After reading this assignment and understanding what components make up the readability of a website, I started to consider websites I visit often that I either like or dislike. The website for my daughter’s swim team stands out to me as hard to navigate. I then started to contemplate why. It is on a primarily white background and it isn’t as busy as some in terms of the written material. However, it is almost outdated in its approach. In order to get any type of needed document you have to navigate your way through the downloads section resulting in a list of yellow word folders. You then need to find what you are looking for and download it. There are several different swim teams (based on age and level) and I feel that if they had each team as a tab across the top it may be more effective to navigate. According to our Beach textbook, people read online text for a specific purpose and they are looking to find their information quickly. The first time I used this site, it took me a significant amount of time to find the information I was after. Additionally, the site is not appealing. It has files listed on the front page and is lacking visual images.
Here is the website.
A website that I visit regularly and enjoy navigating is the Sesame Street website (my son’s favorite site). This website utilizes bright colors and vivid images of your favorite Sesame Street characters. There are tabs across the top that bring you to various games, and videos, etc. It is designed so that a child can navigate the site.
Here is the website.
I am not sure what kinds of activities I would use in my classroom for this topic. I don’t plan to have my students create websites. However, I found the information useful for myself as I am beginning to create online digital texts. I do have my students create power point presentations and I think that giving them examples of traditional vs. interactive power points would help them in developing effective presentations.
I found creating an interactive power point presentation challenging. I actually do not feel that is was successful. I wanted to create a power point that I would use in my classroom. I have to admit that I have only made a few in my career. I decided to create a presentation that would introduce Greek mythology to my students. I tried to use a storytelling approach in my presentation. However, it isn’t as interactive as I would like it to be. I posed questions throughout, but I think it would be stronger if I linked to other websites. In the original presentation, I had many effective transitions and music throughout. Both features enhanced the overall product. However, when I uploaded my presentation to Google docs all of the features disappeared. I was disappointed in that and I need to see if there is a way to avoid that from happening.
Presentation link
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Trista,
ReplyDeleteNice thoughts on the readability of websites. I, too, hadn't really thought about it but once I looked at the sites I go to often, I now clearly have favorites that I like/dislike based on the criteria covered in the class concepts.
About your powerpoint. I think you have a really great start, and there is potential here. Did you take a look at the "Prezi" presentation program? I played with it and LOVE it! It took a little to get it straight, but to be able to build a web of connected concepts and show the relationships between them was awesome! The connections between mythological stories and characters might fit better into the Prezi program. It might give it the life you feel this PP was lacking.
Good luck :)
Trista,
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on not seeing myself having students create web sites. I think that looking at websites is just another way to discuss and teach the "readability" of any presentation. My students had all these ideas on how to make my "boring" powerpoint more interesting, but when I pointed out to them how too much detail really is TOO MUCH, they understood. I brought it back to purpose (there it is again!); if I'm going to use color for some words, there has to be a point. I use red when I'm warning them about something, etc. Lots of ooohhs followed that example. :-)