National Educational Technology Standards
NETS 2: Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessment incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS. Teachers:
a. design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
In my graphic design class, one of the student projects is to redesign a book jacket for an existing book. Students are to utilize a design process to develop a new jacket design, then use the appropriate Adobe software to create their concept. In 9458 Technology and Assessment, I was able to re-evaluate and refine this project using the GRASPS task design process (Goal, Role, Audience, Situation, Product, performance and purpose, and Standards and criteria for success). While I believe it was a quality assignment prior to the re-evaluation, I was able to identify areas of weakness in the original assignment and strengthen the overall performance assessment. Identifying and answering the essential questions of the assignment (Where do designers get their ideas? How do effective designers capture the attention of their intended audience? In what ways can technology enhance expression/communication? How do I choose which technological tools to use and when it is appropriate to use them? How can I transfer what I know to new technological situations/experiences? When are the most sophisticated tools required and when are the simplest tools best?) helped me to focus on the true objectives of the assignment. When grading the student work, I found grading with the revised rubric much easier, realistic and reflective for the students than the original rubric.
b. develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
Most all assignments in both my digital media and graphic design classes are authentic learning experiences that allow students to be active participants in their own learning but one that immediately came to mind as I thought about this standard is the documentary video project in my digital media course. Prior to assigning this project, students learn how to record and edit audio, capture video footage, cut and trim audio and video, create motion effects (zooms and pans) typically used in documentaries, apply transitions, etc. all using Adobe Premiere. After learning the software, students watch videos from previous years of varying degrees of quality. Using the standards-based rubric for the assignment, students discuss what makes each video a quality video or what could be done to improve the quality of the work. I firmly believe spending one class period evaluating previous student work helps students understand what an effective, educational, entertaining documentary should look like. The students are then assigned to create their own documentary video focusing on a historical person, place or event. Within those parameters, students get to choose their topic, research and collect their footage (photos, video, text), write their script, and compile it into a 60-90 second video. They then put it all together, adding music, narration, special effects, titles, and rolling credits. While students have to follow a rubric that requires them to meet specific objectives, how they show mastery of those objectives is all individualized. This is an example of one of the better documentaries produced this past school year on the Joplin, Missouri tornado.
c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
As a teacher of elective courses in a very large secondary education high school, I have a classroom of multi-cultural, multi-age students with very diverse learning styles and learning needs. I have access to many resources but I also have to be very creative in my instruction. When teaching new software, I first model the specific tool/technique so that students can see how to perform the specific task by using Vision software, a classroom management software program that pushes what I am demonstrating on my computer to each student's desktop. I then ask the students to follow along with me. In my classroom I have the luxury of dual monitors at each work station so students can watch my demonstration on one monitor while they perform the task with me on the other. Instructional videos of all learning units are recorded using Camtasia (screen capture and voice recording) software and are available for students who are absent during the presentation or for students who need additional reinforcement after the demonstration. Students also receive written instructions on how to perform the specific tool/technique. This is an excerpt from an instructional video created for managing layers in Adobe Illustrator and the corresponding written information and instructions. By providing modeling, instructional videos and written instructions, students receive instruction in a variety of ways for all instructional units.
d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.
The curriculum in both my digital media course and my graphic design course has been structured so that exercises assigned during the learning component of each unit serve as formative assessment while end-of-unit projects and quizzes are summative in nature. For example, after demonstrating and modeling the open and closed path tools in Adobe Illustrator, students complete this formative assessment. Students use the specified tools to recreate what appears on the dimmed template. From this exercise, I am able to determine whether they are comprehending the instruction and whether additional instruction is needed. There will be several of these types of formative assessment approaches throughout the unit. In addition, I make use of SMART Notebook and the Senteo clicker system to monitor student knowledge of the terminology used throughout each unit. For each unit, I have developed several short assessments such as this one that I use to quickly determine if students are comprehending the terminology. For the summative component, students complete a project and then take a multiple choice test over terminology using Angel (a learning management system like Blackboard) and a performance test where they have to show mastery of the unit objectives.