Another 3 after this week...

So here we are, closing in on the last four weeks of web design. I'm starting to feel a little bit more comfortable about the process of design, but I still have some hesitation in regards to having to create an entire website. Reading about information architecture got me to start thinking about the story board that we are supposed to be creating within the next few weeks. Whether it's creating tabs or data tables, it's good to know the options for design that will help to make the website most efficient and beneficial for users. I think that the pieces that we were asked to scan will help to kind of serve as a guide for design which is a bit of a relief.

In reading the Bransford articles I felt that the two worlds of web design and Educational technology have finally merged. I thought that Brandford's writings practical ways in which teachers and learners alike would be able to benefit from incorporating technology into the classroom, in addition to being able to contribute to the field by assisting designers in creating sites that would assist users. I thought that the assignment that was designed for students to have to communicate via internet technology to depict images in order to better their writing skills was brilliant. I never realized that the web, and more importantly e-mail, could be so beneficial in assisting learners to become more thorough and efficient in their work. I was under the impression that programs could be created in order to assist with such interests, but the mere act of communicating via internet with a stranger and trying to recreate documents without ever seeing a person, hearing intonation in their voice, or noting their physical movements, would allow them to communicate and better try to understand one another. This excercise was a perfect example of theory that discusses learner centered environments. I really appreciated the diagram that pointed how learning center, knowledged center, and assessment centered worlds all intersect to affect community - another point made by the article that I found to be accurate.

It's also true that contrary to popular belief, technology does not rid of us of old systems of technology, but rather expands upon the possibilities to utilize such processes and programs. For example, being able to research in the library, while it has been replaced by computers to a very large extent, students are now able to view online databases and take out books without ever having to leave their rooms!

In closing, I thought I would leave off with one quote that made me chuckle - not because of its context within the piece, but because I thought it may have directly applied to the place I am at now in the class. The quote reads as follows, "technology can help to ceate an active environment while students not only solve their own problems, but also find their own problems." I just found that highly appropriate because not only have I been able to display increased knowledge regarding understanding web design, but I've also been able to confuse myself to a much larger extent.

That's all for now.

Later,

Maya