I've spent a great deal of time this weekend thinking about Class 62's app project. A vision is slowly developing in my mind of what it might look like. I'm picturing buttons, locations we might include, layout, font, colour choices ....
And there lies the problem. It's not my project. This project belongs to my students, to class 62. If I am to truly serve as a facilitator of learning, every step along the way has to belong to them. I could so easily hijack this project and simply slot my students into tasks in order to meet our goal. My job will be to back off and let them figure this out for themselves.
Which makes me realize just how often I take over and direct learning in order to reach a goal that I have determined to be essential. Sometimes it is necessary. If my students' writing is incoherent, it is my job to address writing skills. Sometimes, however, I do this for expediency's sake. There is so much to cover and it is easiest if I plan the course of learning and then push my students through it in order to tick off curriculum expectations or prepare them for EQAO. When I do this, I deny my students their autonomy.
I view this project as an opportunity to carefully examine my role and to consciously develop balance. I will deliberately step back as much as possible so my students can engage in rich, deep learning. I will intervene only when necessary and only where my assistance is truly required.
How do I do this?
To begin, I must ensure that every student has a very clear understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. If they know the goal, they should be able to see where they fit in and determine for themselves how they can best contribute.
Tuesday, then will be a day of exploration. My students will play with the Watch Us Grow app to learn how augmented reality works. Our guided groups this week will revolve around understanding the technology and the purpose of tourism websites.
And there lies the problem. It's not my project. This project belongs to my students, to class 62. If I am to truly serve as a facilitator of learning, every step along the way has to belong to them. I could so easily hijack this project and simply slot my students into tasks in order to meet our goal. My job will be to back off and let them figure this out for themselves.
Which makes me realize just how often I take over and direct learning in order to reach a goal that I have determined to be essential. Sometimes it is necessary. If my students' writing is incoherent, it is my job to address writing skills. Sometimes, however, I do this for expediency's sake. There is so much to cover and it is easiest if I plan the course of learning and then push my students through it in order to tick off curriculum expectations or prepare them for EQAO. When I do this, I deny my students their autonomy.
I view this project as an opportunity to carefully examine my role and to consciously develop balance. I will deliberately step back as much as possible so my students can engage in rich, deep learning. I will intervene only when necessary and only where my assistance is truly required.
How do I do this?
To begin, I must ensure that every student has a very clear understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. If they know the goal, they should be able to see where they fit in and determine for themselves how they can best contribute.
Tuesday, then will be a day of exploration. My students will play with the Watch Us Grow app to learn how augmented reality works. Our guided groups this week will revolve around understanding the technology and the purpose of tourism websites.
Heidi, It's great that you can step back and think about what you need to do for your students to be successful on their own. How we set the stage determines what will happen next. It is part of our new role as being a real facilitator. Looking forward to reading how things go.
ReplyDeleteHi JoAnn,
ReplyDeleteSetting the stage ... that is a great to describe what our new role is. This creates a very useful visual. Thanks.
Hi Heidi,
ReplyDeleteHere's a list of various areas of the app that can be used as a learning experience
Firstly, product design. ie. "What is the purpose of the app?"
It's a tourism app, but who is the audience? Is it for adults? Is it for families with kids in elementary and middle school? (K-8)?
If it's for families, what are things that they would be interested in?
Family friendly attractions?
Restaurants and cafes?
Parks? Game arcade?
Local toilets?
Shopping?
Local history that kids find interesting?
Why not ask your students what they think are interesting about your town?
---
Then items needed for the app:
An App icon (use it to teach a bit of design - can point you to some blogs talking about app icon design etc)
Splash screen (more graphic design and learning about digital screens and DPI - dots per inch etc.)
Home menu (decide on main categories, plus background image)
News & Events - how will this be updated? Can it load a blog page that the kids can edit over time?
An "about this app" type page where the students can write something about themselves.
Each listing needs
A short description
A long description
The descriptions can any in any style you like. They could be funny, or down to earth. They could be in a journalistic style, or a more tourism brochure style. They could even be a conversation between a few characters. It's up to you and your students.
Contact details
- street address
- phone
- fax (optional)
- email
- website
GPS location
Each location can have up to 8 images (one image minimum)
The first three images will need to be resized to specific dimensions - there will be some skills required for image manipulation. We'll also need captions for all the images.
Those are the general requirements. I'm not sure how long you wish to take on this project, so we can make items as long or short as your like. For example, if you don't have time to spend on graphic design, we can do something very simple for the icon, or the home screen etc. It's up to you.
If you have more questions, just post them on the blog?
Hope this helps,
- Ian
Hi Ian,
ReplyDeleteThis really helps. Thanks.
If you could point us to app icon design and splash screen info that would be helpful.
We have two months to complete this project. Then my students will be on summer holidays. Most of my students have photoshop skills so resizing shouldn't be a problem. Does it matter what kind of camera we use?
Here are some examples of blogs talking about iPhone icons:
ReplyDeletehttp://mobile.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mobile-design-tutorials/killer-tips-for-iphone-and-ipad-icon-design/
http://www.visualdesigner.be/2010/01/05/designing-iphone-icons/
http://inspirationfeed.com/2011/03/20-examples-of-detailed-ios-application-icon-designs/
I know Royan need a little bit with his class as well - maybe he could chime in?
The splash screen can be anything you want. (It has to be 960x640 pixels). The best thing is to work out who your audience is, then work backwards from there. Pitching the "brand" for the app influences everything else. It will also influence the Home Screen menu design and the color scheme for the top navigation bar (the big green bar at the top in the app) etc.
It doesn't matter what camera you use. Whatever the students are comfortable with. They can all use different ones. However, the images will need to be very specific sizes (all below one megapixel, so it doesn't matter about the camera) - their photoshop skills will be used though.
- Ian
BTW - just because it's a tourism app doesn't mean you have to make a tourism app. You can go crazy and turn it into a big location based narrative type app. For example, your kids could write a big collaborative narrative that takes you to different locations around the town - make it a spy mystery or whatever. They could take pictures of themselves in various locations enacting a story that's woven together as people explore Dundas etc. You're only limited by your imagination. :D
ReplyDelete