Casilda's Latina Blog Spot

2005-10-22T07:24:00.000-07:00

Chapter 6: The Design of Learning Environments
I think Figure 6.1 is a great illustration summazing this chapter: the alignment of four perspectives: Learner-centered, knowledge-centered, assessment-centered, and community-centered. It is important to not only help students make connections to their previous knowledge and their current academic tasks but also to provide them with 1) well-organized knowledge that is accessible in appropriate contexts, 2) assessments that reflect learning goals, and 3)an environment that promotes a sense of community.

With that said, when designing an educational learning site should you incorporate assessments for your learners to evaluate themselves according to what they learn from your site? Secondly, in documenting learner characteristics, I would think that it is then that you look at design from a learner-centered perspective, the question is, is that when you also look at your site from a community-centered perspective? Shouldn't you be looking at a learner's community ALWAYS as you define the learner's characteristics? Lastly, when designing your site, when should you think about the knowledge-centered perspective? If this perspective means that there exists a need to help students become knowledgeable in ways that lead to understanding and subsequent transfer, then isn't that tied to the level of interactivity that you incorporate into your site? Isn't that tied to the way you actually design the site and the functionalities you use within it - the overall design principle you use to build your site?

2005-10-22T06:43:00.000-07:00

Storyboarding:
A. This was such a good short read,lessons learned: video is best to depict action, still photos are best for emphasizing strong emotion, animated graphics show how things work, text combined with photos are best for a history of a story, text combined with graphics are best for describing a process. As I think about my project, women in aviation, I see that combining text with photos are best for the history of their stories. Since one of my key goals is to promote an emotional impact, I've learned that still photos are best for strong emotions; my question is, I saw a site for the Kodak Olympics and the developer did something, I hadn't seen before, instead of displaying animations, they took still photos and moved the lens around the photo highlighting key points of the photo and simultaneously added audio as the lens moved, it had quite an impact. After seeing this, I don't agree that still photos are best for emphasizing a strong emotion, I think that it would be more effective to tap into Mayer's Multimedia Principle of Learning and strive to reach out to the user's additional senses, in a balanced fashion of course, taking cognitive load into account.
B. I like the thought of giving the user a level of interactivity, I would probably go the nonlinear route vs. the linear route. Question, is nonlinear the same as hierarchical? If nonlinear gives the user the option to choose which elements of the story to read or view in any order and hierarchical gives the reader the option to navigate the website in their own fashion, with a link back to the homepage on every page, then I would think that nonlinear and hierarchical are the same, is that correct?

2005-10-22T06:34:00.000-07:00

The Design of Everyday Things
Being someone who realizes that if we know the history behind computers and application development then we are in a better place for future application development initiatives, I thought this was a great article. I like the metaphor of the computer being a chameleon, changing shape and outward appearance to match the situation hence the goal of developing a website, to create an environment where the computer seems invisible. I would think that if you design properly, with cognitive load in mind, and balance audio, graphics, text, illustrations, then you should be able to create an environment where the user is "actually using a computer, but feels as if they are using an appointment calendar;" however, how can you best measure that you've accomplished that. More and more I realize that there is always room for improvement as you develop, at what point do you say, I've created an environment that is effective? or is the goal to constantly seek feedback since both technology and work processes that need technology are in a continuous pace of change?

2005-10-22T06:27:00.000-07:00

Site Design:
A. From the reading I understand that the fundamental web site design is meeting users' needs, hence the need to talkk to people who make up the audience and making the items and services they want the most prominent items on the home page; however, what if you are designing a site to "pitch" for development. What if, as part of reviewing a workflow process from an efficiency standpoint, you decide that leveraging technology to communicate better and a website is the way to go and you cannot meet with users? Is the concept then to build, storyboard, and just do rapid prototype based on your assumption of the user, creating enough of a starting point where they see where you are headed and are able to provide feedback? You might think it is an easy question and respond yes, but what if you users are experienced subject matter experts and you run the risk of placing a prototype in front of them that is totally off-target, how do you handle?
B. Chunking can help organize and present information in a uniform format; however, how do you best chunk information if your users are novice and don't have past experience to apply and are unable to predict how an unfamiliar section of a Web site will be organized? Is the key linking chunking to a web site that is designed consistently across all pages?

2005-10-08T10:32:00.000-07:00

Initial thoughts on my DRAFT PROSPECTUS:

Aviation has always been a keen interest of mine. As a pilot and member of wai.org, it has been my experience that technology hasn't been leveraged most effectively to tell the story of the pioneer women in aviation who paved the way. I would like to develop a site that communicates more effectively the first women pioneers in aviation and highlights not only their accomplishments but also the obstacles they had to face, e.g., Bessie Coleman was the first african american women to be a pilot who had to deal with both the women and african american civil rights movement of her time. If you go to wai.org, they currently have a hall of fame, but it is text heavy and has few pictures, I want to provide a site that communicates these women's accomplishments and obstacles more effectively resulting in a "enhanced" level of impact.

2005-10-08T08:32:00.000-07:00

Casilda's Latina Blog Spot

Page Design Article comments:

I thought this article provided great insight, e.g., the fact that long web pages do have their advantages such as being easier for creators to organize and for users to download, the fact that you only have 45 sq. inches "above the fold" at the top of your page to capture the average reader. These were items I wasn't aware of, hadn't considered in the past, and which can have a tremendous impact on your target audience.

How do you enforce repetition when your content doesn't allow standardization, e.g., you are creating two different pages for different concepts, e.g., one concept can be linked to an illustration and another doesn't have the ability to be displayed as an illustration.

If you decide to design a site where the homepage has your navigation bar vertically and when you click on one of the links it takes you to a page and simultaneously moves the same navigation bar to be horizontally, then are you enforcing repetition?

How do you balance the safe dimensions for printing with the safe dimensions for the minimum screen size?