Today I was reminded of the importance of having a go at something myself, before I ask students to do it.
Creating a quick sample helps me anticipate the difficulties students might encounter, so I can know in advance what help I might need to offer, and I can select experienced students to act as mentors.
Secondly, it gives me an idea of how long the task might take.
I have been toying with the idea of creating infographics so I decided to make one, a "quick one" so I could have a sample to share with my students. The resulting product isn't exemplary in any way, does not contain information that I spent hours researching, and isn't remarkable in its use of graphics (in fact there are not enough of them, and they don't tell the information the way I'd like them to) YET IT TOOK ME 2.5 hours to put together! On top of that, I'm having formatting issues where the version in Piktograph does not look them same when I use the embed code on the blog, so words break where I don't want them to on a line and it's highly frustrating! I also realized how challenging it is to give attribution to photos when necessary, but NOT have the attribution overwhelm the infographic or get lost. It's really tough! See my asterisk on the infographic for what I'm talking about.
Thus, I am reconsidering the parameters of the task - the time allotted, the necessary pre-teaching, the background knowledge required before they begin - just because I created a quickie or "had a go" for myself.
I'll be much more understanding towards those who are creating then I would have been had I not attempted it first. Here it is for those who are interested in my fast sample:
https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1824783-the-benefits-of-reading
Creating a quick sample helps me anticipate the difficulties students might encounter, so I can know in advance what help I might need to offer, and I can select experienced students to act as mentors.
Secondly, it gives me an idea of how long the task might take.
I have been toying with the idea of creating infographics so I decided to make one, a "quick one" so I could have a sample to share with my students. The resulting product isn't exemplary in any way, does not contain information that I spent hours researching, and isn't remarkable in its use of graphics (in fact there are not enough of them, and they don't tell the information the way I'd like them to) YET IT TOOK ME 2.5 hours to put together! On top of that, I'm having formatting issues where the version in Piktograph does not look them same when I use the embed code on the blog, so words break where I don't want them to on a line and it's highly frustrating! I also realized how challenging it is to give attribution to photos when necessary, but NOT have the attribution overwhelm the infographic or get lost. It's really tough! See my asterisk on the infographic for what I'm talking about.
Thus, I am reconsidering the parameters of the task - the time allotted, the necessary pre-teaching, the background knowledge required before they begin - just because I created a quickie or "had a go" for myself.
I'll be much more understanding towards those who are creating then I would have been had I not attempted it first. Here it is for those who are interested in my fast sample:
https://magic.piktochart.com/output/1824783-the-benefits-of-reading
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