Week Four: Copyright Law, Plagiarism, & Ethical Issues

This week we learned how to design instructional media. The four most important points from it were to keep in mind: contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. For contrast, it's nice to provide wither a dark background with lighter font (like a black background with white font) or a light background with dark text (like a white background and black text). Also, if you are using a background with a picture, be sure to use a font that is dark enough to be read over it. For repetition, it's best to keep the same font type, size and backgrounds so that the slides are not too distracting and so that the readers are able to focus on the information presented. Alignment is another factor to think about because it can be distracting too, if text is scattered all over the slides. With titles, proximity is key because if there is not enough space between lines then the text will look squished together and if there is too much space it will be hard to follow.

I also learned that keeping slides simple is best. Word count per slide should be kept to a minimum and fancy fonts should be avoided or used only briefly. Using key words is best, instead of writing out whole sentences and boxes or borders are a good idea when you are trying to organize your thoughts. Anything below 28 font should be avoided because it is harder to read and when you are using graphics, it's best to use simple ones that are self explanatory. If they aren't essential to the presentation though, they should be avoided because they too can be distracting and sometimes too complicated to read unless explained. Also, they shouldn't be used as decoration which goes along with the idea of keeping slides simple. Animations and transitions are alright, but it's important to not overuse them.

Before giving the presentation, it is good to give a brief overview of the topic to engage the learners. After the presentation, it is important to do follow-up activities and relate the information to real world examples. Choose releveant examples, such as video clips, and be sure that you are informing and teaching and not simply entertaining.

This was good advice for future teachers. You always want to make sure that your students are focused on what is being taught and this presentation gave some good ideas about what I should and shouldn't do if I make a presentation to the class. A good point that stuck with me was that, just because it may look or sound fancy doesn't mean that it should be added to the presentation. Simplicty is oftentimes the best way to go.

I also learned about web resources and multimedia. These can also be helpful in the classroom because teachers can accomodate certain material to particualr students. Using this in the classroom is good because it provides a proactive learning environment and encourages students to be creative. While there are many positives about using multimedia in the classroom, there are some limitations. They tend to take up a lot of space and that is not always available in the classroom. Also, projects tend to take a lot of time and the school day doesn't usually allow that much time for them to get finished.

This video clip is interesting because it talks about incorporating technology into the curriculum from a teacher's point of view. They emphasize the importance of having teachers integrate technology because that is the way of the future. While technology is an important part of learning today, it is expensive and there isn't money available at most schools to implement it on a daily basis.

Technology in the Classroom