Your Weekly Digital Learning Compendium |
|
|
|
|
Happy Wednesday, Vampires!
Our society is more visual than ever, yet design literacy lags behind most other skills. How do we encourage our students (and ourselves) to expand design skills and visual literacy? This is what we will focus on today, with a nod to our guiding statement of Embrace Possibility. |
|
|
| |
|
|
CREATIVES SAY THAT THE BEST DESIGN IS INVISIBLE. |
|
| Maybe you never thought of it this way, but design is invisible when it works, when you don’t really have to decode anything to use a product. You will simply interact with it as you’re supposed to. |
|
But when it’s bad, its impact can be significant. |
|
Think about it: How often have you found yourself staring at a poster/leaflet/object that required multiple checks for understanding and prompted you to think “What on earth were these people thinking?!”
I mean, there is NO WAY people will pick up the wrong marker!  |
|
So, what’s good design anyway? |
|
We’ve all seen products, websites or digital experiences that we immediately thought of as “bad designs.” But what actually makes a design “bad”? And how do we learn to recognize and avoid those mistakes?
Being aware about basic design principles is the first step. |
|
Here are some excellent resources to get you started: |
|
Incorporating Visual Literacy Into Your Instruction
Visual Literacy is a skill that can and should be nurtured from a very young age. This article offers strategies for the Early Years, while this one focuses on Elementary and Middle-aged students. You can even learn by playing games with your students right here! |
Using Interactive Workbooks to Practice
We keep going back to Canva for its amazing array of options. Did you know you can use these interactive workbooks, in the Learn section, to see tips, tools and techniques you need to create stunning designs?
Please note: Canva can only be used by students who are 13+ |
|
Fantastic Tutorials
GCFGlobal.org helps millions around the world learn the essential skills they need on this day and age. Their design resources are superb, especially for use in the classroom. Tutorials are well paced, effectively designed, and easy to understand. Take a look at this treasure trove, with resources for beginner and intermediate-level designers! |
An Amazing Resource at Your Fingertips
Apple Keynote is a powerhouse when it comes to its design capabilities. We have used it right here at AISB to have students create large format infographics from scratch for PYPX, for example. This post offers great tips on some of its best features.
Check out our Grade 3s Keynote skills! |
|
As part of the Who We Are unit that focused on influential people, Grade 3 students have been thinking about their core values. They used Keynote to create animated GIFs to showcase these values.
|
|
Upskilling Your Photography Game Before (and After) the Long Weekend |
|
Photo Editing Techniques
Thursday, Sept. 15
12:15 to 12:45
ES Curriculum Office
 |
Photo Editing Techniques
Tuesday, Sept. 20
12:30 to 13:00
Digital Learning Office (Secondary Library) |
|
SHORTCUT: MAKE A GIF IN SECONDS |
|
 | | Learn to turn your Keynote slides into a gif with just a few clicks. (1min47s) |
|
|
|
|
