Bria Koch

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Artifact: 

• Report card infographic

• iBooks Author Blendspace

 

Description:

During the 2017-2018 school year, a report card committee was formed in the Seneca Valley School District to look at revising the current report card model and moving to standards-based grading. As part of this, I created an infographic to be sent out to parents and students detailing the changes that would be taking place.

 

Having previous experience with Piktochart as it was one of tools I taught to my PK-4 undergraduate students, I decided to use it again due to the ease in exporting and production. This was created in January 2018, viewed by committee members in February, and distributed to parents in March.

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In addition to the infographic, I wanted to demonstrate my ability to communicate information clearly using a web-based learning management tool. I have also included a Blendspace that I created during summer 2016, my first semester in the program, in GDIT 703: Foundations of Instructional Technology with Dr. Misook Heo. Though I created the Blendspace specifically for the course, I was also able to use this tool during my time teaching undergraduates in the LTET courses at Duquesne.

 

Reflection:

Though this is something relatively small, designing this infographic to be aesthetically pleasing and clear for a large number of stakeholders took a lot of time. When I was given this task by my principal, she provided me with three links to websites and basically gave me free reign to do whatever I felt best represented the district’s mission.

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Though there was a ton of information that I could have included, I wanted to make sure that even those who are not familiar with educational buzzwords and jargon would be able to understand the concepts easily. This infographic was for more than just people in the field of education, and I took that into account every step of the way. Overall, I was really proud of how the final infographic turned out, and my principal had nothing but the highest praise.

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I used the Blendspace that I created in more than one way which demonstrates my ability to model effective communication across the courses that I taught. Because I found Blendspace to be a useful tool, I introduced it to my undergraduate students in LTET 315: Instructional Technology for PK-4 Literacy. To demonstrate effective use of the tool, I rolled it together with another concept that we would already be learning. Learning iBooks Author was part of the course curriculum, and I thought it would tie-in well to demonstrate how to use the tool using the Blendspace that I created. Though additional tools were also used, I found this to be a good way for students to go back and reference how to use iBooks Author once we were out of class. As part of the initial creation of the artifact in GDIT 703, I included descriptions of the embedded videos and sites in the Blendspace.