danbolia

[danbolia]

Here’s video of my draft Interactive Presentation.

[danbolia]

Mastery Journal

Month 1: Visual and Verbal Communication in Instructional Design

Week 1 assignment included a reading assignment from Trends and Issues in Instructional Design and Technology. In Chapter 32, Using Rich Media Wisely, Clark and Mayer explained the Paradox of Rich Media as the situation when “current technology has a greater capacity to deliver information to learners than learners have the psychological capacity to assimilate that information” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 310). At first read, I was not entirely sure that I agreed with this supposition. I’ve always thought that our innate ability to learn enables us to adapt the new technologies, which in turn, allows us to find out more. However, I kept an open mind as Clark and Mayer suggested, “we recommend the use of scientific evidence as an important factor to consider” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 310).

Chapter three of the book covered many interesting aspects of how people learn. Clark and Mayer cited many studies, which presented evidence on the value of visuals and the linkage to improved learning. After reading this chapter, I feel comfortable with my past and current approaches to training design. Although I didn’t need further evidence to support the visuals approach to learning, a few days after reading the chapter, I experience a moment of clarity and resounding proof of this power.

Shortly after reading Chapter 3 assignment, I watched a YouTube video by Dan Roam, author of The Back of the Napkin book. In this video, Dan Roam along with another author, Simon Sinek, selected a random a paper which has the statement “We achieve more when we chase the dream instead of the competition.” They then challenged each other to collaborate and draw stick-figure type pictures that would ultimately illustrate or represent the statement on the paper. Both authors took a turn drawing three items with each turn until they were satisfied with the results. The video was meant to demonstrate the power of visuals, and it was intriguing to watch. However, the next day while at work, I experienced the absolute proof of this power. As I was relating the YouTube video to my colleague at work, I could not remember the statement, which the author used to demonstrate their visual concept. I was not ashamed that I couldn’t remember the statement even though it was only a 12-word sentence. However, as I was recalling the pictures drawn, to describe it to my co-worker, I discovered that I could reconstruct the statement by visualizing the pictures. You see, I could recall the images from memory, which help me associate their metaphor and meaning to the statement, thus allowing me to reconstruct the text or meaning of that statement. Now was not able to recall word for word, but I certainly provided a very similar version. Without the visual aids, I would not have been able to remember the statement. Wow, what a moment of clarity.

I’ve always maintained that as an individual student, each person is empowered to learn on their own, based on their level of self-motivation. This is true regardless of whether the learning takes place at school or elsewhere. I feel that for the most part, learning institutions and teachers are only there to provide the resources and the impetus for us to learn. It is plausible that I could have stumbled onto the information I learned during this course, in my own time. If I do find the information on my own accord, I may read it and if I find it interesting or feel that the information has relevance to my work. Being back in the academic environment made me realized another important factor about learning while in school versus learning on my own. When I’m in school, I must read information whether it is interesting to me or not. Also, I’m required to do projects that necessitate putting what I read or learned into practice. When learning on my own, I would likely skip the exercises or hands-on activities. Case in point, I’ve taken and completed many tutorials from Lynda.com. Since I had a paid premium membership, I would even download the exercise files. However, I have never attempted any of the exercises in any of the tutorial. Our 3.1.2 Infographic project was my first time doing a Lynda.com exercise. Having assigned homework with imposed deadlines are never fun, they do serve an important purpose in learning.

During this past month, we had several hands-on projects. The first project requires us to apply the principles and good typography practices to create a poster of the Grand Canyon. I’ve always thought of myself as having decent graphic skills for someone that has no formal training. I’ve even taken a few typography courses from Lynda.com, on my own time to learn new skills. On most occasions, I would have to use these graphic skills to create graphics for projects at work. Most of the times, I would be my own judge for what I created. Having my artwork evaluated by my peers and graded by an instructor is a new and sobering experience for me. Not attaining all possible points for creativity is a good reminder for me to look at the projects and designs from the audience’s perspective.

Completing the course project, I learned that “[it] is possible to overcome those instances where you have a crazy busy image or a grid of images” (Saltz, 2013, 2:20). In her video, Ina showed how Sports Illustrated magazine combined inner and outer outlines with hard-edged drop shadow to make text pop against all imaginable background. I’ve employed this typography method repeatedly on subsequent projects in the course as well as projects for my work.

Here's a picture from my Grand Canyon Poster Project

For week 2, we were introduced to data visualization or DataViz. For me, this was also a fun, even if the learning opportunity was tied to a mandatory school project. This module provided in-depth information on infographic creation and gave us an opportunity to learn Adobe Illustrator (AI) program while we practiced creating our own infographic. Like my classmates, I got a lot out of week 2 assignments. I was impressed with how Full Sail University incorporated online materials into the course curriculum. Perhaps the University’s use of online resources is a common practice among all universities.

The infographic project turned out to be the long-term project for the course. What started out as a platform for learning DataViz and AI, became the platform for learning Keynote and interactive presentation. One surprising element in this module was the requirement to record audio narration. Although the interactive presentation is a task I’m familiar with, doing my own narration is a new territory for me. In past projects, I’ve always shied away from the role of the narrator because I felt that my voice does not have the announcer quality. Hearing my own voice is quite annoying to me. After much effort and many recordings, I think that I turned in an acceptable narration for my project.

Here's a picture of my Infographic project

Our final reading assignment for the month was the chapter, Learning Is Visual from the Dorian Peters’ Interface Design for Learning book. Peters (2013) provided many examples that exemplified and supported Clark and Mayer’s positions on the importance of visuals. Peters (2013) stated “One way to think about an educational graphic is as a cognitive tool. Like a hammer enhances what an arm can do in terms of strength, graphics like diagrams, graphs, and maps extend what a brain can do in terms of reasoning” (The Power of Visualization, para. 6).

The culmination of this interactive presentation project highlighted the viable method of using learning media to support learning. As Clark and Mayer stated, “The human brain has evolved an architecture that is easily overloaded,” by using the “less is more” approach and adopting the “learner-centered view of instruction” (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012, p. 318), I will focus on what the learner needs in order to improve learning as opposed to making learning technology the focus.

Going forward with this yearlong journey, what adjustments could you make to ensure your future success in achieving mastery?

As I mentioned above, my current journey will only be four-month long. So far, it has been a rewarding experience. I have been exposed to information that I didn’t know existed. I’m very satisfied with the effort I’ve put forth on each assignment and project. A surprising reward for me has been how much I learned about my own shortcomings by providing peer evaluation for my classmates. I find that as I analyze their work to satisfy the academic requirements, I see my own faults and mistakes in my own projects. I don’t think that was one of the intended course objectives for the peer evaluation task, but it has been good for me.

All throughout the course, I found myself quoting or reflecting on our reading assignments while I’m at work. I don’t think a day has gone by since I started the course that I didn’t use a little bit of what I learned and applied to a work situation. I’m fortunate to be working in the same field that I’m studying. My current job enables me to know what I don’t know about this field. This knowledge is serving me well as a starting point for me to press forward into the next three months.

References Clark, R.C., & Mayer, R. E. (2012). Using rich media wisely. In R. A. Reiser, & J. V. Dempsey (Eds.), Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.) (pp. 310 & 318). Boston, MA: Pearson Peters, D. (2013). Interface design for learning: Design strategies for learning experiences. San Francisco, CA: New Riders. Retrieved from http://ce.safaribooksonline.com/book/web-design-and-development/9780133365481 Saltz, I. (2013, October 25). Foundations of typography: color, contrast, and scale [Lynda.com online course]. Retrieved from https://www.lynda.com/ Design-tutorials/Foundations-Typography-Color-Contrast-Scale/133328-2.html

End of Month One -  Mastery Journal

Month 1 Self Reflection

REFLECT I’m a bit frustrated that we are once again required to reflect on the previous course experience. It seems redundant and unnecessary when I’ve already done this in Assignment 3.4.1. I feel as if I spent more time reflecting on the project than I did working on it. Perhaps the Course Director might consider reviewing and revising this course assignment.

On my last reflection of my previous course, my Instructor recommended that I should write in a more concise manner and always proof my writing before submitting. I shall endeavor to do so in this post.

INQUIRE I’m truly at a lost to see the value of this repetitive task. I don’t want to appear neglectful or uncaring about my learning experience, but I want to know the purpose of Assignment 6.3.1, Task 3.

SUGGEST All assignments and tasks from my previous week, which included typography, critique, infographic, and writing culminated with the final project of creating an interactive presentation. When I created this project, I applied the suggestions from my peers and Instructor. I also implemented improved design changes. After viewing my submitted final project, my Instructor recommended that I should fix my presentation so that the audio narrations play each time the user select a topic of interest. Because I used PowerPoint, this seemingly simple feature is not available. I will attempt to find a workaround to accomplish my Instructor’s suggestion.

ELEVATE MS PowerPoint and Apple Keynote offer features that are unique to each software. I will try to use features from both applications to create a presentation that maintains the same animated user interactions and plays the same way regardless of which application a user is using to view the presentation. This undertaking is mainly for academic purpose. However, there may be an opportunity for me to use this presentation at work to demonstrate the advanced features of PowerPoint. Hopefully, I can encourage users to be more creative with their presentation.

End of Month 1 Reflection

Month 2: Digital Media and Learning Applications

REFLECT My second course for the Instructional Design and Technology Certificate Program was Digital Media and Learning Applications. The course introduced students to the concept of using video as a teaching medium. The mastery project for the course was to create an interactive quiz. Each student selects a topic presented in a Science at NASA video to use as the basis for the interactive quiz. Students determine their target audience and develop learning outcomes based on the content of the video. Students must create learning assessment to evaluate how well their target audience learned the topic. The learning assessment included questions, answers, and feedbacks that make up the traditional assessment as well as authentic assessment activities. The learning assessment questions, answers, and feedbacks that students developed became the content material used to create the interactive quiz. The basic structure for the interactive quiz was derived from an exercise that was part of a Lynda.com tutorial. In this tutorial, students learned and practiced coding, using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Angular JavaScript, and JavaScript Online Notation (JSON). The Mastery Project clarified for me the differences between learning objectives and learning outcomes. I much prefer the use of learning outcomes because it places the focus what students can achieve or able to do at the end of the learning experience. Whereas the learning objectives paradigm were stating what the training or instructor was trying to achieve through the training. The Interactive Quiz project first appeared to be just an exercise in copying codes shown in a video. However, the following tasks require students to apply the coding by using the learning assessment they created. This project is an excellent example of an authentic assessment to determine if learners can use the coding skills taught. In creating the Interactive Quiz, students must apply the principles of typography. This provided yet another authentic assessment for the previous lessons on typography.

INQUIRE In my Interactive Quiz, I wanted to add hyperlinks in my feedbacks, which would provide a convenience link to additional resources for a topic. This became an impossible task for me because the structure of the Interactive Quiz was based on Angular JavaScript generating the HTML codes. Although I researched this issue, I was unable to figure out how to modify my quiz to have the hyperlinks that user would be able to click. In the end, I settled for just providing the URL text that learners can use to navigate to other websites.

SUGGEST All the tasks for this month reflect the name of the course, Digital Medial and Learning Applications. I’m fully satisfied with the contents and methods. I have no further suggestion.

ELEVATE Since completing this course, I’ve had an opportunity to put the concept of the Interactive Quiz into practice. My supervisor at work was looking for a way to quickly send out monthly Q&A challenge to personnel in the field. The purpose of the questions is to keep employees up-to-date on their skills. I created an interactive quiz based on the project from this course and proposed to use the quiz to distribute the monthly challenge efficiently. In my proposal, I noted the fact that once the quiz was created, it could be easily updated by changing the content of the JSON file. My supervisor accepted my proposal without hesitation.

End of Month 2 Reflection

Month 3: Filmmaking Principles for Instructional Design

Reflect

Month 3 course was on filmmaking principles for instructional design. Students were required to create a three-minute video tutorial on a choice of topic, selected from a specified list. The video must include voice narration and music. I found the project quite challenging.

I’ve always been interested in the Hollywood process of movie making. I’ve even dabbled with making home movies many times in the past. However, I quickly learned that none of the experimentation and playing with home movies would be helpful to me on this project. The most important lesson I gained from this month’s course is how much I don’t know about filmmaking.

Another area of difficulty I encountered was the lack of familiarity with Apple computer and the Mac OS. Consequently, I was unfamiliar with software such as Garage Band and iMovie. If I didn’t have access to those great Lynda.com tutorials to learn the software, I don’t think I would be able to complete this project.

In the end, I was able to bring all the pieces of the puzzles together and created a video that I’m proud of. I’m confident that my video will not win any award or recognition. None the less, to me it represents a personal achievement during my journey to learn a very complex topic.

Inquire

I need much more practice in all the concepts and techniques before I can even say that I have a working knowledge of this subject. My storyboarding skill needs the most attention because it sets the stage for the tasks that follow. Collaborating with others on a large movie project will undoubtedly add to the complexity of the task. When it comes to filmmaking as it applies to instructional design, I will remain guarded about its potential value. While I’m convinced that video as a learning object adds much to the cognitive process, I must not let the enthusiasm and excitement of filmmaking overshadow the complexity and high costs associated with creating videos.

Suggest

My performance and my results would have been much improved if I had more time to work on the video project. I need to learn and practice using software like iMovie, Final Cut Pro, Adobe Premiere Element, or the full version of Premiere. I should also try to acquire higher end camera to use for future video projects.

Elevate

Although I don’t have any professional requirement to make instructional videos similar to the class project, I have envisioned many personal video projects I want to do. Over the years, I’ve recorded many hours of raw videos, capturing different events in my life. I’ve always nurtured the desire to create videos that I would be proud to share but have never found the time or had the skills to do. With the experience and knowledge, I’ve gained from this course, I shall make it a personal goal to create professional quality movies, capturing the important and fun events during my lifetime. One day my children will have these videos to remember me by. These personal projects will allow me to practice and continue my education and improve my filmmaking skills.

My Tutorial Video: Classic Origami Crane