I have been dreading this assignment. As a basic productivity app user, I am unskilled and unfamiliar with other app categories – especially games. Nevertheless, I have an awareness of the trend toward animating education, so I took this course hoping to gain new insight to the app phenomena. So it comes with some trepidation and much research (I have downloaded more apps in the past three months than my entire six years as a smart phone owner) that I finally have decided on a developer project. As an EMT in a remote location, I experience frequent communication setbacks between our ER staff and our ambulance service. We are equi-distant transport to rural ERs north and south of Riggins, but both requre a 3,000-4,000 foot climb in elevation. When we are called to wilderness areas to retrieve a patient injured or ill, our transport times exceed four hours – but for the most part we have a patient in the ER an average of one hour after we are initially paged. In the meantime, ER crews can be assembled and ready when the patient arrives – especially in critical care or life threatening events. With my plan laid out, I hope the little green droid and the blocks editor are ready for the challenge of my career.
EDTECH 597 – QUIZ BOWL
I have finally made an app that I will use for more than a cool curiosity, but not before life got in the way. This weekend was spent up north helping my husband recover from an unexpected flood caused by a burst water gasket/hosing in the RV. We found an apartment and got him relocated, but the hours spent helping him has really put a divet into my coursework for the three EDTECH classes I am taking. Nevertheless, I was able to spend about 7.5 hours on this project, and I am pleased with the results. As an EMT instructor, I found the possibilities for an EMS quiz app enticing. Users could refresh their knowledge and prepare for certification exams. It took some time to find Creative Commons pictures that would be applicable to this app. Initially, I would like to put the “correct” answers in a number of different ways, since the app is prone to unforgiving syntax errors. To counter that problem, I added the correct answer to the “incorrect” message, so that if a student was close, or needed an uppercase or space, he or she would know the response was actually correct.
EDTECH 597 – Hide and Seek
If you have ever experienced a moment of consternation upon exiting a mall or movie theater, the “Find My Car” app will put your fears to rest. Developing the app was an experience akin to finding your car in a packed lot. The design was pretty straightforward, but my desire to increase the font size caused the app to crash and not function well. App crashes were not the only problem, my blocks editor refused to load time after time. After a Java rollback, I was able to get the program to stabilize. I feel challenged to push this app, but I don’t know where! I added images to the buttons, and was finally successful in adding an Icon for the App Screen. Because I won’t be driving to my car, I used the walking option with Google Maps. Nevertheless, trial after trial I keep getting the same font argument error. Status update when/if a new functional version gets put out.
Update: The font argument was not about the font, but the incorrect block in the blocks editor. Third time was the charm! This tool is functional, but rather slow on my Android and takes a long time to load.
EDTECH 506 – Natural Selection
There are many factors to providing critical prehospital care. EMTs must gain the skills necessary to quickly determine if a patient is in immediate need of advanced care. I wanted the design of the critical care page to be comprehensive, yet clean. As students enter their practical skills, they need to easily remember the information presented. There is a lot to remember in this section, so the design demands that a lot of information is concentrated in each section. I enhanced the text with contrasting colors for cohesiveness, but the sheer volume of text still needed something more to make the steps more concrete. Because a picture is worth a thousand words, I am seeking representative images to further solidify the different steps.
References
Lohr, L. (2008). Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy. (Second.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
There is a lot to remember in this section, so I concentrated a lot of information in one spot. In doing so, I also designed it to be concise and concrete with the white text dominating the field. The generous white space offsets the high contrast of the blue and red.
EDTECH 506: CARP is not a fish
CARP design elements are used to better communicate a lesson or message through visual representation. Contrast. Alignment. Repetition. Proximity. Each of these elements impacts learning, and a good design will improve the course content. I chose grey-scale for my design, planning a contrast punch with black and white text and graphics. I chose the organized feel of rectangle shapes and symmetrical rows and columns they create, while using repetition to lighten the tense lines in the image. Each row a different color, but the proximity of clone like text boxes reveals the concepts therein are connected. In the end, I’m pleased with that decision feeling like I have met the first course goal – “to apply principles of visual literacy o the design of instructional messages.”
EDTECH597: Tour de Paris
I think I finally had fun with the blocks editor today. In fact, the process went so smoothly that I spent more time dreaming about (or was that researching) what I would do given the opportunity to travel to Paris than I did actually building the app. I am ready to create all sorts of map apps. My students could do this – identifying historical or significant land marks in math and photography. Viva le Apps!
ED TECH 597: Working out the Bugs
This past week, the ladybug app left me with a few bugs of my own to work out. Developing an android app by following directions is challenging, but even more challenging is how I will apply my new knowledge to education. Of course there is the possibility of opening the MIT site up to my students, but what more? Will my experience in this course and my new found skills make an impact on the way I teach and learn? Will it make an impact on the way others learn?
I continue to be inspired by my peers as we struggle to extend the lessons and create something uniquely ours. Ego is thrown out the door as we post the difficulties that detain our progress. We voice our reasoning and words of encouragement flow. It’s a refreshing change from the scoffs and muttered name calling in secondary classrooms when a student attempts to clarify an answer, suppressing the natural desire to learn. I have a plan to help teach those students to react to one another with respect and compassion. Although I’m not a “gamer” I am inspired to use this app building process to encourage my students to collaborate and “work out the bugs” of education.
