Space

This week, I decided to use the smart art tools in Microsoft Word to build an image in Fireworks which represented space. In this image I organized information I needed to help students understand calorie, protein, carbohydrate, and fat contents of two different meals.  Each meal is composed of common foods students will have eaten, but the nutrition information for each of the meals is vastly different. Within my unit of instruction, students will be learning about digestion and creating a healthy plate.

It is important to remember that space helps organize information on the page so students can focus attention on specific information. Lohr, 2008, tells us that "space can direct the eye to important information by chunking and separating instructional elements" (p 272).  Using two separate smart art graphics, where each one representing a different meal, has helped me to chunk the information for students.  In addition, the space between the squares within the meal has chunked the nutritional information even further.


This image fits on a 8.5 x 11 inch paper and will be printed for students to compare and contrast in a discussion with peers using the nutrient and calories per day data at the bottom of the image. While some of the text seems small, it is very easy to read once printed out. I'm still torn about how to align the per day calorie and nutrient information at the bottom of the image. Currently I have it center aligned.  (fixed that and put it at the top of the page instead of at the bottom.)

My original image had colorful food and drink graphics with a black and white square beneath it. My reviewer felt it would be neat to give the healthy meal a green color for "go" and the unhealthy meal and red color for "stop".  I had to agree once I used the green and red fill colors for the squares.  Not only does it have visual appeal, but hopefully will direct students to choosing which meal is the best for a healthy body.

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson 

Organization

This week, my task was to create an image with organization in mind.  I found this graphic to be one of the central themes that I want students to walk away knowing when they are finished with this unit.  Knowing that there would be lots of information I needed to address, chunking the information would reduce the cognitive load for students.  According to Lohr, 2008, it's important to keep fewer, rather than more, chunks if we want the learner to process the information, and that chunk sizes vary (p 125).  I've kept the information within each chunk between 5 and 7 bullet points.
The first thing I wanted my learners to notice when they looked at this graphic was the colorful title. Therefore, I decided to list the headings for the major and minor nutrients at the bottom of the chunk so the eye wasn't distracted by them.  I used blue for major and purple for the minor nutrients then repeated that with the headings below to show which were major or minor nutrients.
In addition to the color matching, I've matched the way I organized the information within each of the boxes of chunked information.  Starting with how they are divided, examples, calories, and use. Creating an organization structure is one technique Lohr discusses to show that reading order is important in instruction design messages. (p 133)
My original image did not have colors in the title that matched the headings for the major and minor nutrients.  My reviewer felt it would help the learner understand better which were major nutrients and which were minor nutrients.

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson 

Color and Depth

In the image below, I incorporated several aspects of the instructional functions of color such as labeling and representing reality.  In addition several reasons for using color are represented in the image and include selection, organization, and integration.

Overall goals of my unit include students learning about the processes of digestion, absorption, and elimination. Students will specifically learn the various places where absorption takes place within the digestive tract including the small intestines.  Lohr , 2008, tells us that "The first function of color is to label or differentiate information" (p 265).  In my image, I used color to emphasize and separate not only the divisions of the small intestines, but the name as well.  I've done this in several locations throughout the image.  In addition, color also helps us understand sections or details (Lohr, 2008, p 265).   By using color, students will be able to visualize the duodenum, jejunum, and ileum not only with respect to location, but with respect to size as well.

I chose the color blue because, as explained in our text, middle spectrum colors are associated with greater acuity, facilitating recognition, and perception.  In addition to the blue, the background of my image is slightly orange.  I wanted to play around with the color wheel and incorporate a complementary color.

Finally, after creating several images for my unit, my reviewer really liked my image.  I'm not going to make any changes at this point.  

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson 

Emphasizing Figure and Ground

My task this week has to do with emphasizing figure and ground.  Lohr, 2008, tells us that figure is the important components of the graphic, whereas the ground are the supporting details (p. 108).  My unit of instruction focuses on students creating a healthy plate.  They cannot do this without knowing how much major and minor nutrients our bodies need every day.  Using several principles of figure/ground, I created an organizer for students to record the daily nutrient amounts for both females and males of their age.

Within my graphic, I've included three key characteristics of effective instructional visuals include concise, concrete, and concentrated.  My graphic is concise as it helps the learner distinguish the information.  I've used darker grays on the headings to call attention to them, and to help the learner distinguish between them and the major or minor categories beneath.  In addition to using the grays to highlight the figure, I've also used a different color.  For this unit, my learners are focusing on recommended dietary allowances (RDA) for their age group.  When students use this graphic to research the amounts in each category, they will find many charts that list the RDAs for people of all age categories. The charts can be very overwhelming because they list data for every person. This concentrated graphic will help students to understand what is needed for people in their age group.  Finally, my graphic is concrete because the headings help the students determine that they are interested in finding daily needs of each nutrient.  In addition to that, students will find out that each nutrient will either be a milligram or a microgram.

Initially, I used a light background fill color for each of the different nutrient types. For example, my major nutrient was red, vitamins were blue, and minerals were green. My reviewer found that to be too much color, so I changed it to dark and light grays.

Figure/Ground Organizer  


Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson 

CARP: Contrast, Alignment, Repetition, and Proximity

For this weeks' assignment, we were challenged to create an image that follows the rules of CARP: contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity.  To say the least, this assignment was very challenging for me.  Again, my unit focuses on the digestive system with students creating a healthy plate as their culminating activity. My audience are students in a ninth grade health and wellness course.  While I know students have a basic understanding of the digestive system, my diagram along with the structures and functions are a bit more detailed than they are used to.  Most body processes can be quite complicated for students to understand, so I've tried to help students easily find the structures in the digestive system by matching the colors on the image to the text.  In addition, I've focused my descriptions to digestive functions only.

The design action contrast shows two or more elements very different from one another. I tried to show contrast in two ways in my image.  I used the background color white and the text color black. In addition, I've tried to use darker, solid colors in the image of the body against the white background.

For each of the descriptions that surround the image of the body, I've aligned the colored text with the black text.  In addition, each of the descriptions are left aligned to the page, and horizontally with each other on the page.

I've demonstrated repetition throughout the image with the descriptions.  Each description has a colored structure along with a black description. Lohr, 2008, explains that "when you employ repetition, you take some element of the visual and use it again. This can create a sense of harmony and unity." (p 203)  The same text is used over throughout the image as well.

Finally, the descriptions are close to the actual structures in the image of the body.  Having these related things close to each other demonstrates the design action of proximity.  Lohr, 2008, explains that "when elements are close together, they seem related; and when they are far apart, they seem unrelated".  (p 203)

The reviewer of my image pointed out that on my original image, the text boxes for the images were not the same size.  It was such a small difference and one that I had never thought of.  My reviewer is our elementary art teacher, and I appreciate his eye for the details in a graphic.  I fixed the description text lengths so that it was aligned on the left and on the right.

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson 

The ACE Model

My instructional unit focuses on creating a healthy plate using information gathered over a period of about two weeks.  Students will be engrossed in learning about the structure and function of the digestive system where they will discover how foods are broken down, why we need certain nutrients, and where those nutrients are absorbed in the body. 

My assignment this week was to use the ACE model to create a visual that supports students’ formation of learning.  During the analyze phase, the A in the ACE model, your main goal is to determine the overall instructional purpose of the visual (Lohr, 2008, p 75) My visual is an organizer where students will gather the main information that will be used to create the healthy plate on their final project.

When I began creating, the C in the ACE model,  I first started with a Venn diagram, much like the example in our textbook, but realized it wouldn’t work because I had too many ideas merging together.  I decided on the table format, because it was simpler and easier for students to understand. All of my food graphics are representational, mainly because my students aren’t learning about a process or trying to interpret something, they are simply learning about foods which have specific nutrients.  I used a couple of tools in fireworks to create the graphics including the glow effect and matching of colors using the color matching tool.  Oftentimes, foods are referred to by their color, for example “green” leafy vegetables or “red” meats.  I used glow colors to represent those colors most often referred to that particular food group or item. 

Finally, I thought about my learners and whether or not it could be effective, efficient, and have appeal to them.  I feel like my visual does a good job helping students to record the information needed for their final project, and the food graphics will certainly help them to make connections to their everyday food choices.  My usual graphic reviewer was very happy with this visual.  The only thing that he suggested I change, was the font I used for headings.  At first I used a decorative font, which he thought was difficult to read.  I changed it to Arial, known for its readability and simplicity.

ACE Model Graphic Organizer

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson

Shape Tools

After I finished reading Chapter 10: Shape Tools,  it was undeniable what image I needed to create. My students, who are freshman, will create a "healthy plate" as their culminating project after participation in my instructional unit on nutrition.  

Students have a difficult time visualizing what a healthy plate looks like, not only with respect to what types of foods go on the plate, but the quantities of the foods as well.  I decided to use an oval for my base shape to model an actual plate.  Lohr, 2008, states that a base shape should be created as an underlying instructional visual with type and other design elements around the shape. (p. 250).  I divided the oval into separate parts, with each of those parts representing the quantities of food students will be putting on the plate in their final project.   I incorporated two font types; Broadway for the bold large text outside the oval and Tempas Sans for the text inside the oval. I also tried to help students visualize the quantities of the different foods by varying the text size based on the amounts of foods within each of the parts on the healthy plate. 

I have incorporated circles and triangles into my graphic as well.  Lohr explains that shape improves instruction through the use of simple shapes such as circles and ovals which imply harmony, show processes, focus attention, and show elements of systems or subsystems” (2008, p. 250) My graphic uses ovals and circles to help students visualize the elements of a healthy meal. 

As usual, I had our elementary art teacher and good friend look at my visual to help me make it better. Initially, my visual was simply black and white, but he suggested I add some color to increase its appeal to students.  I decided to use the glow effect and our school colors of black and orange.

Lohr, L.L. (2008).  Creating graphics for learning and performance: Lessons in visual literacy (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle, NJ:Pearson