Well this process certainly didn’t run as soothly as I anticipated. There were quite a few challenges that came about from completing this assignment.
The first, was creating a learning document that that presented logical and important information, while using basic language for those with intellectual challenges, who could easily understand the information. Learning to live independently is an important skill for anyone to learn, at the same time, I didn’t want the students to feel that I was condescending or treating them like young children. To aid with this, I provided more complex language in the ‘Summary’ of the course, and I have used video to help convey information.
Second, I wanted to create a space that was visually attractive and inviting to teenagers. I don’t think I would choose to use Moodle next time for this reason. I was very limited with the type and size of font, as well as the placement of photos. /pictures. To simplify the navigation, I created a table (a YouTube video helped me with this) into which I cut and pasted symbols where I and embedded links to the different units.
A third issue was in creating a screencast. Wow. I can’t tell you how many times I stopped and restarted the video. I was limited with the software to use to create the screencast as my laptop is software protected, and I need permission from my district to download any software. Luckily, I was able to use Screencast but again, the free version was very limiting in the editing capabilities. Yikes, will need to delete this video from Youtube, asap.
Overall, I am happy with the start of this course, and I think that it would be beneficial to many students, especially those from smaller communities who need to connect with other students like themselves.