The desktop publishing teacher has the knowledge and skills needed to teach the Foundations, Information Acquisition, Work in Solving Problems, Communication strands of the Technology Applications Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS) in desktop publishing, in addition to the content described in Technology Applications Standards I-V.

I thought I was fairly experienced in desktop publishing when the course started: I had been (several years ago) a newspaper editor, and had worked as a magazine editor. However, since most of my training had been of the OTJ variety, there were occasional gaps to be filled. In addition, the technology had, of course, changed in the meantime. I was familiar with the elements of design, and generally tried to follow them in "big" projects, but learned in this course that "little" projects benefit tremendously as a result of following the principals of design, too. Prior to TATC, I didn't know about the need for creating products in a format that is accessible to all readers, such as rich text files (*.rtf) and portable document files (*.pdf).

In the future, I will attempt to be more consistent in my designs (that is, I think it is helpful if each product a student or parent sees from me has "my stamp" of design on it), and convey the message to my students that every document should be carefully designed, rather than "thrown together," in order to communicate a message of professionalism.

Artifact #6 / Artifact #7

Caption 6

Indicators: Standard IV, Standard V, TA TEKS: 7.1s, 7.2s, 7.3s, 7.4s, 7.6s, 7.8s, 7.9s, 7.10s, 7.14s, 7.15s, 7.16s, 7.17s, 7.18s, 7.19s, 7.21s, 7.29s, 7.31s, 7.35s, 7.36s, 7.37s, 7.38s, 7.43s, 7.47s, 8.3s, 8.11s, 8.14s, 8.15s, 8.17s, 8.21s, 8.24s, 8.31s, 8.34s, 8.35s, 8.41s, 8.43s, 8.44s, 8.45s, 8.46s, 8.47s, 9.13s, 9.15s, 9.16s, 9.21s, 9.24s, 9.26s, 9.27s, 9.38s, 9.39s, 9.41s, 9.42s, 9.43s, 10.9s, 10.16s, 10.37s, 10.38s, 10.40s, 10.41s, 11.10s, 11.11s, 11.12s

Artifact #6

Descriptors: Desktop Publishing Messages

Title: Desktop Publishing to Send Messages (Business Card)

Course: 104 Desktop Publishing

Date Created: January 14, 2003

Source: Individual project using Adobe Pagemaker for card, self-created web page for discussion and display, PDF file for printing

Media: Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver

Description: In this assignment, we were to create a letterhead, business card, or any other desktop publishing document of our choice that would reflect who we are and our interests. It was to contain a logo and a brief message suitable for that type of communication, along with eye-catching typography and supporting graphics in the form of a watermark or background image to complement the overall design. A companion web page was to provide information on the graphics, message and media.

Rationale: My wife and I run a sideline business of creating flyers, publications for special events, chamber of commerce directories, and websites and pages. I had used the typographic style of Sabanna River Publishers as a logo, and decided it was time to create a business card. I chose the hawk graphic because our home is located on that river, and the river bottom's wildness can be associated with the hawk. Using Google.com's image search, I first located a generic "hawk in flight" photograph, then (using Photoshop 7.0) tweaked the colors in the original for better contrast, converted the resulting image to grayscale, and adjusted the brightness and contrast to eliminate most of the greys. I limited myself to one spot color, rather than a full-color rendition to simplify the image and therefore reduce potential printing costs. The image I hoped to portray in the card was one of simple professionalism. The line of the hawk’s wings is echoed in the placement of the Sabanna River Publishers type, and the concept of freedom/flight is hopefully conveyed in the overall diagonal lines of the card. I first created the card in Photoshop, because it gave me better overall control of the placement of elements by using layers, then re-created it in Pagemaker for pin-point placement of individual letters and details.

Implications for future: This was a fun assignment, and I believe students would likely find it enjoyable, as well. Rather than carving their names into desks and writing them on walls, they can learn something about DTP while making a creative statement of their identity. A potential cross-curricular activity I've seen mentioned during research was to have students create business cards for fictional or historical characters they are studying. A business card should be a compact use of all the elements of composition, but it must also contain all the needed communication, so it becomes an interesting exercise in trading off bells and whistles for clearly and succinctly conveying a message.

Reviewer's Comments: Very professional looking. I liked the flow in the card, the simplicity of design, and the easy readability of the fonts . . . Your descriptions were informative and easy to understand.

Reviewer's Name: Sheryl A. Lamb

Date Reviewed: January 14, 2003

Title: TATC student

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Caption 7

Indicators:Standard IV, 7.1s, 7.3s, 7.4s, 7.5s, 7.10s, 7.14s, 7.15s, 7.16s, 7.17s, 7.18s, 7.21s, 7.22s, 7.24s, 7.25s, 7.28s, 7.29s, 7.30s, 7.31s, 7.33s, 7.34s, 7.35s, 7.37s, 7.39s, 7.43s, 7.45s, 7.46s, 7.47s, 7.48s, 7.49s, 8.1s, 8.13s, 8.14s, 8.15s, 8.17s, 8.22s, 8.24s, 8.25s, 8.30s, 8.31s, 8.35s, 8.36s, 8.40s, 8.43s, 8.44s, 8.45s, 9.3s, 9.20s, 9.21s, 9.24s, 9.26s, 9.39s, 9.41s, 9.42s, 10.1s, 10.37s, 11.2s, 11.10s, 11.12s, 11.23s, 11.24s,11.25s, 11.29s, 11.35s, 11.39s

Artifact #7

Descriptors: Desktop Publishing

Title: Newsletter

Course: Desktop Publishing

Date Created: January 30, 2003

Source: Individual Project using Adobe Pagemaker

Media: Adobe Pagemaker, Adobe Photoshop

Description: For this project we were to design a newsletter using information given in the two interactive guides for Module 2 in the Desktop Publishing course.

The requirements for the newsletter were as follows:

• attractive use of white space
• proximity, repetition, and graphics to enhance the readability
• a graphic masthead
• use of typography, headlines, pullquotes and columns to maximize print space.
  

Rationale: This activity allowed us to create a newsletter using information which essentially described effective elements of the piece. Being given the information to use helped the focus to be on the layout and design rather than the content. It was a relief not to have to compose articles, and concentrate on arranging the elements we were given.

Implications for future: For students, at least at first, it is difficult to separate one task from many. Giving them an assignment that basically says, "create your own newsletter" makes it too easy for some of them to get lost in the details of what the newspaper should say from what the newspaper should look like. This assignment eliminates the difficulty some students would have in creating their own copy, and, at the same time, the copy supplied provides reinforcement of the elements of newsletter design. This is a "keeper" that will be used in any desktop publishing class I teach.

Reviewer's Comments: I examined your layout and use of text formatting, and felt like a sponge taking in all of the options "I could've done". The sneak peek boxes for page content deeper into the document really caught my eye. I am curious why you stuck with the one main column for text, and a supporting column.
It follows the rule of 3rds vertically - and looks great.

Reviewer's Name: Paul Laux

Date Reviewed: January 20, 2003

Title: TATC Student

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