Unit 6 Visual Activity

10 Basics of Photography

http://www.photobucket.com/edtechbeheler

Unit 5 Visual Activity

I wanted to create a fun graphic to display the top 5 batting averages of all-time in Major League Baseball. My target audience would be young children/students/Little League players ages 7-10. The goal would be to give them historical perspective on the game of baseball, to help them realize that it wasn't born with Alex Rodriguez in the mid 1990's. Based on the younger audience, I attemped to make the image fun/baseball related. However, I'm thinking I may have to go to a more direct approach with a bar graph type set-up. Which do you think would be more suitable?


Revised Image


Justification: The only chapter of this unit was Chapter 6, which focused on the organization principles of hierarchy. Based on feedback and my own internal thoughts as I was working through this unit, I realized that my first image didn't adhere to solid hierachy principles. It was a bit cartoonish. Therefore, I opted to remove the chartjunk and focus on the numbers in as flashy, yet direct a way as possible. On page 139, the text has several rules that I followed in the re-design: use rounded numbers when detail is not needed, keep numbers a readable distance apart, and avoiding chartjunk.

Original image/Revised image

The first image is what came with the textbook for use with 7th grade students in Texas who are studying Texas History. This drab black/white image needed quite a bit of selection help to improve it's overall quality. Space, color, and depth could really make the different sections pop and stand out from one another. That was my goal with the revised image, do you think they stand out?

We spend an entire 6-week period building the connections between the distinct geography of each section of Texas and the history that took place there. My goal is to use the revised image to keep the students organized as well as invested.

Usability Comments:
I think you definitely achieved your goal. I really like the white borders. I think that is the key to your image and makes the regions pop. I would suggest a border around the entire image and title to encapsulate and focus the eyes of the learner. Nice job!

Chapter Justifications
Chapter 5: I found the mini-lesson to be much more applicable to my needs for this week's lesson. It honed in on the specific parts of figure-ground ideas and enabled me to develop the proper perception needed with my images. Based on this principle, I was able to make the most important aspects of my visual pop, therefore enhancing my figure and reducing my ground.

Chapter 11: When working with the revised image, I knew it needed some color. After studying the color basics taught in Chapter 11 on page 271, I decided to go with an analaogous pattern. This is to show that while the regions are different, they are also vitally connected and make up pieces of a bigger whole.

Challenge Activity Revised

Description:
My project is two-fold. The music image is utilized to teach an audience of students in grades 6-10 that music can be found anywhere. My partner's usability comments were to change the font to something more serif based, but I wanted to keep them the same based on Dr. Lohr's suggestion to use one of the three basic font styles (ie. Georgia) for a clean look. However, based on the usability feedback, I made some slight alterations to font style. The second image is intended for students in grades 3-5. It is to be used when teaching about the way architectural letters are found in many different types of places, even football stadiums for instance. Due to the usability feedback, I tweeked the font and italic nature of the "o" accompanying the image.

Original Images:
http://edtechbeheler.blogspot.com/2009/07/challenge-activity.html

Usability comments:

"I love the music theme. I would say a more script like font might work a bit better with the musical clip art. The sax definitely has a flowing serif feel to it. Overall, I think you totally nailed the concept for this assignment.

I love the birds eye perspective on your image and I think it will work for the proposed assignment. My only comment would be to find a font or use italics to match the slant of the stadium. Other than that small criticism nice job."




Chapter 8: I used the elements of alignment, contrast, repetition and proximity as noted on pg. 195-197 of the text. Alignment is especially vital in the 2nd football stadium image because the edges are critical to conveying the point of the lesson. Contrast is essential in the first image, as noted on page 201, there needs to be differences established while keeping the overall flow intact.

Chapter 9: With the information from this chapter, I was attempting to get maintain the overall instructional typography notions mentioned throughout the chapter while especially concentrating on the readability aspects in the music image. Readability (page 225) is defined as how easy it is to read a lot of text...and although this was just one word, I wanted to make sure it flowed.

Challenge Activity

I think the learner for this image falls within a wide range of people as music is universal and timeless. However, I would chose to focus this image on the target learning audience of students in grades 6-10. I would use it to showcase the idea that music can be found in anything. Do you think it showcases that idea? I was thinking of maybe making each letter into something representing music, but didn't want it to be overkill. Do you think that would be a wise choice?


This second image is of a state of the art football stadium. The target learner for this image is a student in grade 3-5. I would use it to make the connection we've been asked to make in this assignment (finding letters in everyday architecture) on a more basic level, and possibly even tie it into a history lesson down the line. Do you think the image is effective in achieving this?

Unit 2 Image-Revised

My project is intended for secondary level science students, grades 8-12. It is to be used as a refresher on the steps of the Scientific Method. Based on the usability feedback from my partner, I cleaned the overall design up, added some pop to the color and font. And, just generally tried to make the image better. I had a good framework, but it needed some tweaking. Thanks to my partner's attention to detail, I was able to make this a really cool image for use in explaining the steps of the Scientific Method.

Here is a link to my partner's comments: http://edtechbeheler.blogspot.com/2009/06/unit-2-usability.html#comments

Here is a link to my first image: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiuIK36-hMm2rDehqEGF6cBtyj5fmKy3OEcj8KfVf5RIWVMlx3rwspjzqWgHyxRm3scIo4OaayakOA4MFM2QyDi4KDg_XxIbtr2UOd31e2hE4Y1rQRct0WAy6Nl7VtHKmbtBkt9UCBkRmE/s1600-h/Unit+2+Image.JPG

Chapter 3: I feel as though my revised image is designed to enable quick recall and easy grasping.

Chapter 10: Through my revisions, I was able to go from a mix of shapes to a symmetrical series of squares that make the image powerful.

Unit 2-Usability

The above image would be used in a Science course with grades 8-12 as a refresher on the Scientific Method process. While circles are known to show unity, I chose to use squares to reinforce the notion that Science requires specific steps to arrive at a conclusion. The arrows were added to display the relational aspects of each step. Due to the inherent knowledge of my target audience, germane load should be dramatically increased as they would have a solid base of knowledge with this subject.

Welcome!

This summer marks the end of my 2nd year in the EdTech program. I am transitioning from a position at the secondary level next school year to work with younger children in grades 5-6. I am excited about this prospect. I am married and have two dogs. I am heavily involved in the music business and manage a band in my spare time. I love sports and am a die-hard fan of the Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Texas Longhorns.