Reflections+on+assignments+in+EDLD+5366


 * In EDLD 5366, our first assignment was to design a logo. In weeks 3-5 we had to create a 4-page newsletter with an an educational focus. Perhaps the knowledge I gained from taking this class was knowing that for CIT certification a huge component of the test involves desktop publishing. I learned about proportion in terms of overall design and how it relates to how people search for perfection in visual. In this sense, really the course was a confirmation of what I have learned in college and working as a graphic designer. The purpose of the logo design was to state, in a graphical way, a description of our professional vision. It was suggested in this course that we kept our final newsletter for further reference in our professional endeavors. I already knew how to create logos, how to make publications using Microsoft Publisher, and all about spot and process color separations, serif and sans serif fonts, as well as the principles of basic design - contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity- etc.. **
 * Perhaps this course served as a refresher for me, as I had not done basic desktop publishing in years. Out of personal experience, I have noticed that many students have more experience publishing than several of our teachers. It is easier to teach desktop publishing to children than to adults. Although I enjoyed the course very much and I knew how it relates to TEKS, I recall that a lot of people who took the course did not like it and kept questioning the rationale of including it in the course altogether. Some people stated that if they wanted to take graphic design they would have done it,or that the only reason why they enrolled in the program was to earn more money at their respective districts. This was quite uncomfortable for me as I felt that such comments were not justified by reason, and in many cases reflected the same apathy or reluctance colleagues have toward technology to begin with. Completers of this course will find out that the Technology Applications TEXES exam heavily addresses the knowledge attained in this class. **
 * At school I realized that desktop publishing is very tied to political purposes. In attempting to demonstrate my skills as a future Master of Education in Technology Leadership, I was part of a campus effort to publish a school newspaper called the StarGazer. Although the nature of my initiative was to contribute to the learning community, the truth is that most of the community thought that the purpose of the StarGazer was to help a certain teacher pursueentry into the administrator program and had no relevance beyond that. Once the publication started, other people thought that the publishers’ call for collaboration toward this project was really taking advantage of other people’s time and effort and not creating content at all. Pressure due to TAKS administration and insufficient submissions were the reason why the end-of-year StarGazer was never published. Next year, I want to undertake authorship of my own Special Education publication; I plan to invite the other members of my team once the first two issues are distributed. There were no situations in particular that puzzled me and my only question, from a practical standpoint, would be what specific responsibilities would an instructional technologist have in the overall desktop publishing duties within a campus. **