Having never formally taught students, I can only use my own experience as a learner and in higher education to address the reflection prompts. I have to admit, written reflection is not my favorite exercise. I find more satisfaction and achievement in developing tools that leverage past and prior learning to “teach” others while demonstrating what I have learned. The website assignment in week 4 is a prime example: utilizing knowledge gained in the course to develop a site incorporating branding, design principles, animation, etc. gave me an opportunity to reflect on past learning. During the process, I learned from my peers and identified my own strengths and weaknesses in this course’s content, curricula and learning outcomes.
Marketing and branding is critical in my role as a community college professional. My experience includes development of institutional brands and logos. In addition, I have developed protocol for brand standards and program artwork. As we transition to more virtual services, digital graphics and web design will take center stage. This course has given me the confidence I need to explore and apply design principles I am familiar with coupled with my newly acquired digital graphics and web design concepts. However, I never stopped to think of my own brand and how it captures me as a mom, professional, and student. I followed Alcantara (2009) suggestion to begin the branding process by brainstorming personal facts and attributes. Once the list was developed, I began the process of stereo-typing myself. I think the end product captured the balance, ever-changing and femine attributes revealed during the brainstorming session. The primary design principle used in my brand was contrast – the single most important element in design (Yearwood, 2010).
As usual, for me, the richest learning occurred during the group project. I worked with peers that have diverse interests and expertise. Although we have worked together in the past, I enjoyed the collaboration and the opportunity to learn and teach my peers. I was able to leverage my own experience in enrollment marketing and parental programming to contribute to the assignment. I was the only member who was not a traditional K-12 educator. As a result I gained insight regarding K-12 curriculum, technology, and multi-media instruction that will impact student learning. The use of multimedia instruction can significantly enhance student learning if properly designed and implemented (Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K12 Classroom, 2008).
While digital immigrants may find it difficult to integrate technology into the curriculum, we have learned from our readings that the digital natives crave it. Rather than resist, Rose and Meyer (2002) encourage teachers to integrate multimedia into instruction, helping to remove curriculum barriers and improve learning for all students. In higher education, I anticipate that technology will alter student support services. With increased online learning, we must provide equitable advising, counseling, tutoring and student engagement opportunities to our virtual students. In addition, as we all face budget and personnel cuts, we must leverage technology to create a college ready, college going and college completing culture.
References
Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding, Part 1 Retrieved from http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-brandign-part-one/
Alcantara, L. (2009). The art of self-branding, Part 2 Retrieved from http://www.lealea.net/blog/comments/the-art-of-self-brandign-part-two/.
Rose, D. H., & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student in the digital age: Universal Design for Learning. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD).
Understanding Multimedia Learning: Integrating Multimedia in the K12 Classroom. (2008, September). Retrieved from http://www.brainpop.com/new_common_images/files/76/76425_BrainPOP_White_Paper-20090426.pdf.
Yearwood, J (2009) Basic Design Principles, Week 2 EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics Reading/Lecture.
