National Educational Technology Standards

NETS 1: Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

Teachers use their knowledge of subject matter, teaching and learning, and technology to facilitate experiences that advance student learning, creativity, and innovation in both face-to-face and virtual environments. Teachers:

a. promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.

Many of the projects I incorporate into my graphic design class demonstrate mastery of this standard but one which I feel best represents creative, innovative thinking and inventiveness is the Arts Institutes poster competition. This past year's theme was "You can create tomorrow" where students used the Adobe product(s) of choice to create a design which they felt best represented the theme. This assignment was originally created several years ago after a representative of the Art Institutes came to speak to our students and introduced us to the competition. Working with my digital media peers, we developed this assignment with a focus on our curriculum objectives that center around design principles and the creative design process. While students had to use applicable Adobe products, the focus of this assignment was on the student's ability to develop a poster which was creative, original and innovative. A rubric is used to evaluate student work (see assignment sheet) based on curriculum objectives. Working as a professional learning community, my digital media team routinely examines major assignments and student products once a unit is complete. In addition, student reflections are also used to gain feedback. Feedback is also received from our digital media advisory committee made up of professionals in the digital media field.

b. engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.

One project in my graphic design class that I feel best fits the "real world" of a graphic designer is the business set assignment. This assignment has been a part of our curriculum for many years, however, several years ago, after learning that students in the business management and ownership classes were required to complete a business plan for their own fictitious company, we decided to collaborate and have the graphic design students develop a logo and business set for the companies created in the business management class. Business management students presented the summary to the graphic design students who then designed several logos to present to the business owners (students). Owners then gave their suggestions and recommendations, designers then modified and then completed the pieces making up the business set (letterhead, envelope, business card, Facebook event icon). Students in both courses get the experience of working in a simulated working environment. As with the Art Institute assignment in 1a above, a rubric is used to evaluate student work, the digital media team works together to re-assess the assignment after the unit, and our advisory team also provided feedback on the assignment.

c. promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.

One of the primary objectives in my graphic design class is for students to "apply design principles and elements" to their work product. I have struggled over the years in developing an assignment that effectively teaches and reinforces the design principles and what they mean. In my 9440 Learning with the Internet class, I discovered Pinterest.com, a virtual pinboard, and was so excited to incorporate this collaborative tool into one of the design principles reinforcement assignments. As the final project in my 9440 class, I fully developed all aspects of this project that met "meaningful learning" criteria including intended users, the purpose of the project, learning outcomes, course objectives, evaluative tools, and state and national standards (ISTE NETS). In addition, I was able to actually use the assignment in my class and the students loved it. Students searched for and found quality artifacts representing each principle, defined how the principle was reflected, and then commented on peer submissions as well (see example). A rubric was used to assess student understanding. I was amazed at the student response. They were all very enthusiastic about using Pinterest.com for this type of activity so I incorporated it into several other assignments throughout the rest of the year.

d. model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

Throughout every course in this TIS program I engaged in collaborative knowledge construction via virtual environments. Though I had previously used Blackboard and Angel (a learning management system similar to Blackboard) in my own classroom, I had never been the student taking an online course. Not only did I gain experience as a student in an online environment, the makeup of most every course had a collaborative focus where, at the least, I interacted with other classmates virtually through discussion boards. In 9471 Instructional Systems Design, we used Voicethread to introduce ourselves. It was my first attempt at recording and posting my voice in an audio format. We also posted one of our group projects so other classmates could provide feedback about the project, either in text or audio format. In the same course, my final ISD group project focused entirely on Adobe Buzzword, an online word processor that allows multiple users to collaborate on text documents and review and comment on them online (similar to Google Docs). Our group worked on this project solely through Buzzword and email. In this way, we were able to revise, edit, critique and refine each others' contributions.