have had in multimedia design.  There was a purpose in not making any changes to layouts, typography, color uses, etc.  I intended to see the mistakes made in the onset as the course continued to gage my progress.  The initial assignment of the media critique and the layout for the Thinkfinity groups were very basic and contained many design flaws.  It is delightful knowing that I can point that out now, though embarrassing since everyone else can too.

Mini-Art School

The grueling hours spent laying out designs using new skills and software have been missed.  Mini-art school and the readings that accompanied it helped me develop artistically and forced me to look at everything I created in entirely new ways.  I use to hate reversing, centered everything and crammed as much information as possible into a document. But now I utilize the “Works-Every-Time Layout”, provide plenty of margin space around everything, and utilize column layouts and rectangular design elements for chunking the information. (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010 p. 21-26, 36, 79)  As I create classroom materials and the website for the MMP project I am constantly trying to avoid the “layout sins” especially in regards to trapped negative space that ultimately kept happening when placing movies, buttons, and files within two and three column layouts. Abstaining from the usage of all the great gadgets available at Weebly has also helped to avoid the sin of clutter. (Golombisky & Hagen, p. 33, 38) The font activities enhanced my love for typography, but also taught when and how to properly employ it.  I now primarily stick to sans serifs for most of my website to promote readability.  I plan to utilize more drop case and typographic conveyance to the website once the initial development and implementation are complete.  When rereading my posts I realize how much I enjoyed those activities and should continue to practice them.

The Work of Others

Perusing through the creations of colleagues was very beneficial to my development as well.  In the initial stages of this course I was extremely hesitant about sharing projects with strangers.  As the course progressed I looked forward to seeing the work of others to gain a deeper understanding of how that weeks’ concepts were interpreted and utilized.  Ali’s isolated merry-go-round in the cropping activity, Katie’s swirling ice cream background on the color echo activity, and even Vanessa and my eerily similar typographic conveyances extended my view of how these skills were put to use in a wide variety of displays.  (I swear Vanessa and I did not copy off each other though I wish I had thought to use a paintbrush rather than cropping tools to shred words!)

For the Future

As I reflect back to the beginning modules of this course I realize how much I have learned about the importance of design within multimedia as well as how far I still need to go to fully employ all that I have learned.  I took giant leaps with many of the mini-art school projects.  However, with the MMP I have focused on layout, unity, and not committing any of the layout sins.   After reviewing the blogs, I see how important my overall design will be to the success of the class website as well as all of my future creations.  For this reason I will to continue to revise the website and apply the other techniques I have learned to maximize its potential and keep student interest high.

Golombisky, Kim, & Hagen, Rebecca (2010). White Space is Not Your Enemy. New York: Focal Press.
Krause, Jim (2004) Design Basics Index. Cincinnati: HOW Design Books

Mini Art School: Video and Moving Images Blog #6

StoryBoard

Yikes!  I actually have to show my storyboard in public?  The storyboard is very difficult to read, it was originally created for myself with no intentions of publishing on the web.  

I followed the White Space is Not Your Enemy example for website layout with additional pages branching out from the home/main page and using grid paper.  I had not watched the Storyboarding Basics video until after my storyboard was done, so this is done in pencil, with a lot of unseen eraser marks.  I thought the use of pen was an excellent idea to move a creator forward rather than constantly fixing a draft.  It also makes me happy to hear that people who can't draw make good storyboards to work with.

Concept Video in 60 Seconds

The video focuses on video production using the elements within the White Space is Not Your Enemy chapter on Storyboarding.  I used the idea of "Lights, Camera, Action" to group the various topics for shot frames, camera angles, lighting and perspectives.  (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010)  Because I used a film burn at the beginning there is an attempt to keep a color unity of beiges, oranges, reds, and black throughout.  It was difficult finding images that would show the various elements for camera and lighting styles.  Also there was a very limited amount of video clips to work with.  However, trying to find images and videos to show exactly what I wanted provided an opportunity to think a little deeper about the concepts learned from the readings. 

Golombisky, Kim, & Hagen, Rebecca (2010). White Space is Not Your Enemy. New York: Focal Press.

Designing With Digital Images (Blog #5)

Assignment #1: Cropping Digital Images

Cropping photos, or adjusting photos in any way is always fun.  I tend to do a lot of size adjusting when I am taking the picture rather than with photo enhancing software, so most of the images I had to work with did not require much cropping.  I do agree though that any image can take on a whole new look when the focal point is altered or changed entirely after photo enhancing.  This activity was very helpful since it forced me to crop images in a different way; changing the meaning of some of the photos was difficult, but the results were worth it.  The photos were edited using Pixlr Express and the video was made with iMovie, including the voice over.

This video is 2 minutes.

Assignment #2:  Color Echo

Working with color this time was easier.  After selecting a custom hue, I decreased the saturation of the image colors and adjusted using the value bars.  I used the analogous palette of yellow, green and yellow green taken from my image.  I notice now with the three images together that the stem and leaves appear to be different colors in the left picture with the green background as opposed to the other two that have yellow or yellow and green backgrounds.  The striped background gives the image a 3D look, but the left stands out the most because it has a crisper look.  It did have a difficult time matching the yellows, which may be part of why they don't stand out as much.  I also used Photoflexer.com to cut the white background away from the image.  It was as easy as Katie said in her screencast, so I highly recommend this tool for photo adjustments.  The posters themselves were created in Google Drive: Drawings.

Assignment #3: Typographic Conveyance

With this assignment we had to convey the meaning of the words through typography.  I started off by looking at a slew of photos and graphic images to see if any made me think of the word.  Then I tried to make the font or image within the font match that image.  This required some playing around with styles, sizes, colors and spacing.  I applied the technique of kerning to all but the top two. With shred I initially think of skateboarding and taking a nasty fall off the board, but realized that is not how most people would think of the word so I changed the look, to make it recognizable to a wider audience. I also used Fotoflexer to achieve the lines in the text.  Atom was the one I like the best because using part of the image within the word was new for me and it was actually easy.  I made a total of three separate text boxes. On a previous assignment I had done a dropcase letter in the same fashion, separate from the other text.  Because you are trying to convey one message with typography alone, this was a difficult assignment.

Krause, Jim (2004) Design Basics Index. Cincinnati: HOW Design Books

Images in Activities 2 & 3 courtesy of stock.xchng

Designing Disasters (Blog #4)

What have I learned this week...I am a designing disaster.  Every time I create something new, I learn the following week all that I have done wrong!  Luckily, I won't let that stop me.  This week I decided to push myself and do both Design Basics Index activities.  With the MMP right around the corner and my extreme (but luckily decreasing) lack of designing knowledge, I feel there is no time like the present to try to develop these skills.  I put the first into a video slideshow to make the presentation have a little zing.

Shapes Workshop:  

Using Google Drive: Drawing and vector drawing enhancements for Google Chrome I created some shapes.  Using the enhancements and the entire creative process was completely new to me and took a bit of getting use to.  I especially enjoyed the size variation activity and the movement the shapes created. 

The video is less than one minute.

http://www.masher.com/player.jsp?key=d8881ea3-7045-25bb-ee23-0000704d89a7&adscheme=0

Fonts:

For the next activity I focused on fonts and creating words that matched (the first two) and contrasted (third one).  The final column is the name of the font.  Originally I selected mainly decorative fonts, but as the readings progressed I realized that I need to put in some Old Style and Serif fonts since I will primarily be working with these from now on.  Again I used Google Drive: Drawing.  There is the option to add a wide variety of fonts so I was able to choose from quite an assortment.  To me the words "thin" and "scientific" had the most impact in terms of adding more emphasis to the word; in the case of scientific it was a great juxtaposition.  "Tense" was the least effective in that the font selection is such an opposite of the term it diffused the intensity of the word itself.  This activity shows how important font choice is in terms of adding to or taking away from a headline.

I created this before reading about the importance of grids, so I realized too late that I should have put this into four columns rather than 12 rows.  

Krause, Jim (2004) Design Basics Index. Cincinnati: HOW Design Books