Stage 1
To identify the elements and principles of design
Stage 2
To develop a design tool kit
Stage 3
To evaluate the design tool kit
Stage 4
To study the effectiveness of the design tool kit in the learning process
The stages of my research are not final yet. But at least now I have the guideline of conducting the research. I will need to do a lot of reading in order to construct my research questions to be research focus.
I have called Ng to inform her about the design-guide book and what needs to be done in order to complete materials for the DISC workshop (design for interaction and students' collaboration). The DISC workshop is a two day workshop. There will be two different group of students aged from 10-11 yaers old.
We manage to get facilitators for the Tuesday workshop. For Wednesday, Ng has suggested not to use any facilitator. We will try to conduct the workshop in real class situation where it only involves teacher and students.
- To chunk the presentation into smaller part. As kids (my sample: 10-11 years old) have short attention spam. For every "chunked" slides I will have to give these students hands-on project.
- To explain about the "Merdeka" poster before the training session starts.
- To use socratic method- whenever slides contained pictures such as an image of wolf, trainer should ask the students what do they think of the pictures, then only give them the answer.
- To insert angry-smiley icon on the red color slide.
Thank you Prof ,Sam and Sarah for the given feedbacks.
As I wrote this message, Ng is helping me to improve the presentation. Thanks a zillion Ng.
I have to finish by today and hopefully tomorrow morning I could send all the materials for printing and by lunch I could go back to my office.
I went to @dec and met with NG. Below are some of modifications that need to be done:
- Change example of posters to latest posters that participants can relate to.
- Make sure posters presented did not use any foreign language that participants cannot understand
- More visual less text
- Explain what is image, font, layout
- Use simple language
“Teaching design to youth is about unlocking a way of thinking. Design is no longer considered a superfluous subject, but rather a process that can be applied to any problem in order to ensure an appropriate, well-informed solution. Creative problem solving has proven itself an invaluable skill for leaders in all fields. The federal education law, No Child Left Behind, has required schools to increase classroom hours spent on math and reading significantly, often at the expense of other subjects, including design,” said Maria Emmighausen, a project manager for the AIGA’s K-12 initiatives.
“I argue that art and design education is for ‘all’ students, not just the talented few and it needs to be a core component of a student’s general education,” added Sproll. “Studying art and design not only provides all students with the opportunity to develop their creative selves and to enhance their creative problem-solving skills, but through the study of art and design students come to understand [that these disciplines are about] the expression of ideas, feeling and values.”
“We empower kids to use design as a planning tool for success. They
break out of their passive roles and become active in the process of
setting and achieving future goals in their education,” said Corey J.
Willis, director of the school’s design education.
The kids of today “are extremely aware about design,” said Lamour. “But I don’t think schools know how to talk about design...My goal is not to create more graphic designers, but to give kids different ways to enter the learning process.”
Design Generation. Today’s kids are design savvy, but where do they get their design smarts?
Nancy Goulet
Originally published in Communication Arts January/February 2007
Purchase Issue
The author of this website reported on the teachers' initiatives to adopt and implement ICT in an elementary school. Videos during the class sessions were also made available.
Below is the course outline from the Art & Design - Poster advert.
Poster advert
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Information |
Objectives
• To learn how to use a digital camera to capture an image
• To learn how to transfer a digital photograph to a computer
• To review, modify and evaluate work as it progresses
Prior learning
To benefit from this lesson, children should:
• have looked at and discussed examples of:
– the work of graphic designers or artists such as Matthew Roby, by using the Internet, making visits to galleries, looking at posters;
– adverts, including posters, fliers, magazine adverts, TV or radio adverts;
• have analysed critically different examples of graphic designs and discussed how the artists have exploited text and images;
• have decided on a product to advertise in a poster, such as a book or video, and the purpose and audience for the advert;
• have listed the ideas and types of media to use in their poster designs;
• have produced their poster using a range of media.
Vocabulary
advert, image, digital, digital camera, open, save, image, graphic designer, artist, poster, purpose
Resources
• data projector or interactive whiteboard linked to a laptop
• ICT suite or set of laptops
• presentation software (in this Example, PowerPoint)
• graphics software that enables colour manipulation of selections (in this Example, Revelation Natural Art)
• digital cameras
• scanner and scanner software
• posters/designs created previously
ICT skills needed by teachers
To teach this unit, teachers need to know how to:
• use a digital camera and transfer photographs to a computer.
Preparation for this lesson
Prepare a set of help cards, or prompts and diagrams, to help children to remember what to do when they are transferring digital photographs to a computer.
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Lesson extract |
Introduction
Begin by reviewing children’s completed adverts. Ask:
Q What do you think and feel about this advert?
Q How could you develop this work in the future?
Q If you could create your image again, what would you do differently?
Encourage others to evaluate the work by commenting on the image in a positive way.
Remind children how to use the digital camera, including taking pictures and deleting images. For example, you could pretend that you have forgotten how to use it and ask children to give you instructions. Encourage them to come to the front to show what to press.
Main activity
Organise the class to work in groups so that each group has a digital camera. Give the groups time to practise taking photographs of the classroom, their friends, and various objects. Using one group as an example, show how to save a digital image from a disk or media card onto the computer as a JPEG file. Ask each group to practise this skill, saving one image each.
Now demonstrate how to place a design flat on a surface and use the digital camera to take a picture of the image. Transfer the photograph to the computer. Ask the groups to take digital pictures of their own design and save them on the computer as before. Remind children that they will need to remember where they have saved their work as the photographs will be needed in the next lesson.
Alternatively, children could scan their images and save their scanned image as a JPEG file.
Plenary
Bring the whole class together. View and review a selection of the digital images.
Next steps
Show children how to use the tools in image manipulation software (in this Example Revelation Natural Art) to change the size, colour, focus or shape of the image, to flip or rotate it, to use the brush tool, to fill an area, to undo or erase, to add details from other images using copy and paste, and to use special effects such as smearing, spraying, highlighting, softening and spraying.
Ask children to refine their images and experiment with adding text to them.
Use a selection of questions to encourage the children to think in a reflective manner:
Q How did you feel as you worked on this image?
Q Did you have a good starting point?
Q What could have been better about your starting point?
Q How could you develop your work in the future?
Q If you could create your image again, what would you do differently?
Q What are the similarities and differences between your original photograph and the end product?
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Notes |
Links to QCA schemes of work
The lesson links to:
QCA ICT Unit 2B: Creating pictures
QCA ICT Unit 3A: Combining text and graphics
Context of this lesson
This lesson is the third or fourth session in a series of six lessons.
Subject links
Links can be made in literacy to non-fiction writing for an audience. For example, children could be asked to write a review of their adverts.
Why use ICT?
The advantages of using ICT are as follows.
• A digital camera can be used to record children’s compositions created using traditional materials. The photographs can be used for discussion and evaluation with the whole class.
• Using image manipulation software, children can explore, draft and present pictorial information. They can experiment directly and quickly with different images. Their work can be saved, developed and refined later.
• ICT
allows teachers to project enlarged visual images and to model different
compositions for whole-class demonstration, discussion and evaluation.
Data retrieved from http://primary-strategy.nen.gov.uk/ on 21/8/07
Than you to Prof RM for giving me the opportunity to conduct the mini workshop in her class and thanks to all the students who had been very supportive and also not forgetting to Ng and Chin for being there and facilitated the students.
This mini-workshop was aimed to teach the students on designing skills. How to design poster using the right design elements. They (the students) were given a topic on Hari Merdeka. They have to design one merdeka poster in a group of 5 base on the design skill taught by me. By end of the session they will have to present their posters to the entire class. I have to admit that I'm not sure how to do it but I think I have the guts just do it and seize the day. Try first and see how.
Two weeks later, Prof RM gave her feedback on the mini workshop conducted. There are many improvement need to be done. I have to guide them clearer. I should show the participants the good and bad poster examples. Explaining to them Font types (serif and san serif) that are suitable for designing posters. Thank you Prof for the comments and suggestions. I will definitely try to improve it and apply it on the next workshop.
On 18th August 2007 (Saturday), I have shown my research matrix to my lecturer and class. I have been asked many questions that I could not answer. After the presentation I was so devastated, I don't know what to do. I felt so helpless, I need to talk to somebody.
I had a good talk with Ng (one of my dear colleagues) about my research. I guess in a way she's right that I need to do more reading to find out what is the current problems happening related to my research area.
Designing poster for interaction and students’ collaboration
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Research objectives |
Research questions |
What data to collect (to answer research question) |
Who to collect from |
When to collect data |
How to collect data - method |
Instrument to collect data |
Expected outcome |
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1 |
To design and develop a design poster workshop in initiating collaborative learning. |
What is the process involved when designing and developing design poster workshop? |
Design poster workshop development |
Previous researchers |
Before the workshop |
Development |
Development |
Poster design workshop. |
|
2 |
To examine the effectiveness of instructional strategies used in collaborative learning |
How effective are the instructional strategies used in initiating collaborative learning among students? |
Students’ poster samples |
Students |
Right after the workshop |
Documents analysis |
Posters produced by students |
Students produced posters base on trainer and facilitators instruction. |
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3 |
To describe students’ behavior when participating the workshop |
How do students interact during the learning process? |
· Photographs · Digital video · Field notes
(Documentation on social situation of an individual or group during the learning processes).
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Students |
During the workshop. |
Observation |
Observation form |
Students interact more when learning in collaborative environment. |
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4 |
To understand students’ perception of the poster workshop in their learning processes |
How does poster workshop influence students’ learning processes? |
Transcription of open-ended interview. |
Students |
After the workshop been conducted. |
Informal conversational interview |
Interview schedules |
Students learn effectively through collaborative learning |
Well this is my first step in documenting the process that I am going through in order to complete PXGT 6111 class and also to complete my project paper. I have to admit most of the time I am in lost but I think it is a good sign.. at least I am not in my comfort zone any more. It is a stage of non- equilibrium where I have to learn more, search more and analyze more in order to achieve the equilibrium stage; that is the stage where I could say that yes I am good at research.
But right now, at this stage I have to admit I am sucks at research. Seriously, given the likert-scale from 1-10 ( where 10 is the worst and 1 is the excellent stage), believe me.. I'm the on the 10th scale. Anyway, there is nothing easy in this world. For the first time in my life, I have no dream..I put aside all my targets, but I only have one target this year that is to finish my master. I am so desperate to finish my master. God, please let me finish my master this year.
Well, enjoy your journey reading my ongoing research. Do bare with my lack of excellent grammar. You are more than welcome to give suggestions and comments.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Hello again, below is the first draft of my research. The research problem? I haven't done that yet which I am supposed to do it early before I propose the topic...
Title: Development of poster training for primary students
1.1 Background of the study
Implementation of ICT in classrooms around the world
The growth and advancement of information and communication technology (ICT) in our daily lives is undeniable. According to Leow (2004), for the past 10 years the growth of technology has been exponential and it has made a great impact on the education sector all over the world. This statement is strengthened by Pelgrum & Anderson (1999) who had reported that a number of master plans on ICT in education have been produced in many countries.
The advantage of integrating technology and students in classroom
1.1 Statement of problem
1.2 Purpose of the study
The purpose of the study is to design and develop a poster workshop for primary students in facilitating teachers to enhance the usage of technology tools in classrooms.
1.3 Research Objectives
This study aims to design and develop a poster workshop for primary students in facilitating teachers to enhance the usage of technology tools in classrooms. Specifically the study intends:
1. To design and develop a poster workshop on an English subject for standard 4 students
2. To conduct a poster workshop for the primary students
3. To observe students’ behavior when participating the workshop
4. To seek students’ perception of the poster workshop in their learning processes
1.4 Research questions
The study attempts to find answers to the following research questions:
1. What are the processes involved when designing and developing the poster workshop?
2. How effective is the workshop in facilitating teachers to enhance the usage of technology tools in their classrooms?
3. How do students react and during the process of learning?
4. How does poster workshop influence the students’ attitudes and feelings?
1.5 Significance of the study
The beneficiaries of this study are teachers, students and researchers in the field of instructional technology. This study is hoped to initiate teachers in enhancing the usage of technology tools as part of their teaching and learning tools in classrooms. These will lead to a change towards attitude and increase teachers’ confidence in integrating technology with students. It encourages the teachers to be more innovative and creative in preparing learning materials for students. The design and development of the materials for the workshop will act as a guideline for teachers in producing teaching and learning material that involve technology tools in the future. This study also initiates a paradigm shift from teacher-centered method to student centered-method. It is hoped this study will maximize learning acquirement among students.
Below is a thesis review done by me. Each student is assigned to review one project paper, master thesis or PHD thesis done by others. Most of the students in my class had reviewed PHD theses done by other researchers, but I just reviewed a project paper done by one of the taught master student.
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Research title |
Development of a computer-assisted information management system |
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Researcher |
Leow Hoay Suan |
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Year |
2004 |
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Research questions |
· What do teachers think about the usability of SIMS as a tool to help them perform their administrative tasks?
· How effective is the training in the use of SIMS?
· To what extent do teachers’ computer experiences influence their opinion on the usability of SIMS? |
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Summary of literature review (Chapter 2) exasperated |
In this section, researcher had reviewed some of the previous researchers work done in the area of computer usage in school among teachers. Researcher discussed on teachers belief and behavior towards technology specifically ICT. Researcher also discussed studies done on generating change on the perception of technology usage in schools.
Under the educational technology section, researcher had reported three phases involved in educational technology implementation. Which are: Phase 1 – adoption of technological infrastructure, organizational structure and teachers’ technical skills. Phase 2 – reengineering phase (integration of ICT ) Phase 3- Cultural Innovation Model ( to establish new tradition)
Researcher also discussed issues related to computer assisted student information management system. In this section model and process of developing, designing, implementing discussed in the study.
In conclusion, researcher had reported issues and researches done in the related area holistically. Starting from teachers’ belief and behavior, generating change in behavior, educational technology implementation, computer assisted student information management system and technology training.
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Research hypotheses |
· Teachers think that the usability of SIMS as a tool will help them perform their administrative tasks. · Teachers who have high level of efficacy with technology are more likely to participate more eagerly, expend more effort and persist longer on technology related task than teachers who have low levels of efficacy. |
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Independent and dependent variables in the study |
Independent variable Student Information Management System (SIMS)
Independent variables Teachers’ perception on the usability of the software |
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Extraneous variables |
Computer network system Time to conduct the research Computer skill |
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Most likely target population |
Teachers Parents Administrator |
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Most likely accessible population |
38 secondary school teachers from the same school |
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Method of sampling |
Convenience sampling / purposive sampling |
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How large was the sample |
38 school teachers |
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Research design used in the study |
Developmental research design
Developmental research is “the systematic study of designing, developing and evaluating instructional programs, processes and products that must meet the criteria of internal consistency and effectiveness” (Seels & Richey, 1994, p. 127)
According to Richey and Nelson (1996), there are 2 types of developmental research. Type 1 developmental research “involves situations in which the product developmental process used in a particular situation is described and analyzed, and the final product is evaluated. |
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Major threat to internal validity |
One of the major threats to internal validity in this study is subject attitude. Since participants involved in the study are teachers who have many responsibilities, their commitments in the study might be affected by their responsibilities at school. |
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Instruments used in the study |
Questionnaires Observations Interviews |
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Measurement scale used in the study |
A 5 point self-report Likert scale to measure respondents’ computer experiences
A 6 point self-report Likert scale to indicate respondents’ level of agreement/disagreement on statements questioned by the researcher.
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Validity and reliability of instruments |
Validity and reliability of instruments in the study is highly regarded. To maintain reliability in data collection methods, researcher had ensured it consistencies. All respondents had to complete the same questionnaire.
Researcher had use Cronbach’s alpha to measure questionnaire internal consistency.
Researcher did not develop her own instrument tool. The tool was taken from Cassidy and Eachus (1999) in measuring respondents’ computer self-efficacy. The tool was chosen in consideration it was of high levels of test-re-test and internal validity. Researched had reported the Cronbach’s alpha was 0.94. Researcher also reported Cronbach’s alpha for opinion on the usage of SIMS was 0.97 which indicate high degree of internal consistency.
Interviews and observations were used to validate the research findings from the survey. |
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Graph and descriptive statistics used in the study |
Mean Standard deviation
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Inferential method used in the study |
Pearson’s correlation coefficient T-test |
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What conclusions were drawn |
What do teachers think about the usability of SIMS as a tool to help them perform their administrative tasks? (research question 1)
Base on the data retrieved during interview sessions, researcher reported that the teachers (participants) were marveled on the usability of the system. According to researcher, the system had saved the teachers from the tedious and routine work. It saved them time.
How effective is the training in the use of SIMS? (research question 2)
Through observation and interview sessions, researcher found that teachers could use SIMS with no difficulties.
To what extent do teachers’ computer experiences influence their opinion on the usability of SIMS? (research question 3)
In the study, researcher had categorized computer experiences into self-report of computer experience, familiarity with software packages and computer training.
Correlation and conclusions resulted from the study shown that there were positive correlations between computer self-efficacy and both computer experience and familiarity with software packages.
Researcher also reported there was positive correlation between computer experience and familiarity with software packages.
Positive correlation between computer self-efficacy and opinion on SIMS.
From the findings, researcher had concluded that teacher with high level computer experiences are more familiar with software packages, and teacher with higher computer self-efficacy have high regards towards SIMS, have more computer experience and more familiar with software packages.
Base on findings from statistical data, observation and interview sessions, researcher had concluded that teachers irrespective of teaching experience and computer training were happy with SIMS.
SIMS had assisted the teachers in administrative work. Most of the teachers were satisfied with the quality of information SIMS produced and its data entry and retrieval options. |
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Suggestion for further study |
Researcher recommended a similar research should be conducted in the same school over a period of time. The longitudinal study will cancel out “Hawtorne” effect.
Similar research should be conducted in other school with different management style and at different school levels.
Researcher also suggested furthering the study in finding the effects of the SIMS in school.
In this study, the researcher also recommended other researchers to examine the whether usage of technology for administrative work will encourage teachers to extend its use in teaching and learning. |
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Summary of major strength and weakness of the study. |
The holistic approach done in the study is one of the major strength. Researcher had developed an administration in assisting teachers to manage their administrative tasks. The developed system was implemented in the studied school and participants were interviewed in order to seek the effectiveness of the system. However, due to time limitation, the study was conducted in a short period. Thus the researcher could not evaluate the system effectiveness in long term. A longitudinal study was recommended by the researcher in order to avoid Hawthorne effects. |
