EDLD+5366+Digital+Graphics,+Animation,+and+Desktop+Publishing+Embedded+Assignment+Reflection

** Self-assessment  ** I thought I knew more about publishing a newsletter before I began this course than any other assignment that I completed during this program. I had published church newsletters for nearly 25 years, and had created a few newsletters since becoming an educator. I soon discovered that I did not know very much. I could produce good copy, but I did not understand the design issue. By listening to lectures and reading printed lectures by Dr. John Yearood, I became acquainted with the principles of design. The assignment forced me to consider the important communication task of identifying both my purpose and audience. I taught these concepts in my speech class, but somehow had not connected it to my publications. Dr. Yearwood (2009a) taught the importance of visual organization. He said “v isual organization helps a lot. Chiefly, alignment, contrast, and proximity help readers associate and track visual information. Yearwood (2009b) indicated that most of the time “ contrast is the single most important element in a design.” He defined contrast as the differences between things whether color, size, or shape. I learned the importance of repetition in establishing unity through emphasis on similarity. Dr. Yearwood stressed the importance of visual alignment of every aspect of a newsletter to form a pleasing and inviting design that draws the reader into the finished product. The last of these principles which form the acronym CRAP, is proximity. Proximity in design calls for things that should be together are place close enough to establish their relationship. I also discovered that text, graphics, and white space are placed on a grid that divides the page into vertical and horizontal thirds, referred to as the rule of thirds. Every page according to Yearwood (2009b) must have a dominant graphic that typically will utilize two/thirds of the divisions of the page to become the focal point. He stressed the need to provide clear indications for the reader of the importance of the stories and that it be easy to finish a story that must be interrupted with clear jump lines. Because of the requirement to identify the source of photos and graphics, I learned that these are also governed by copyright law. I discovered the vast difference between simple word processing applications and sophisticated publishing programs like Adobe’s InDesign. The specialized program provide the desktop publisher with “precise control over typography and built-in creative tools for designing, preflighting, and publishing documents for print, online, or to mobile devices” (Adobe Systems Incorporated, 2010) The sharp learning curve and the time constraints did not allow me to become proficient, but I do understand the basic operations. As my current class requires helping students create digital publishing products, I have ordered Adobe software for my lab. I was able to build on my previous knowledge and experience to understand the new information and apply it in the creation of a newsletter. Because I considered myself a good publisher, at first I resisted the expectation to use new software. I was comfortable with my word processing program, but as I progressed through the course, I came to see the difference between the capabilities of the former and latter choices. ** Learn as a learner  ** I knew that this would be a difficult project because of my past experience with gathering information to fill a four page newsletter. I decided to make the newsletter about debate since I had already considered information that all of my stakeholders needed. I also needed to create a product to share with those stakeholders. I knew that it would not be easy to learn a new publishing program, I just didn’t know how hard. I did not have much trouble gathering the information, photos, and graphics that I needed, but using InDesign was no easy task. I ended up calling on my daughter-in-law who worked in publishing to help me put the finishing touches on my newsletter. She helped by pointing out the features that I did not know about and guided me as I completed the assignment. I would rate this assignment the most difficult of all of the assignments during my program. I typically do not ask for help beyond that offered in a course of study. I have learned to collaborate and seek help as needed, but my work still has to be my work. Since this was not a group project it had to be my work. The evaluation of this project hinged on a self constructed rubric, so it was easy to assess my finished newsletter. I did consider my success to be higher than my instructional associate did. Even though the photos appeared fine both on my screen and on the printed copies, she took off points indicating that some were fuzzy. Apparently there was some variance in the platform that she saw the newsletter. It seems that the collaborative tools were not as important in this project as it was in others. It was helpful to discuss the readings and the progress of the project on the discussion board, but for the most part I worked alone except for the help provided my my daughter-in-law. ** Lifelong learning skills  ** I believe that the information coupled with the skills I learned will help me advance from producing a fairly good publications to a better publications. When I look at publications that I receive, I look for the principles of design and consider how I might use those principles in my own publications. I am able to apply the principles to the many publications that I must create or collaborate with others to create including flyers, posters, and web pages. I am also able to teach others including students and teachers these principles. I discovered that some things are best learned by doing. It would have been impossible to read the manual before beginning to use InDesign. I have also discovered that digital natives who populate my classes prefer to dive in to project and use texts to troubleshoot problems or look to the text just in time to complete their assignments. Collaboration has become a way of life for me. I frequently collaborate with colleagues within my district and across the state in designing instruction. I collaborate with my students as we learn together, and I teach students to collaborate. I am constantly looking for opportunities for my students to collaborate with a wider group of learners and experts and technology makes those opportunities a reality. Although I learned a great deal about desktop publishing, I know that there is more to learn. Since my students will soon be creating a publication, I need to refresh my knowledge and skills. I believe that my new knowledge will help me create publications but I wonder if it would be more beneficial to let the experts create the most important of those resources. I think I am better prepared to work with the experts and know what to ask for because of the course. **  References   ** Adobe Systems Inc., Initials. (2010). Adobe indesign cs5. Retrieved from http://tryit.adobe.com/us/cs5/indesign/tw1/?sdid=FNTFV&  Yearwood, J. (2009b). Basic design principles and some observations on how we see contrast repetition alignment ... proximity. [PDF document]. Lamar University Yearwood, J. (2009a) Basic elements of page design [PDF document]. Lamar University
 * Newsletter Project **