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Reflection
Finally. A chance to reflect. This would be the place to be profound, I suppose. ;)
As a new technology applications teacher at Seguin High School in South Arlington, I will get the chance to teach multimedia and webmastering to over 100 students, as well as Computer Science to another 50. The challenge has already begun with textbook selection, coordination of existing activities with new ones, and the creation of a syllabus for each class. Arlington has a large number of programs in place that will help me make it through this first year. TATC has provided the background in what is expected in each segment of a TA curriculum. I am looking forward to doing the real thing.
I - II - III - IV -
V
VII - VIII - IX - X - XI
Personal Reflection
I
Describing the uses and pervasiveness will be an easy exercise. Most kids are exposed to thousands of multimedia, web, interactive, and electronic communications throughout a standard day. Giving them the terminology to understand what is being done and WHY it is being done will help them along the road to understanding their reactions to those communications and how to respond to them. The next best thing: create those types of communications.
This standard is a favorite of mine. It describes the need to introduce students to the world of design, psychology, technology, emotions, and needs. Fun stuff.
II
Searching is an important part of the Internet and its usability. It is fairly easy to pursue a dead end of research for several hours (or even days). Students need to understand the different search engines and how they relate to searching. Once a nugget is found to evaluate, the following questions need to be asked:
- Is this what I was searching for? If not, will it do?
- What other terms are related to my goal that might lead me to other resources?
- Is this nugget true and/or does it support my conclusion/solve my problem/agree with what I know?
- What other resources does this nugget lead me to find?
Walking students through this will not be difficult. Most of the experienced internet surfers are already applying these questions without being told that they should. I say that now and will probably need a psychiatrist after this lesson.
III
Everything is not a nail, even if all that you have is a hammer. Students are not used to thinking in this way. Trained in an academic environment, using inductive and deductive tools, they will attempt to solve a problem directly. This is not always the best way to solve a problem.
Sometimes, Technology Applications is not a process of finding the right tools, but describing and modifying the solution to fit the requirements. There are several physical ways to do everything; being able understand requirements and concepts to apply to those requirements cannot obviate the latest and greatest tool set.
Preparing students to accept that a direct solution may not be possible is one of the foundations to my teaching style. The obvious answer is not always the correct one. What the requirements describe is what the customer wants, but what are the range of correct responses within what the customer wants? A solid knowledge of elements, principles, and general tool sets will guide the students towards making more complete and better decisions in development and creation.
IV
How many ways do I need to publish this thing? This standard is one of the easiest to meet, technically, but a curriculum could be difficult. In most real-life situations, there exists a singe target market or mechanism. In some cases, parts of a creation may be used in several places, such as logo or color theme, but the actual implementation can not look the same in print, on the web, or displayed on a TV screen. Interesting problem.
V
Four of the artifacts included in this portfolio relate directly to a course of instruction, rather than a "proof of skills". The DTP Flyer Unit Lesson, the NISD/ESCXI Web Site, the Flyer Unit Lesson, and the Digital Graphics Unit Lesson are my greatest achievements.....at least in my own mind, These lessons were related directly to TEKS, student instruction, and the process of delivery.
VII
Desktop Publishing was (and is) fun to do and presented some unique challenges during TATC. I had never taught people how to create documentation and layouts for reports as I had created them. Also, my experience with non-paginating, desktop layout software was limited. Exploring the differences between PageMaker and Freehand was an experience; PageMaker won the battle. I will continue to use PageMaker for specific tasks, as well as Microsoft Word and Adobe Distiller for the foreseeable future (barring dramatic software company changes, which is always a possibility).
VIII
I had extensive exposure to digital graphics and animation before TATC; however, most of the tasks that I had performed were directly related to the creation of web graphics. TATC gave me the chance to explore the other output methods of my digital graphics software and present them for evaluation. This was extremely helpful for enhancing my desktop publishing skills and building up high-quality animations.
IX
Multimedia was a challenge. The creation of "real life" lessons was an excellent exercise and helped me to understand the steps that students will need to take to create these animations. The problem that I encountered, and hopefully solved, was: how to relate the final product - not the steps to get there but the actual creation - to something useful in the students' lives and activities. All web sites need banner ads, even if the advertisement is for something related to the site itself. Therefore, allow the students to create animated banners using professional specifications for football games, dances, yearbooks, and meetings. Nothing original, I'm sure, but useful.
X
Video Technology ended up involving my entire family....even the dog. Our video was fun to make and strengthened my conviction that pre-work is the most important part of any video element. If you don't know what you are making, how can you tell everyone what needs to be done?
XI
Webmastering is old hat for me. I enjoyed working on style sheets and methods for teaching the skills. In most cases, I am sure that I will be talking the students down from the ledge of "bleeding edge technology" to ensure that their pages can be read by anyone, anywhere.
Personal Reflection
I have been challenged and rushed throughout this year; it has been a large amount of work. The most satisfying part of the process has been seeing the creations of my classmates - their ideas on teaching and learning technology applications, their creations, and how they helped one another through problems. To them...thank you. They were excellent teachers.
TEKS are a curriculum director's dream and a documentation nightmare. I have worked through the TEKS for TATC, as well as Computer Science and Math. In ALL cases, they describe the actions and thought processes that a student should be able to perform. Keeping up with all of them during a school year will be a challenge. I guess that is an activity to fill my summer days.