[WEEK 7] REFLECTION ON STORY TELLING & JOB AIDS

This week, I really like the activity of using iPads to create stories and to tell stories. I was not a good story teller, but through this in class activity, all of a sudden I felt that there are tons of ways to create an interesting and meaningful story, either with or without using technology tools. In my other instructional strategies class, we talked a lot about using story telling as a great approach to enhance learners' imaginary and creativity, as well as learners' engagement in a task or a class. For our major project, our team decided to use a storyline within a imaginative scenario to make our webquest more appealing and interesting to our target audience. I believe that using story telling as a strategy in teaching and learning can not only attract young and adult learners, but also have great impact on learning outcomes. I am really looking forward to apply this strategy in our major project.

Regarding the job aid activity in class, I was really glad that I would be able to see so many job aid examples. And sometimes it's good to critique on not bad examples so that we would have more sense and awareness of what a job aid creator should emphasize on. However, I feel like many of the job aids  looked really similar to instructional infographics. Perhaps I should look for more information about the difference between these two.

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Week 7 - Tagxedo

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[WEEK 6] PROGRESS / REFLECTION ON MAJOR PROJECT

This week, F.Y.I team has discussed and developed the major project proposal. F.Y.I decided to design and create a Webquest for W200 preservice teachers. Our team would like to use Webquest to convey the knowledge and skills regarding what Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) are and how to use it from the aspects of teachers' professional development and integrating multiple learning resources in teaching. During the process of discussion and development, I realized that it's not enough to just have so many instructional design ideas, but an instructional designer should scrutinize your ideas and delve further into what information should be presented in what ways to most benefit your audience. Two weeks ago, we were talking about how to motivate your audience in different ways you convey your ideas. I found it is not that easy to design something interesting enough and meaningful enough to get your audience's attention and motivation. Another issue we've been discussed about is to make all the information and design look relevant and connected. I feel like it could be helpful to clear my thoughts by pretending I was in the role of my audience and think about what I would want to learn in what ways that were interesting and valuable for me. Our group got some ideas to create something interactive on our webquest, but we are not sure if we can make it happen regarding our technical skills. Hope we can get as much feedback on our project proposal from peers and instructors.

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Week 6 - Tagxedo

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[WEEK 5] REFLECTION ON MOTIVATION

This week, I learned a lot about motivational principles from both our readings, and the screencast created by Dr. Glazewski. In one of the reading of this week, Keller and Burkman (1993) talked about principles of stimulating and sustaining learners' motivation to learn. They also pointed out that motivation can be explained from different aspects - "attitudes, beliefs, values, expectancies, attributions, needs, motives, deprivations, and incentives, or reinforcements" (p. 4). Usually people would categorize these aspects into a broader explanation: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. From my own experiences, it is more difficult to arouse a learner's intrinsic motivation, and sometimes it needs more techniques and time. However, intrinsic motivation can be more powerful and meaningful than extrinsic motivation. For me, it's alway worth learning how to design and teach instructional content to get learners motivated. 

Here are some motivational principles from Keller & Burkman (1993) and Dr. Glazewki's screencast:

Keller & Burkman (1993): 
[General Motivational Principles]
1. Variation & Curiosity
2. Need Stimulation (Relevance)
3. Challenge
4. Positive Outcomes

[Text And Graphics]
5. Positive Impression
6. Readable Style
7. Graphic Illustrations
8. Helpful Formatting (Layout, Typography, Headings)
9. Interesting Pictures
10. Early Interest - Gain attention

Dr. Glazewski's screencast: 
[Design Decision]
ARCS Model

• Attention
• Relevance
• Confidence
• Satisfaction

I think one of the most important principle in both instructional design and motivation is to fully understand your audience. With the fundamental information of your audience, you can consider all the elements that could be more appropriate to use in your design in order to show the biggest effect on motivating your audience/learners. I really enjoyed doing the in class activity creating an image story to persuade Dr. Glazewski to like snow. Our group use a lot of "relevance" principle in this design activity. We thought about what Dr. Glazewski cares more about and used some related pictures and stimulating texts in the story. At last, due to the time, I felt all the project was well done, but something was lost. I guess the whole activity would be more successful and complete if we can get our feedback on our design and the outcome, the feeling from our audience. 

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Week 5 - Tagxedo

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MY INFOGRAPHIC DESIGN

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