Digital Graphics, Animation and Desktop Publishing

This course brought into review skills that I regularly use as a classroom teacher - creating newsletters. However in this course, I got to experience creating digital newsletters as opposed to computer-generated ones that are then printed and copied for distribution. Learning about the "CRAP" principles of basic design, that is Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity, has been very useful in creating presentations and products for my class that are engaging and appealing to my students and others. Since taking this class, I was able to get my students involved in making their own digital newsletter that we e-mail out to parents once a month. This has been a great tool that "helps students to think for themselves, to do the organizing or whatever they need to do to make sense out of the information" (Fraenkel, 1992, p. 172). I have shared this activity with other teachers and shown the benefits of this on student productivity. Not only are students creating a product to share with their peers and families, they are sharing their knowledge with me since many of the articles included in the newsletter are summaries and reflections on topics we have covered in class. Students take the template that we set up as a class and save it to their flash drives. They know which sections they are responsible for and then we cut and paste the document together. This is not as simple as creating in Google docs, but the students are working successfully with the established set-up. "Technology allows students to collaborate on projects without the constraints of time or geography" (Pitler, Hubbell, Kuhn, and Malenoski, 2007, p. 153).
Since there were many new concepts for me to learn in completing this course, I spent time watching and reading the tutorials offered for tools like Stykz and creating a logo. I also enlisted the help of my husband and 14 year old daughter in the critique of my work before submitting it. Building a strong support team that I could rely on for feedback has been a much needed resource for myself. "Interaction and the resulting relationships are the most important catalysts in forming community" (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 105).
As I continue to move forward in technology education, I plan on taking the advice of others into account. I also want to continue in practicing the skills I have gained in digital graphics and animation, while fine tuning my skills in desktop publishing. These are skills and tools that other teachers would most definitely benefit from learning and integrating into their own teaching. Ideally, I think creating a small learning community on campus to learn, practice, and then integrate these tools would be beneficial to all. "To chart a new course, administrators must agree that the use of technology is a fundamental goal, and faculty members must participate in identifying it as a shared goal" (Solomon and Schrum, 2007, p. 111).


References:

Freankel, J. (1992, March). Hilda Taba's Contributions to Social Studies Education. Social Education. p. 172-178.

Pitler, H., Hubbell, E., Kuhn, M., and Malenoski, K. (2007). Using Technology with Classroom Instruction that Works. Denver: McREL.

Solomon, J. and Schrum, T. (2007). Web 2.0: New Tools, New Schools. Washington, D.C.: ISTE.