Module 4.1 Information Design

Content Design - Information Mapping and Graphic Organizers
Navigation - General Rules and Tools; Flowchart examples
Usability - Best Practices

Content Design

Curriculum Mapping


It is important to have an overview of your curriculum for the entire school year before you plan a major technology rich project. Reflect on each subject area you teach. Using Inspiration™ Map out your school year. See the following example for 6th grade social studies:

Do this for each subject you teach.

Next, select the area you would like to turn into your project. Think thematically about how this curricular area fits with your other curriculum areas. For example if you choose Early Man, students can read Maroo of the Winter Cave for language arts. They can create a diary of Maroo’s journey as if they were Maroo. Number systems might be a good mathematics fit. Cave art would be an appropriate art activity. Plate Tectonics and Earth's Structure might be an appropriate science fit. Only include curricular area which are an obvious fit. The following WebQuest might be a good activity for your students: http://projects.edtech.sandi.net/lewis/caveart/.

Using Inspiration™ create a thematic chart for this curricular are. For now, put your curricular area in the center of the chart. See the following example:


Later you will take this chart and find the content standards that match your project’s curricular areas. Then you will write goals and objectives for your

Information Mapping and Graphic organizers:
These are graphical tools that can be used to organize information. They are powerful because they show relationships between different types of information. They generate ideas for understanding, categorizing, or writing.

A graphic organizer forms a picture of information and allows the mind 'to see' patterns and relationships. The emerging patterns and relationships create opportunities for decision making, sharing, and communicating information following a logical pattern or flow.

For more about Graphic Organizers:
http://www.graphic.org/goindex.html

Freemind Graphic Organizer -
Inspiration

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Navigation
 
Usability

Here's a usability checklist

Navigation

  • Architectural Logic – Information follows logical flow
  • A link to the home page is on every page
  • Navigation is consistent on every page
  • Topics are clear and prominent
  • Contact information or authorship is on every page


Design

  • Look & feel of each page is elegant and it enhances the presentation
  • Site wide design consistency
  • Images are relevant and meaningful
  • Images and illustrations are of high quality
  • Appropriate use of Multimedia or Flash

Content

  • Positioning of main topics and subtopics according to importance
  • Home Page Who, What, Why
  • Information is easy to skim through

Typography

  • Fonts are legible and compliment the design of the page
  • Format & layout follows basic design principles
  • Appropriate Use of Headers and Links
Technology
  • Browser compatibility – Has the web page been checked to see how it displays in different browsers?
  • Page Download time - Does the page load fast?
  • Graphics compression – Are images loading fast enough?
  • ALT tags for images

 

 

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