EDLD+5366

Course Embedded Assignment Reflection

Using Google Sites has been an eye-opening experience for me. I have collaborated with my school Technology instructors using Google Sites, and found it to be a bit confusing and cumbersome. After collaboration with our Lamar team and thoroughly exploring the capabilities, I have found it much easier than expected. There were some issues with updating the site, changing spacing and alignment, and choosing from a limited array of designs. Overall, our team, Jennifer Wilkins Colvin, Turkessa Robinson, Robert Heck, Michelle Tidwell, and myself found it easy to manipulate and work together on Google.docs.

As our team had worked well together on two other projects, we chose to enlist each other’s help again. We added another team member who was beneficial in her understanding of technology applications and added many helpful sites to our Web pages. Working online with Google.docs simultaneously designing the Web pages and chatting about our ideas has become my number one choice of meeting and collaborating. I find it much more productive and each team member’s strengths are identified and used accordingly. A team member may work individually and meet at appointed times to review and discuss changes for finalizing the project. We began our work early in the weeks and completed the assignment before schedule, mostly due to our leadership and her ability to keep us on track and involved. I know understand how important it is to be consistent in communication and stick to a timeline. I will be using Google.doc as a means to communicate with my teachers and as a tool to design projects and lessons. I find it extremely valuable and much more time effective that holding in-house meetings.

In working with the design of the digital newsletter, I found myself using the design strategies studied during this course. I concentrated specifically on the contrast element as stated, “we notice contrast before we notice anything else” (Yearwood, 2009). We changed colors and hues several times before agreeing on blue, grey, and gold. Using the idea of designing each page where your eye stops three to four times was a helpful guide.

Through this experience, I feel the group project was necessary to hear others’ input and ideas as well as solve any technical difficulties, however, I believe I would have gained more of an understanding of the entire set-up process if I had been asked to work individually. Much of the organization had been completed prior to our group beginning the design portion. I will need to revisit the exercise on my own before I take it to my teachers and parents. At present, I use mass emailing to notify my parents of upcoming news. For the upcoming year, I will be designing a digital newsletter for parents to access on their own accord. My students will be asked to help with updating the newsletter, as well. I will be a collaborative year-long project.

Collaborating with techers helps me to understand differences in teaching and learning and I will continue to incorporate teamwork with my student, as well. Using digital and web based tools, students will be able to problem solve and use inquiry and reflection problem based learning. “The 21st century will require knowledge generation, not just information delivery, and schools will need to create

a ‘culture of inquiry’ (“What is 21st Century Education,” 2008).

Yearwood, J. (2009). Basic design principles. Retrieved from

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What is 21st century education? (2008). 21st Century Schools. Retrieved from []

Assignment 1.2

**The Lisbon Bible**


 * At first, I am struck by the contrast of the green and gold on the cover and the structured alignment of bars bordering repeated circles, bordering squares. Gold Hebrew stars are placed in all corners and repeated, again, in the interior squares with one large centrally placed gold star. My eye was drawn to all stars immediately, leaving no question as to the content within the book, although there was no title.**
 * As the page is turned, one notices the gold handwritten script spaced in neat and even rows, and aligned on the left of each page. A pinkish rectangle highlights enlarged text, on every page, drawing attention to seemingly important areas or subtitles. Bordering each page are colorful flowers with repeating petals and leaves and alternating colors of burgundy, green and blue. Birds and other animals are placed towards a corner and seem to be more random. My eye is drawn to the birds’ tail feathers that seem to go off the page. The following pages are designed to draw the reader in to the text without much distraction of flower and animal designs. The words, letters, and sentences are written in close proximity to each other and aligned in two equal columns with equal spacing around the borders; with little decorative leaves in the borders, causing the reader to read carefully and states the text is the most important aspect of the page. All text is exactly the same size and font, with only the purple title? in the midst of the passages. Repeating colors of purple, gold, and green make up the decorative borders giving a rich and noble appearance to the pages.**