Dennis Barham Kim Davis

1. Dennis Barham Kim Davis Pathways to Technology MHS, Hartford Ct.

2. Outline • Introductions • About our school • Project Background • First Breakout • Second Breakout • Student samples • Website Project Demo • What we learned - Good News • What we learned – Improvement Opportunities • Q & A

3. Pathways to Technology • Grades 9 – 12 • Approximately 350 students • All students receive technology instruction; • Graphics, E-commerce, Web Development, Digital Video, Sound Production, Programming and then choose a specialty • College Prep (96% placement rate)

4. Project Background –Mountain Classroom • Mountain Classroom is the project of Mr. Alan Spier, a retired lawyer and long time outdoorsman • The project is a collaboration of the Hartford Public School system, The Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Trust for a Mountain Classroom • Approximately 40 students travel to New Hampshire for 4 days to study the environment – free of charge • The project completed it’s sixth year this Spring

5. Starting the Project –What NOT to do • PBL 101 ….How not to run a project (video)

6. First Breakout –Audience Analysis • Audience Analysis identifies the groups that will utilize a web site • Let’s try a simple technique to complete this task

7. First Breakout –Audience Analysis • Think about www.ups.com • What groups of people would use or visit the UPS site?

8. First Breakout –Audience Analysis • Rules for Brainstorming: • Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas • Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas • Quantity counts at this stage, not quality • Build on the ideas put forward by others • Every person and every idea has equal worth

9. Second Breakout –Logo Design • A quality web site functions, but is also attractive and well designed • Let’s examine the guidelines for graphics design • Graphics Design Guidelines

10. Second Breakout –Logo Design • Federal Express had several ad campaigns; • Here are some samples Fedex Ads • Your assignment is to sketch out a design for the Fedex campaign “The World, on time” that recognizes the principles of design

11. Second Breakout –Logo Design • The next approach is called a “gallery walk” • Tour the room and after seeing everyone’s work, assign one of your dots to each one: • Blue – best Yellow - 2nd best Red - 3rd best Here are some student samples

12. Student Samples • This is a sample of a student produced prototype of the site. • Every student produced one of these Web Site Prototype

13. Project Demo –Final Website • The actual project is presently on the internet at http://mtnclassroomhfd.org Production Web Site

14. What we learned – Good News • Problem Based Learning works! • A project focuses on the skills acquired in Web Design • Student “ownership” drove the project • Learning is facilitated by student inquiry • Getting to work is never a problem • Classes began with customer updates and project pointers • Small teams are key

15. What we learned – Improvement Opportunities • Formal training lessons for all project jobs • Weekly Rubrics for grading and feedback • Electronic Brainstorming • Teamwork and collaboration training

16. Can we answer any questions?