Reflection:

I am an information freak. Prior to my work with TATC, I never surfed the web for fun. My idea of spicing up a paper was to include a few catchy, funny phrases among with the reams and reams of black print rolling off of my printer. Who has a colored printer in the classroom anyway? Not me!

The concepts and design principles that I learned in Desktop Publishing have opened a new world for me. I have come to realize that they can be used to organize ideas and break a long treatise into related parts in ways that help your students learn. Do I really work better with a bit of elbow space around me in an appealing setting? Maybe yes, maybe no. But it certainly helps my attitude and makes me more receptive to working. The same applies to words on the printed page. A bit of white space appropriately scattered in a well organized and appealing page layout actually helps the words do their job!

I think what I enjoyed most about Desktop Publishing was seeing the publications that some of my colleagues produced. Many made the printed page come alive. My mind does not even go there. As in all of the courses, once the principles and concepts are named, I have become conscious of them every time I see words used on paper or on a screen. I tell my students that recognition is the lowest level of learning, and listen to me! I am at recognition level. But I know I am growing in this area. Right now laying out an attractive document still takes conscious planning. It doesn't come naturally. Perhaps one day, with more experience, I will feel creative and imaginative in the realm of Desktop Publishing.

Artifact #3

Caption 3

I have chosen the greeting card project as my artifact because I felt I was more successful with it. I was grateful for the specified text, a delightful poem for the start of school, but the rest of the instructions left me less freedom than I wanted. I created one card according to specifications, but then I made a second card taking some creative license. This is the card I have chosen for my artifact. Reviews indicated that others enjoyed it more also.

Indicators: I, II, III, IV, V, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.6, 7.8, 7.10, 7.13, 7.14, 7.15, 7.16, 7.17, 7.18, 7.19, 7.21, 7.22, 7.24, 7.28, 7.29, 7.30, 7.31, 7.34, 7.36, 7.37, 7.38, 7.39, 7.40, 7.41,7.42, 7.43, 7.47, 8.7, 8.9, 8.20, 8.45, 9.8, 9.11, 9.20, 9.24, 9.28, 9.39, 9.42, 11.9, 11.12, 11.16, 11.17, 11.18, 11.19, 11.23, 11.24, 11.25, 11.27, 11.30, 11.35, 11.39

Artifact #3

Descriptors: Desktop Publishing, contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity, balance, fonts, white space

Title: Greeting Card

Course: TATC 104 Desktop Publishing

Date Created: January, 2003

Source: Individual project

Media: Microsoft Publisher 2000, Dreamweaver MX, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Acrobat Distiller

Description: The project required creating a greeting card using specified text illustrated with clipart, using basic principles of page layout. Robin William's Non Designer's Design Book provided good foundation information for page layout. Because the upside down pages are hard to view as an artifact, I copied the pages from Publisher and pasted them in Adobe Photoshop where I could save them as jpegs and use them as images in a web page. A link to the PDF file, the printable version, is available from the web page.

Rationale: The greeting card provided a good scenario for combining the use of concepts for modifying graphics with new principles for effective page layout, including appropriate choice of font and alignment. Finding a good balance among the size of the text, the graphics that replaced words, and white space was a nice challenge. The second page of the card, where I provided word clues for younger readers, gave me an opportunity to break away from standard word placement on a page and experiment with balance and rotation in an unconventional setting. I enjoyed using little tricks like slightly rotating a script font to make the signature more realistic in appearance.

Implications for future: This is a simple project that is appealing to students. The complexity can be varied by using clipart as we did, or by having students create or modify graphics appropriate for the content of the card. As a collaborative effort, students could choose different holidays or special occasions and build a class portfolio of all occasion cards. I used Publisher for this project, but I would like to learn to use Adobe Pagemaker also.

Reviewer's Comments: I really enjoyed looking at both of your cards. However, I liked the thought and work that you put into B the best. I loved the words on the inside cover that were scattered around. Even though they filled the page, there was still plenty of white space to balance them out. I also liked the way that you incorporated the pictures to take the place of words. Excellent idea! Also, all of your graphics were appropriately sized and complimented the writing instead of drawing the reader's eyes away from it.

Reviewer's Name: Courtney Morawski

Title: My TATC Mentor

Date Reviewed: January, 2003

Reviewer's Comments: How clever!!! I thought your use of pictures instead of words was very creative, and adding grandpa to the mix was very thoughtful! :)

Reviewer's Name: Stacy Hayes

Title: TATC Colleague

Date Reviewed: January, 2003

Reviewer's Comments: You continue to be so creative in your products. I like how you used pictures for text in your second card. I also like how you created colorful text on your first card. I enjoyed looking at your cards.

Reviewer's Name: Mary-Dawn Hudspeth

Title: TATC Colleague

Date Reviewed: January, 2003

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