LibMedia+754+-+Advanced+Design+and+Production

University of Wisconsin-Whitewater LIBMEDIA 754 Summer 2007

Course Competencies and Artifacts
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 * ===**Program competency**=== || ===**WI DPI standards for professional licensure**=== || ===**AASL/ NCATE Standard**=== || ===**NBPTS**=== || === Possible artifacts === ||
 * Apply basic principles of instructional and message design to produce resources for specific learning objectives. Communicate complex and abstract concepts with elegance and clarity || P5A || 2C || 5 || Created with Dreamweaver, not all components of the website are still intact[[file:VirtualLibrary2.zip]] ||
 * Apply advanced technologies to design, develop and produce media in support of the library media and instructional programs || P5B || 2C || 5 || [[file:WebsiteReflection754.rtf]]
 * Teach ethical use of information and technology and respects and complies with intellectual property rights, laws and guidelines || P4B || 1C || 5 ||  ||

Final Reflection
For this class, we created a website for our library using Dreamweaver. The keys to a website that students will come back to is interactivity, ease of use (as few clicks as possible) and interest. The site I created used the Whitehorse logo, a bear claw, with the blue color that we have adopted as our school color. This easily identified for students where they were. Some of the special features used were a slideshow with pictures of library activities, a calendar, links to pages of interest like a Challenges page with games, and a current weather and local news feed. Shortly after this site was completed for class, my district moved to Drupal. I was able to carry some pages over into Drupal, but otherwise the site was abandoned. Much of what I learned from webpage creation could be applied in Drupal, as Drupal has a visual editor option which is similar to Dreamweaver. Although I am not proficient in html, I can now understand some code and I know how to pull code from other sources, if appropriate. Widgets were not as available as they are today, but there were some features available like the slideshows and news and weather feeds.

One of the artifacts is a web evaluation, a comparison of school sites I looked at. This is a crucial step before planning a site to see what features you like and don't like, the navigation, and what works and doesn't work. Perhaps the most important thing I learned through the development of the website is to plan your ideas out before beginning the site. Knowing how you want to categorize information and what you want the layout to look like before creating saves a lot of trouble. I found that it wasn't necessary to get fancy with the site, but more importantly have a clear plan so the page is easy for students to use. When working with teachers who want students to do a project that involves design I always talk to them about the importance of creating a storyboard or some way to think through their plan before jumping in.

Teaching students about the ethical use of information and technology is an on-going task, as they seem to forget from one project to another. We do a lot of Glogster projects now so I have had many more opportunities to repeat the expectations and guidlines of using information and technology. This is an area in which I would like to increase my knowledge and comfort. I attended a Games, Learning, and Society conference recently that had a workshop on copyright and technology as applied to mash-ups. While it was helpful, this is an area that I'm going to continue to focus on, especially the use of Creative Commons.