Internship+5388+-+Week+3

In week three Dr. Abernathy answered questions in reference to the internship. It seems that the same questions are being asked and answered. During this web conference a few were confused as to whom their logs needed to be turned into. I did not have any questions to ask so I just read others comments and listened to Dr. Abernathy's input, answers and advice.
 * __PART 3.1: WEB CONFERENCE__**


 * __PART 3.2: COMPREHENSIVE EXAM__**

**__PART 3.3: EDLD 5368 INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN__**

Instructional Design covered the following standards: II, III, IV, and V. I gained the knowledge of finding my student weaknesses for a website in their benefit. In this course I learned of a new program online known as Schoology. I did not know anything of this capacity existed. For long I had asked people of a resource such as Schoology. When I used the program in Instructional Design, I knew this was going to be a resource that I could definitely implement at my school. I would say that I was most excited about the link not being blocked by my district from a school computer. Using my research of student weakness, I was able to build a course to assist the students and myself with course material. I have now been asked by my school liaison to design and perform a staff development on Schoology that would educate others of this free online source. I have yet to find anything puzzling or confusing. As far as further research I look forward to analyzing my new 2010-2011 student’s weaknesses for implementation of assistive Web 2.0 resources. __What have I learned (Discussions/Readings): __ I have heard much about the different learning theories, but I have yet to take time and try to fully understand them. I am currently looking for schooling for my son so this is very helpful in doing so. From assignments, video and readings I find that I am far from what I thought I was. It turns out that my beliefs used to lean towards behaviorism. According to a video lecture, behaviorism is where learning is observed as a direct result of a correct response, consequence, or reinforcement of learning behaviors. I am now leaning more towards cognitive and constructivism theories. The survey I took for the course shows that my teaching goals are applied and rote, and my teaching methods involve cooperative groups and is symbolic. The student survey provided by the course shows that the majority of my students are auditory learners. I was extremely shocked when I found these results because I always find my students as entirely too sleepy when I apply this method. After doing some reading and understanding of the different learning styles and theories I found that my auditory learners may read, summarize and recite information. According to Dabbah. N. (2006), "Diagnostic teaching provides an example of starting from the structure of a child’s knowledge. The information on which to base a diagnosis may be acquired through observation, questioning and conversation, and reflection on the products of student activity. A key strategy is to prompt children to explain and develop their knowledge structures by asking them to make predictions about various situations and explain the reasons for their predictions." This seems to be a great method for my auditory learners. Through the process of surveys and the assignments I feel that cognitivism is the best route for most of my students. According to Learning Theories Knowledge Base (2010, March), "Learner is viewed as an active participant in the learning process." I feel that as long as I actively involve my students in various methods of learning to incorporate all of their learning needs, my students should be successful in my course. They do have to do their part of course. Dabbah. N. (2006). The instructional design knowledge base. Retrieved on April 17, 2010, from  @http://classweb.gmu.edu/ndabbagh/Resources/IDKB/models_theories.htm Learning Theories Knowledge Base (2010, March). at Learning-Theories.com. Retrieved April 17, 2010 from  http://www.learning-theories.com Bransford, J., Brown, A., & Cocking, R. (Ed.). (2000). How people learn. Pp. 129-154 (Chapter 6). Washington DC: National Academy Press. Retrieved April 17, 2010 from  @http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=9853

I personally see a difference in the three statements, "Students should really understand", "Internalize knowledge", and "Grasp the core of essence". I see that students who really understand may not really understand. According to Wiggins and Grant (2000), "Yet the idea of //understanding// is surely distinct from the idea of //knowing// something." To understand something does not mean that you will know it for a lifetime. I may understand how to compute a math problem one minute and be oblivious to the start of the computation the second time. To internalize knowledge seems to me more like knowing. When something is internalized it can be seen as programmed, for example, internal memory in a computer. To grasp the core of essence seems to be the worst to me. I see it as when someone grasps something it does not necessarily mean that they know. The word grasp to me is similar to barely. When a student understands in my classroom he normally responds to questions and will complete all assigned problems. When he does not understand, he usually stays quite or does not complete all given problems. He also may not be as talkative amongst others. To be honest, my definition of understanding is just simply do they get it. If they do well on their homework, quizzes and tests, then they understand in my book. Now that I have done some reading, I do not see understanding as the same word. I now see understand as knowing. I do not want my students to understand anymore. Unlike how Wiggins and Grant (2005) explain, "Students know how to solve problems that involve constant speed and average speed," I want them to be able to dig back years from now and still know how to solve a math problem analytically and not only systematically. Wiggins, Grant, and Jay McTighe. Understanding By Design. 2nd ed. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Develop, 2000. Print.

I design my lessons most differently now than ever before. When I first started teaching I would design my lessons according to the district's curriculum and used the textbook. This year, my students do not have textbooks nor an online source leaving me to worksheets. I designed and aligned my lessons again with the district's curriculum, but this time I used many online resources for classroom work and assignments. Towards December I realized that my students need much more TAKS preparation than what I was giving them. I then decided to work backwards. I took their results from last year and released testing from this year and did a complete SE/objective breakdown. With these results I then had the students work with workbooks that broke down each objective focusing on TEKS in which each individual is weak. I helped the students locate target areas so that they would not focus on an area that was too weak to fix in a short amount of time. On other days we would play games such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire, Jeopardy, Hollywood Squares, etc. that would cover one objective at a time. We would sometimes incorporate activotes. The activotes allowed me to see if the students understood the question being asked. According to Wiggins and McTighe (2000), "Like people in other design professions, such as architecture, engineering, or graphic arts, designers in education must be mindful of their audiences. Professionals in these fields are strongly client-centered. The effectiveness of their designs corresponds to whether they have accomplished explicit goals for specific end-users." With this said, I feel this is the same theory I now have for my students. They are my audience, and I have to figure out their weaknesses and how I can make my material "student-centered". As Wiggins and McTighe (2000) state, "Our lessons, units, and courses should be logically inferred from the results sought, not derived from the methods, books, and activities with which we are most comfortable." In total, it's a form of backwards design. I'm taking their results and tailoring assignments that will conform best to each student.

Wiggins, G. & McTighe, J. (2000). //Understanding by Design.// Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Online education is not often used in my classroom along with others on my campus. Most of the online resources we used have been blocked by the district. The district planned on giving us websites this past fall, but we just gained access to them. We had a brief twenty minute training on the websites. I do not really like the sites because every teacher in the school will have the exact same layout. The webpage does not give the teacher an opportunity to be creative. As for the campus we do not offer online courses, but we do offer virtual classes through the district for summer school. Now that I have been introduced to Schoology I see this as source that I may be able to use. I like that it looks similar to Facebook. Students are already familiar with the looks of Facebook.

The staff development that I feel teachers need are similar to this online course. If you really want teachers to do something out of the ordinary you need to give them time to process and learn the new given technology. If we could create an online class such as this for teachers that allows them to actually use the resource then the teachers may actually use it in their classrooms. It would also be a five week staff development. According to a study by Oliver, Townsend and Brady, teachers were given staff development as a virtual school and were told to think about Web 3.0. The authors (2010) stated, "The virtual school explicitly encouraged teachers to think big and plan for Web 3.0 virtual interfaces for their courses – perhaps the most technically challenging aspect of course design. When teams were asked to define Web 3.0 and give examples of items they incorporated into their courses that fit the definition, all eight teams described Web 3.0 as a virtual world environment; six teams noted students would navigate these environments with a personal avatar; and three teams noted the environments would be graphical and game-like."

Online learning can either be positive or negative. From my personal experience with online learning from different schools is that first one must be disciplined. Online learning takes a lot of time out of one's schedule if not paced appropriately. A good aspect of this online learning is the use of webcams and chatting resources. My other online courses only allowed a question and answer forum similar to this discussion board. Now, how do I feel online learning will impact the business world depends. From asking various people their opinion, I was told that online learning has not helped them in the business world because they did not practice the communication aspect of business. Since everything was online they did not have to communicate with others. On the other hand, others state that it worked well with their schedule and taught them time management and self-discipline. So I guess I'm a bit torn in my descision as to the impact on the business world. I will say though that the business world moves fast, and online learning too moves quickly. Oliver, K., Kellogg, S., Townsend, L., & Brady, K. (2010). Needs of elementary and middle school teachers developing online courses for a virtual school. //Distance Education//, //31//(1), 55-75. doi:10.1080/01587911003725022.

__Course Reflections: __ What benefits do you see in educators knowing how to design and implement online learning? In today's society it is beneficial for educators to know how to design and implement online learning. Students of the 21st century are tech-savvy. They often use online sources to help them navigate some of humans most desired needs such as social networking. If a teacher can design and implement instruction online, students who spend most of their day online may benefit. For example, Schoology, an online resource that allows for teachers to create lessons online. This online site looks very familiar to the format of Facebook. With this said, students can easily relate to the use of site. They are able to make and join groups, network, and most of all view their assignments and announcements. Schoology is very user-friendly and offers technical support. Providing instruction online also benefits those students who lack the attention span needed to sit through a fifty minute lecture. Online instruction offers teachers the opportunity to reach all learners through a variety of methods. Group projects can be collaborated both in the classroom and online. This benefits those students who do not have time after school, or do not have transportation to meet other group members. Another plus to online learning is with postings being made online, a teacher can verify that all group members are participating equally. The list can go on forever with benefits on being able to design and implement online learning, but the most beneficial I find is reaching the students at a level they are accustomed to. Nothing means more to them than for you to understand them. How will you professionally use your course that you designed? At the beginning of the school year I created a wiki for two of my teams at work. I spent hours creating the wikispaces for me to return to work the next day and find the sites to have been blocked. The district found wikispaces to have no educational value. I disagreed completely, asked for a revaluation of the decision, but of course was denied with the same answer of it has not educational value. I continued through the year in hope of a webpage that the district promised. I received the webpage a few months ago, but too late to implement in my class because students get accustomed to schedule. Then when I took Instructional Design I was introduced to Schoology. I have yet to find out if the site is blocked at school, but I will say that it is very user-friendly and offers technical support. I find it very similar to Facebook. I know that many of the teachers are familiar with Facebook, and would find this program easy to work with. For next year, I plan on implementing Schoology as my teams main way of communication rather than having to constantly meet after school. Schoology will allow me to upload documents and videos. If teachers are finding difficulties in understanding something online, I can use Camtasia to create a quick tutorial that they can view right off of Schoology. It is like knocking two birds with one stone. I feel that Schoology will be beneficial to my colleagues and save us much time considering we can have online communication. Not to mention that Schoology is working on creating a chat window just as Facebook and Google have. Will you integrate online learning in your role as a teacher/staff developer? As a technology leader I definitely plan to incorporate online learning into my teaching methods. From taking the course, Instructional Design, I have found ways to create activities for my students next year using a backwards design. I am quite excited to start the new school year knowing that I am going to disaggregate data immediately so that I can implement online learning projects for my students. As a technology leader, I do intend to get teachers involoved. My intention is to show the teachers how online learning works. The best way I feel that I can do that is by inviting them to join and giving them projects just as this course did for me. I will first begin by having them input their roster with their student’s first name and first letter of their last names to abide FERPA, and then have them create an online activity. This will allow for them to see exactly how it works and whether they feel they can work with it or not. If I cannot reach teachers through this method, I still plan on holding small meeting where I implement technology. What questions do you still have about online learning? Online learning is great when implemented correctly. One of my biggest issues is that I teach at a somewhat low income school. How do I require students to do work online if they do not have the internet, means of transportation to a public library, have to take care of siblings, and the site is blocked at school? The only answer I have found for this is asking the students to walk to a local neighbor or friend’s house. Can I require students to complete work online outside of school hours. Am I breaking any rules by asking of this? These are a few of my main questions. I do have one last question. I am abiding FERPA by enrolling the students by first name and last initial, but am I allowed to have the students on a public site such as Schoology. Will this upset parents, and will I have to discontinue using the online source. What will you do with this new learning? I plan to continue to implement the Schoology program over the summer. I would like to create projects on it so that I can share with fellow colleagues and be well prepared for the first few weeks of school with my students. I would also like to create team pages on Schoology where my colleagues and I can share information together. I already know what teams I am on and who I will be working with in the fall so getting a head start will not be a problem. This year was my first year working with these two new teams at my school because we are piloting new assessments, but now that I know the loops I will be better prepared for the fall semester. I also would like to create a brief online tutorial on the basics of using Schoology for teachers who work at my school or even outside. I really think this will be beneficial for teachers if not students.

**__PART 3.4: EDLD 5366 DIGITAL GRAPHICS, ANIMATION AND DESKTOP PUBLISHING__** In Digital Graphics the following standards were covered: I, II, III, and V. In this course I learned how to make a newsletter. I remember in college I had a sorority sister who made a brochure using Microsoft Publisher. I thought that it was just a mess so I did not bother using it. I then took this course and realized how user-friendly and easy it is to make brochures, flyers, and newsletters. I also learned of free pdf converters. I found this course as quite insightful. Using the newsletter assignment I was able to immediately create a flyer for an advertisement at school. I converted the flyer to pdf and distributed it through email. I was told by many that the flyer looked great. Talk about a confidence boost. I did not find any of the course embedded work puzzling. I do not feel the need to further research either. I do, although, feel the need to further create brochures, flyers and newsletters. I am currently working on ideas of how newsletters can be implemented at my school without overstepping the newspaper.  __ What have I learned (Discussions/Readings): __ I find everyone's opinion interesting. It seems that some find it amazingly beautiful while others are not too much for the artistry. I myself find the work beautiful. I can agree with others when they say it's not too amazing, but I like how Valerie stated that in this time of age we have access to many sorts of colorful artistry utensils. When I first looked at the Lisbon Bible, I thought that it was decent. I decided to use the program that the British Library provided with the magnification, rotation, movement, and readings to better take a look and understand. I like how the different books have a different unique style for each main component. For example, the Commandments are surrounded by two frameworks. One of visual readings and the other of floral illustration. The book of Genesis defers from that of Exodus. They both look similar but are illustrated with different artistry. In other words, all books are written in gold, but the framework or surrounding area illustrates different works of art. I also like the consistency of the pastel purplish color that lies behind the different books. Overall, I find the work to be beautiful because anything like this takes time. This is time that not many would take today. They would rather digitally create it than take the time to hand paint and make the pages uniquely different. I also do not have years of viewing different artwork. I'm not one to find this as a hobby. Now that I'm taking this course I am gaining more interest. It's giving my husband and I something different to discuss. That's kind of nice. One last note, I found it difficult to navigate backwards. This was a little funny to me because I find it odd for some to read in different directions. I knew it was done and is still done but how do those who read that way these days not get confused with reading English? Well, to begin, I was tempted to ask a couple of my students who discuss the Qu'ran with me in class at times to identify the differences and similarities, but I found it to be more interesting for me to see what I could find out. I will ask them later after I make my observations. I find the two very similar. They both begin will the double l. Both are dotted and written in a cursive form. I would not be able to note that they read from right to left as one stated above. I do see many differences between the two pages more than similarities. I find that page 25 and 26 are dotted differently. Maybe this is similar to Spanish with different accent marks above the letters. Maybe the seventh seventh has accent marks above it to show that it's repeated? I find this a bit difficult to comprehend though since the title is, "The Seventh Seventh". Considering this is the title I can only assume that together it is the far left letters that represents the word "the" and the rest that are similar represent "Seventh Seventh". I'm honestly not too sure. I will say this seems to be a difficult language and writing style for me to decipher. There are different forms of alignment. All forms are important. Each are significant to that language or even dialect. The direction of the reading affects the alignment just as our alignment affects our reading. Here we read left to right. When documents are created on a word document or even hand written we make our alignment specific. For example, a start of a new paragraph we indent. Formally typed research papers we double space. We single space and indent for quotes over five sentences. Looking at Turning the Pages I have yet to find these kinds of alignments. Even in the Lisbon Bible I am assuming that in the Commandments section they are numbering on the right hand side along with indenting, I did notice that on pages 28, 31 and 32 of the Qur'an the first of their writing in certain areas (since they read right to left) was exaggerated out with a line. So the direction of the reading is affected by the alignment. The Chinese right vertically which has to be straight so it does not run into the column on the right. It seems that most cultures though are more on the horizontal alignment than vertical. Although, I do not know if they form columns as we do. For example, we write in columns in articles. We still read left to right, but you read the left column then right column. Then if illustrations are added, we continue to read left to right where the following text picks up. Oh goodness. There are various forms of contrast on page 10. There is the contrast of font sizes. This is similar to the text of books that I've read in the past. Where the letters begin large and become smaller as the section closes. This might just be a style or format used. There is also the contrast of color within the letters. It seems that they were consistent in the color filling used. They stuck to red, yellow, and green. I also found that there is a fade of writing faintly seen behind all of the illustrations and writing. I'm not too sure if this is from the aging of the book or this was purposely done. There are also sections of labeling for each section of writing. Another addition to the picture that has nothing to do with the contrast but that I found unique is in the top right corner there are two what I perceive as ducks and dragons. The ducks are read and blue and dragons are white, green, and tan. There are contrast of designs. The designs vary along the border of the page. There are what appears to be notes just above some of the titles or heading words. The colors all work well together to form a colorful, intriguing page. Overall, the contrasts of this one page could go on forever with the amount of detail used. I am a math teacher so this material is quite difficult for me to comprehend. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with all of the readings. I am happy to know that the quizzes have been postponed to a later date. That gives me a bit more time to take them. My work schedule and home life are very hectic so the extra time given is such a great help. I am waiting to find the connection between the course assignment and the readings we are doing. I do find the information interesting, but I just don't have the attention span to make it through each of the readings. I am having a hard time maintaining interest. As I mentioned above, my husband and I have been able to start some new conversations which is nice. This is more of the stuff he likes. I do think the activity was helpful. It kept me interested because there were specifics I was looking for. I found the Qur'an Bible the most interesting. I am dying to know the answer to the difference in the pages. For the most part, I like the course I am just struggling with maintaining interest throughout all of the readings. The discussions are a bit difficult too because one does feel forced to answer. It just seems that some discussions are repetitive because we all pretty much have the same views of the information being questioned. Well, when I first read the discussion board prompt I was confused. When I finally read the lecture I had a much better understanding of branding. Last year, I gave my students a survey on my classroom. The survey consisted of questions that pertained to both me and to the overall daily activity in the classroom. From that survey I learned that my students liked me, but just as most students are now a days, they wanted a lot more engagement. Sometimes it is so hard to come up with engaging activities because they still need to learn the math. By the way I teach high school math. Anyway, I find that this year I am in a bit of a struggle. I am now working on two teams for the same class. One team deals with the math subject area, while the other deals with a particular group of students. This particular group are the junior bubble kids. The struggle this year is working with the math team. It seems that we are constantly quizzing, testing, and assessing the students. There doesn't seem to be much time for student learning. My students have complained that they feel they are tested too much and not learning enough. This has been difficult because I completely see where they are coming from. This means that my branding needs some adjustments. I've been spending weeks thinking of how I can still meet the needs of the team while meeting the needs of my students. It's quite difficult. I am thinking of branding my classroom with a mission statement first. At the start of the year I told my team that we need a mission statement. This has yet to be completed. It seems that if I don't take the initiative to form the mission statement it will not get done. I then believe we should have a logo that is just for our particular group of students. Something that relates to them. We are working with the bubble kids of a CATE course. These are Career and Technology Education courses specializing in a trade. If we can get a logo and mission statement that would be a start. We can then work on cross-curricular work. It seems we are off to a slow start so hopefully this week when we visit with the CATE teachers we can get more ideas of how we can intertwine the CATE course with our core course. I believe with the help of the lectures, demos, and activities in this class I might be able to bring this to the table as a way of more student involvement and engagement. I will tell you that a start will be for me to captivate the class at the start of the period each day with a question that will help them to begin a discussion of theories or ideas. This will help them pedagogically by eventually tying the two concepts of discussion and learning together. I do not have a personal mission statement. As stated in the last discussion board I work on a team of core course teachers along with CATE teachers. CATE is Career and Technology Education. This means that my team of core teachers share a particular group of students that are enrolled in a CATE course. We are working together to make our course more relevant to the specific trade they are interested in. At the beginning of the year I created a wikispace for my team where we would begin to create a team mission statement. The day after creating the wiki it was blocked for both educators and students. Since that day we have not come up with a mission statement. Because we are working on a team with the same particular group of students I found it in our best interest to share a mission statement. Now if I had to create my own mission statement I would not know what I'd want it to say. Too bad I can't steal the "Be all that you can be" or "Just Do It". I like the Nike one better for my math class. I guess those really aren't mission statements but they get to the point. What about the following:

//<span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Using today's mathematical skills and concepts to create new innovations for tomorrow //

<span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Would that be considered a mission statement? If I were to create a logo I think I'd incorporate a person's head with numbers flowing out of it. I know that when I was an engineering sorority we created a t-shirt that had a picture of chalk board with every mathematical equation we could think of. That might me a cool logo that would bring up some interest in my math class. What do you think? I find this discussion interesting. My husband and I are always debating when women look beautiful. I think his taste is just not good. What does that say about me right? Anyway, now that I have read about Phi and the 1.618 (Golden Ratio and Rule) I am interested to go through the little game with my husband of who is beautiful or not. I want to see if it's me or him who is following this rule. I do think that our cultural concept of beauty is just an averaging of different ways a thing or person can look. People are not accustomed to change. They seem to like the norm. I think styles that come in and out of our society are repetitive. We repeat trends. We take what we know and put them on models that we are used to seeing. Now do models follow the ratio rule? I do not think so. I feel that's why many may say that models are not too pretty. That most are to skinny and tall. That could be a personal opinion. So, I think our eyes are trained to follow the two-thirds and golden ratio rule. I know that when I am reading a pdf or typing a paper I put the setting to print layout because it's closest to being centered for me. I found the demos interesting also because I never realized how centered the film recorders make everything. I'm not too sure how proportions are decided. I do think that this is just something that we've grown accustomed to and Phi sounds like a good answer. I am 1.66 one way and 1.45 the other. Hmmm, and I thought I was perfect. Just kidding. I am actually pretty happy with my results because I thought I would be way off from the up and down direction. I have a long face. As far as the rule of thirds my eyes are good but not so much the other direction. Maybe that's why my eyes are more attractive looking to the fellas. From what I see this is a class of imperfect looking people. Close to average but not quite there. Well, we are all beautiful in God's eyes. Whether a newsletter or movie poster as shown in the lecture, both are essentially stating the same thing. The difference is the newsletter is not simply one poster. The newsletter holds various areas of material and possibly more than one page. Contrast deals with the different usage of lettering and sizing. This is incorporated in the overall title and headlines of the newsletter. Repetition gives the color scheme. In the newsletter one should stay consistent in the fact that the colors and text work well together. There should be a logo of some sort identified on each page along with a page number. These are examples of repetition on a newsletter. The alignment is determined by what is being stated in the article. If it's informal, then a rigid look may work while formal writings and text should align appropriately so the eye will not be distracted. Proximity deals with where things should be located. There should be a large photo in an appropriate spot. Smaller photos should most likely not be embedded in the text where the reader's eyes have to follow back to the left to continue reading. There are many details that CRAP covers. These details are important to the newsletter so that one is not publishing a chaotic mess. The first thing that comes to my head is headlines. The material on the newsletter should be captivating to the reader. The content should be organized in a manner that allows for easy navigation. The newsletters basic design is only the foundation to what will be added. It's imperative to make the newsletter a newsletter. It should contain information that is beneficial to the reader. Graphics should be appropriate to correlate with the text. Once again the contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity are good foundations, but the overall assessment should include the text content, grammar, and overall creativity of the newsletter. I don't know exactly how I would weigh things without using my personal opinion. I think that some would say that contrast is most important while others may say alignment, etc. If I weighed them equally then I would leave out other components that I feel are still important. If I had to give a weight scale this is what I would choose that I feel is fair all around.

Contrast - 15 pts

Repetition - 15 pts

Alignment -15 pts

<span style="background-color: #00ff00; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Proximity - 15 pts

Content - 15 pts

Grammar - 15 pts

Overall Captivation - 10 pts

Audience and purpose are very important. This should be taken into account when creating a newsletter. You wouldn't make an newsletter like the Methodist example in the lecture for a group of high school students. For example, my sorority is a sorority for engineers. Our newsletter I'm sure greatly differs from the newsletters of other sororities. We are discussing technological changes and ways to enhance the growth of women in the engineering industry. Our priorities would be different than those of others. Our captions would be different than those of others. If I'm sending a newsletter home with elementary school students, the reading level and colors would be completely different than those of college level. Taking the audience and purpose into account the evaluation criteria would depend upon the same aspects as CRAP but for the level of audience. I believe the weight is the same for CRAP. It would just be the overall content and eye attraction that would weigh differently for the audience level. Good questions. I don't really know how to answer them. Since I am inexperienced along with others, I'm sure we would love to be given some slack, but at the same time if expectations are not high then work will be given at a minimal by many. It is important that since this is a time consuming task that time is given. Without time the newsletter would not be able to be created. Especially for those who have no prior knowledge with computer page layout programs. I am one of those. I would still expect CRAP conditions to be met. These are important aspects to any newsletter. I would keep in mind though that this would be the first attempt for many so there are going to be various designs that may not be to par. Some essential errors to avoid in creating a newsletter for a classroom project is first and foremost copyright. We must first make sure that we do not break any copyright laws. The students are so used to Google that they copy and paste what they find. It's hard to come up with original material when so much is out there for them to copy. The second essential error would be grammar and spelling. Public distribution would be a mess if the grammar and spelling were off. Thirdly, I find organization to be an essential error. Something should not be publicized if the organization of the content is out of order. Another aspect would be the length of the content. If the student chooses content that is too long the audience will not be attracted to the reading. I enjoyed reading the lectures, especially the lectures on colors. I have a sister who is into color coordination. I am not good at anything that has to do with decor or craftiness. Reading about the color schemes was interesting for me because I have a bit more knowledge of what works well together. As far as Second Life, I like the idea. I find the program a bit difficult to work with. I guess I'm just not good with it. I have created two avatars and taken the hair away on both accidentally. I can't seem to figure out how to put it back. If I go under appearance or inventory all of my choices are bald too. I'm a bit frustrated at this point in the night after so many hours. I guess I'm just Avatar illiterate. I believe it would be something new and exciting for my students if I could manipulate it to work with my classroom lesson, although I'm sure the site will be blocked at my school. As far as gaming I think it could keep many entertained especially with the creation of an avatar.

**__ Part 3.5: STANDARD V - PRODUCTIVITY AND PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE __** <span style="background-color: #ff00ff; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">TL-V Educational technology leaders design, develop, evaluate, and model products created using technology resources to improve and enhance their productivity and professional practice, development and lifelong learning. In Instructional Design and Graphics, we learned of the free online resource, Schoology, and how to build a proper newsletter. The following standards were implemented: TL-V.A.1, B.1, C.1, C.2, C.3, C.4, C.7, D.2, and D.3. During Instructional Design, I was able to disaggregate data, formulate data using surveys, and create a website that would be applicable to the disaggregated data. I designed a lesson /activity that would best reach the students’ weaknesses. The surveys were implemented both by hand and online using Survey monkey. During Digital Graphics, I created a newsletter that applied proper image sizing, text sizing, color and contrast for a good appearance. During my entire master’s program, I have learned and designed many technology resources applicable to teachers for further professional practice. I have created wikis for teachers at my school. They were never implemented because we were blocked the day following my creation. I will give the links below for reference. I have also created staff developments that implement technology within the classroom for multi-purpose uses. Nothing puzzles me in reference to Standard V. I would like to further research ways in which I can continue to provide technology resources to promote professional development and lifelong learning. http://dobiecate.wikispaces.com/ http://dobiemathmodels.wikispaces.com/

**__PART 3.6: STANDARD VI - SOCIAL, ETHICAL, LEGAL, AND HUMAN ISSUES__** <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">TL-VI Educational technology leaders understand the social, ethical, legal, and human issues surrounding the use of technology in PK-12 schools and develop programs facilitating application of that understanding in practice throughout their district/region/state. In Instructional Design and Graphics, it was imperative to incorporate school appropriate material. While designing a website such as Schoology, one must be ethical and follow legal and social standards. In Instructional Design we used standard E.1 where research was used to implement strategies to promote equitable access to technology resources for students. Standard C.1 and D.1 were also fulfilled as research was communicated, diversity was reached, and a safe environment was provided through Schoology with teacher administration of all applied material and text inputted. Creating a newsletter in Graphics allowed for me to reach all learners with insight of a variety of school organizations and activities. Safety was also promoted as all information within the newsletter was ethical. There is nothing that puzzles me about Standard VI. I do wish that my school district’s policies were not so vague. I did ask for the reasons why our policies are vague, and I was told two different answers. One was that the person who created our school webpage was the first in the district to create a school page so she does not have a paper that states explicit rules and guidelines for her. The second answer I received stated that it remain vague for a reason. If more rules and guidelines are added then windows are open for more questioning.