EDTECH 513: Project #3 Haiku Deck

This week for EDTECH 513 we had to create a presentation to be used in a live presentation using Haiku Deck.  

Link to: Haiku Deck

I chose to design a deck that could be used in a live orientation session for new employees on their first day.  The speaker would be someone from Human Resources or Learning and Development department.  There are certain activities that need to be completed in an employees first thirty days of employment. One of the most important requirements is the completion of compliance training courses that the company is legally required to have all employees complete.  The deck introduces briefly the other activities required but quickly moves on and focusses on the three compliance courses and why they need to be completed.

The purpose of Haiku Deck is to force the author to use less text on the screen and to focus on the main point of what is being talked about in the live session at that time.  This supports the multimedia principle by using words and an associated image to reinforce the content.   While the restriction on the amount of words is a good feature of this software, I found the limitation of not being able to place the text exactly on the image as desired frustrating.  If this program allowed users to move the text and even the graphics a little more this would have helped support the contiguity principle by aligning the image and text appropriate to reduce cognitive processing.  I also found it would've been good to be able to change the color of text in order to create greater contrast between the image and the text box.  Depending on your image the text sometimes looked a little lost and blended into the background.  This would increase the cognitive processing of a learner as they would have to strain to see the text on the slide.  Overall, though I think Haiku Deck is a great program for those new to creating presentations who need and user friendly program to pull together presentation decks.

EDTECH 513 - Project #2: Static Multimedia Instruction

This week for EDTECH 513 we had to use Clarify-it software to create a static instructional piece.  I have completed instructional pieces previously using Microsoft Work and another screen capture took, but had not heard of Clarify-it before.
For my static instructional piece I decided to document how a learner would use Apple Photo to import, modify and export a photo.  It took me a little bit of time to figure out the key steps to document.  I didn't want to cover all of the modification options available, but instead to think about the main adjustments most learners would make to their photos.  These would be cropping a photo to focus on certain parts in an image, adjusting the color and contrast, and if they wanted to convert a color image to black and white.  Once I knew what I specifically wanted to cover I opened up Clarify-it, generated a new document and started taking screenshots.  I was pleasantly surprised at how easily this software works.  If is definitely a time saver compared to having to copy and past screenshots into a word document.  After capturing all of the screenshots for the steps, I started to add in the red outline boxes and arrows, and writing out the instructions for each step.  I then added in the numbers and corresponding numbers agains the arrows or boxes on the screenshots.
By including the written steps with the corresponding screenshot, this instruction demonstrates the multimedia principle.  Using text and graphics to explain the steps to be completed engages learners in active learning and enables them to create understanding from the material.  One of the things I liked about Clarify-it was that each image was placed on individual pages.  This enabled the text instructions to be on the same page as the related image.  This supports the contiguity principle, as learners do not have to scroll down the page or try to locate the text and the related image.

Link to Instructional Piece
Learning Objective: Using Apple Photo, learners will import, modify and export a photo.

EDTECH 513: Sketchnote

Multimedia Principle Sketchnote

This week for our project in EDTECH 513 we had to create a Sketchnote on a topic based on our text book readings.   I chose to create a Sketchnote on the Multimedia Principle.
We were given the option to create our sketchnote using different apps available on apple and android devices.  I started to create my sketchnote using the Sketchbook Xpress app. Unfortunately I only have an iPad mini and I do not have a stylus, so this proved to be a challenge trying to use this app with my finger.  I also found it challenging as I'm left handed and I find it hard to see and get the lines and text where I want them to be.  So in the end I started creating my sketchnote using pencil and paper.  After I created my draft I then went over the pencil lines using felt tip markers in different colors to highlight important words and create images.  Unfortunately I'm not a very good artist so my drawings are very basic.  I then scanned my sketchnote and adjusted the contrast of the image.
I enjoyed the exercise of creating the sketchnote.  It forced me to really focus on the key points of the topic, which relates back to how we should be designing any presentations.  It also was fun to be a little creative and to think about different ways to represent different concepts.  I can see how this would be useful when given a large text heavy presentation to turn into an eLearning as it would allow you to note the key points and to sketch out possible graphical options in the training.