EDLD Week 5 Reflection Assignment

The course EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics and Web Design went from easy and fun to understand while other portions frustrated me. Finding a group to work with was manageable and I was able to reconnect with past classmates that I had worked with in other courses. Working in teams, I believe, was the best part of the course. I was able to share my input and academic products with others and I was able to get help from my team when I was stuck on the individual portion of weekly assignments. Omar and Patricia are two classmates that I enjoyed working with immensely and they made the website creation task easy since they both had previous experience. Our website is http://ovasquezlamar.wix.com/edld5366. Creating the animation video was enjoyable. I had never done one and enjoyed learning basic skills on how to create one. I am going to take what I have learned from this and challenge myself along with my students in creating two minute animation videos on different health topics. The readings had a lot of good information and the discussion board gave good insight into peer’s thoughts. When I first read that we had to come up with a brand for ourselves I hit a wall. The discussion board and readings about branding made me realize the concept of how early and important it is to start a personal brand. When Lead Alcantara explained, “A brand is an idea and perceived value formed by its intended audience” it was easier for students to understand how they are perceived by an audience, or in other words, friends, family, teachers, peers, and strangers. It is important to start this concept in elementary school. I am at a middle school and this is the age that students are starting to develop their branding without realizing it. I asked each student to write down key words that would explain who they are as a person. After they were done with the activity I had students reflect on two other students in the class, making sure to emphasize that it must be a positive reflection. After gathering information I put together a PowerPoint with the data collected to see if students could pick out which one was them. I did this the week after the branding assignment. Then went on to explain how this may affect their personal and professional lives because in business, it’s not only whether or not you know information, but how you are perceived by a company with the brand that they’re putting out there. Lastly, the principals of design was one of the significant areas of this class. Learning about Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity (CRAP) enlightened me on how to analyze logos and other designs of webpages and advertisements. Now when I visit a new website I analyze it using CRAP. I have also instructed my students to these guidelines, leaving out the acronym. I currently teach a Physical Education/ Health class where my students have received opportunities to create advertisements for different health related topics and share valuable information. I can easily see where what I learned from this course will improve my classroom and the time spent there with students for the better. Citation: Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding. Retrieved from http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-branding-part-one/ YouTube video - Basic Layout and Design Principles for Webpages