Course+Reflection

I believe that learning the principles of design, such as the C.R.A.P.(2007, November 29). C.R.A.P. - Basic Layout and Design [Video file]. Video posted to [], are essential in being a successful technology leader. As leaders, we must create fliers, webpages and other material promoting school technology. It is important that the image is quality and aesthetically pleasing. I had no background in design and I was able to gain some valuable information on creating designs that are appealing and effective. I have worked with Photoshop editing photographs but never designing anything. The projects allowed me to explore various elements of the program that I didn't know how to use and provide me with insight into vector graphics. The discussion board served as a good area for peer critique of our designs but most importantly it allowed me to understand the elements of design on many different types of images. I had to look at all of the designs and evaluate which one were best and followed the concepts. The number one thing that I will use in the future is the learning how to brand myself for future employment and as a leader in the technology field. I want to put a logo/brand on a website that hopefully will be visited by many educators and I want people to remember my site and revisit. Alcantara, L (2009) The Art of Self-Branding

If I was a teacher in the classroom now I would be teaching English to high school students. The way that I would use website in my classroom is to have the students produce a website as a finalized product from their research of a specific literary topic. I like the idea of each student being responsible for his or her own page so I could grade that independently and also grade the entire website on how they worked as a group. Students would get cross-curricular experience using technology skills to build a website, design skills to design the site and pages, and research skills for the content portion of the site. Students would not only have to represent their work through words but also through images.