Lucas? Cameron? Spielberg?

Congratulations Design Tech Directors!

By now each of you has tasted success in creating your unique, personal and professional digital video tutorial!  Being the director, producer, actor/actress, camerman/woman and editor was not an easy job but you did it.  Along with your storyboards, scripts and shot lists you've all pulled off a product that could potentially effect thousands, even millions of people in the future is some very positive ways.  Becoming an information producer, instead of just a consumer, is the first step towards being an active participant in our global knowledge marketplace.

The question now is...  How well does this product you've created solve your goal?..  How successful is it?...  How could it be improved?... What could you have done differently?.. OK, that's more than just on question!

It's time for us to evaluate our video.  It's nice for us to just reference our personal feelings... but there has to be a way to get a better, clearer idea on just how good of a product we've created.  That's where our Design Specifications come in.

We can use our Design Specifications to help us test out and evaluate our product.  Many of use may also try to go beyond using our own personal feelings by collecting objective feedback from others.  One way to do this would be to create a data collection mechanism like a survey or form and have people anonymously fill it out after watching our videos.

A great place to share these surveys (with our videos) would be to embed them into our blogs with a new blog post.  That way helps us to keep our blog fresh and relevant with an update and provides us with a space to easily and aesthetically display our video and collect feedback all at the same time.

Most of you have started to create your own surveys while in class.  If you're struggling to create a quality survey, be sure to check out the first video after this (also linked here).  When finished crafting your survey, be sure to check out the next video that shows you how to embed your tutorial video and your form into a new blog post (also linked here).

In the end, we'll be able to use the data we collect to help us make a determination on how successful our product is.  Remember, before creating the question in your Google Form, be sure to think about what type of responses you're looking for.  You might even want to write down your questions first before transferring them into the Google Form.

How to Create A Google Form (or Survey) in Your Google Drive by Lydia.com

How to Embed a YouTube Video and Google Form into a New Blogger Blog Post by Mr. Connors

Singing in the Rain

Le Jardin Academy is located in a beautiful setting: at the base of the Koolau Mountains. The Koolaus provide a picturesque backdrop to the school... and ensure that we receive our fair share of rain-showers on a weekly basis.

Unfortunately, most students don't bring umbrellas to school. Fortunately, they do know how to be creative and use the design cycle to help them create products and solutions to keep themselves dry when the weather turns. 

Over the past two weeks our 7th graders have been working with the challenge of designing and building "Rain Hats" that would keep them and their belongings dry as they dash from class to class. These hats needed to be constructed out of materials that could be found in the common classroom and manipulated with a few simple tools. Each student was provided 45 minutes of time to fabricate their covering based on sketches they designed and the plans they developed for themselves.

When the construction phase was over, they all gathered on the soccer field for testing... and while it didn't rain... we found an alternative that was just as great! Thank goodness for the modern convenience of a hose and water spigot.

Each student wore their rain hat as Mr. Connors thoroughly doused them with the hose. Amazingly most of the hats held up spectacularly keeping both the students' heads and clothes relatively dry. The action was too good to believe. Be sure to take a look at the slideshow below and be on the lookout for the videos that are soon to follow!

Now, If only I could find my spigot key!

Design Challenge

The Challenge

This week we begin a design challenge to give you all some basic experience in solving problems through design.  Normally we would have weeks to go through the entire process of coming up with the most appropriate solution or product after much time spent researching, planning and building.  For this challenge, a quick start should get us all up and moving.

Here's our problem: Le Jardin is located in a beautiful setting, at the base of the Koolaus... but it rains a lot!  Often, students forget their umbrellas!  How could we use commonly available materials to create a garment/hat to protect our heads from the elements?

The Challenge is set and the Specifications have been brainstormed on.  In your Google Doc, you've been tasked with completing the first 3 sections of your design challenge worksheet on your own before coming to our next class.  You should have a fairly clear idea of what you features you want your hat to have and how it should function.

Be sure to keep in mind the following:

• Your hat needs to be made out of materials and resources that can be found in the common classroom.  In reality, you wouldn't have time to rush out to Home Depot or Hardware Hawaii to buy supplies... would  you?
• You'll be required to bring your won construction materials to class, however, I'll provide some basic tools to measure, cut and join your materials together.
• We will eventually test these out!  Be sure to take into account that you will have a product (of your own design and build) that will need to protect you from the elements.

We'll have about 45 minutes of class time to construct your hat, then we're outside testing.  So... don't forget to bring a change of clothes, a towel and some slippers for our testing and construction day!

Here are the section build and test days!

• Friday, September 6th - Shamrock
• Monday, September 9th - Aqua
• Tuesday, September 10th - Bubble Gum

Images
Art Club Hat Project - Merri Chapman

Welcome Back!

Aloha 7th Graders!

Welcome to back to school and 7th Grade Design Tech!  I can't wait to meet all of you as i've met a few of you and can't wait to meet the rest!

This is our class blog for Design Tech.  It's the place you'll go to find out what's going on in class, where to go to get help and what's expected of you.  It will be my way of communicating to all of you and your parents about our units of work (assignments and deadlines), upcoming events (activities) and much more.

I know that were going to learn a lot this year - all while having a great time!  If you have any questions or comments, please let me know! See you all soon!

Google Search - For the Win!

Google Search is probably the most well known product Google has as part of it's application and web program offerings.  The company that has brought us Google Docs/Drive, Gmail, Google Maps, Chrome and the Android operating system also purchased Youtube not so long ago.

Contrary to what many think, when you perform a Google search, you're not actually searching the web, you're actually searching Google's index of the web... or at least as much as they can find of it.  Google's strength is to take all the sites on the web they index and compare them against your search terms using over 200 different questions.  They then rank the pages they think will best help you find what your're looking for... all in under 1 second.  (Don't believe me?  Just ask Matt!)

Finding what you want on the web should be simple with all of Google's amazing built-in-wizardry running in the background.  But without the knowledge of how to ask the right questions or how to sort through the potential millions of returns... You might end up spending more time then you bargained for...

This leads us to a quick 3 lesson series on how to get the most out of Google Search... (click here to get worksheet A for lessons #1 & 2 or worksheet B for lesson 3.)

Lesson #1:  Picking the Right Search Terms (Youtube Walkthrough Video)

How can appropriate search terms and queries guide targeted searches?

Individual Search Terms become Queries when we group them together to perform a search.  Sometimes we might ask a question (complete with a ? for punctuation), other times we might Parse the question to provide more appropriate Keywords for a better targeted query?

Four steps for successful parsing:

1. Look for Keywords
2. Use Synonyms for "maybe" statements
3. Add missing information
4. Remove unnecessary words

Here's two example queries that will help demonstrate this point:
Original Question: What food does Tyson like best?
Parsed Query: food Tyson favorite Percy Jackson

Lesson #2: Understanding Search Results (Youtube Walkthrough Video)

What do I need to know to help me choose the right links?

Each time you do a Google Search in the Search Bar you’ll be given a variety of data in return that includes your Natural Results,  Advertisements (Ads) and Search Filters.  The natural search results show the Web Address and include a Snippet of information that will assist you in determining if it holds any useful information for you.  The web address of a result can clue you in to how useful it might be if you’re able to decode the Server Name, Domain and other Suffixes.

After doing a quick search of the search terms "wind power" you should get a similar result as shown in the image above.

Image courtasy of: http://bigwebfaq.com/what-are-the-parts-of-a-domain-name/

Each web address designates what file or website will open when you click on it. The domain name (or address) includes the name of the site and a suffix, in most cases one of the following: .com (most companies), .org (used for organizations), .net (for network based site), .edu (colleges and universities, .gov (government run sites), .mil (military sites), etc.  

Some sites might have an extra two digit suffix that indicates that site is hosted on a server outside our country: .uk (England), .au (Australia), .jp (Japan), etc. Finally, each address may or may not end with a file extension name such as .htm/.html (website), .doc (Work document), .mp3 (music file), .jpg/gif (image files), .ppt (presentation file), etc.  

By examining a web address, you can often get a sense and idea of what type of information you'll find if you were to click on the link to go to that site. Some sites are better than others when it comes to research for the classroom. Can you think what type of site domain names or suffixes would help you find valid research information from a local university? You could if you knew how to read the domain name!

Lesson #3: Narrowing a Search to Get the Best Results (Youtube Tutorial)

What filtering strategies help me find accessible sources from the Web?

Successful Google searches can be narrowed down by effectively using the built in search Filters to better define your queries. Google filters can assist you in locating Sites with Images, locate resources by Reading Level, Maximize Image Searches and help broaden or expand your query and more.  

The Sites with Images filter gives preference to sites where the text matches your query but also includes a number of images. This can be helpful for younger searchers where text-only results may be more difficult to read and interpret. 

The Reading Level filter can be used for filtering through results for technical words or helping you to understand complex concepts. Setting search options to "Basic", "Intermediate" or"Advanced" will tailor the vocabulary level and sentence structure of the text on the resulting web pages. 

Filtering searches using the Image filter allows the user to quickly find images based on size, color and type.

Time for Testing!

You did it!  We researched, designed, planned, created and finished our final blogs!  As you look at your finished product, you should be proud of your accomplishments.

Now, in this phase, you will take a step back to reflect on the outcome of your product.

Your task is to create a post that includes and addresses the following:

1. Introductory Paragraph (to help readers understand the need and process of evaluating a final product.
2. What are your feelings about your final product? (Positive and/or negative
3. What aspect of your final product are you most proud of and why?
   
4. How does your final product meet your design specifications i.e. your personal criteria, functional blog requirements, design elements and your personality/theme?
   
5. What features or functions on your blog would you change to make a better product?
   
6.  Moving forward, what steps can you take to grow your blog and use it as a tool to have a positive effect on yourself and your community?
7. How effective do you feel you were in this unit?  What actions or behaviors will you carry over or change for our next unit?
8. What learner profile do you think you best exhibited in this unit and which profile do you feel you would like to work on and strengthen for the next unit?
9. Conclusion paragraph (that sums up the success of your final product.)

You may either do this in written or video format.  If you opt for the video option, note the following:

• Suggested web tool to create video:  http://screencast-o-matic.com/
• Video length should be no more than 5 minutes.
• Video must be uploaded to your YouTube channel and then embedded in your blog post.

Here's an example reflection from Tobi a current Design Tech MYP 2 student at Yokohama International School in Japan.

To earn a 5 – 6, make sure:

• € comprehensively tests the product/ solution against the design specification
• € thoroughly evaluates the product/ solution based on testing and suggests possible improvement
• reflects on his or her performance at  each stage of the design cycle and identifies ways in which his or her performance could be improved
• considers the impact the product may have on individuals and/or on society

Due Dates:

• Pink and Purple:  Dec. 18th (T)
• Yellow:  Dec. 19 (W)

Planning for the Finish Line

Can you see it off in the distance?  It's right there!  Our blogs are almost finished...

At this point of the unit we would normally be planning the steps and actions we would take to build and create our product or solution.  We would start determining what resources, equipment and tools we would need, how much time each of the steps might take and what support on knowledge we would need to acquire or call upon.

In this unit, we've already begun the process of creating our blogs.  In fact, each of you already has a functional working blog that you've been modifying continuously over the last few weeks.  So instead of planning to build a blog...  we're going to plan on how to finish our blog...

Many of the functional and aesthetic aspects of our blogs are in place.  There are just a few of the elements that need to be added or tweaked before our blog is finally ready for prime time.  Which elements?  Well according to our functional sketches and blog template mock-ups...  we still need to ensure we have a...

• functional Menu,
• a complete Author Bio Page,
• an appropriate unique URL,
• a Background that matches our theme
• appropriate and functional Gadgets,
• a clean and organized Layout,
• and an optional Banner!

As we've talked about in class, we should plan on finishing these items are part of our create page by following the guidance we've received by looking over our Design Criteria, the Functional Blog Sketches and our Template Mock-ups.

As we have little time left to use this semester, it will be up to you to determine when the best time for you to work on these items will be.  Mrs. Okumura and I have come up with an Action Plan Worksheet to help you plan and budget your time appropriately by coming up with some task action steps, complete with space for you to plan when you'll work on these items and to check off when you have completed them.

Additionally we've put together a set of tutorial resources videos to better help you begin creating and fixing each of these items after using your Action Plan Worksheet to determine what your priorities are and when you'll get to them.  To access these resources, please view the linked videos below:

Creating a Menu and Author Bio Page in Blogger
Choosing a Unique URL for your Blog (The blogs web address) [Linked Articles: #1, #2, #3]
Adding Appropriate Gadgets (includes ClusterMap)
Adjusting your Blog Layout [coming soon]
Adding a Banner (using SumoPaint)

Due Dates:  

• All tasks in your action plan should be completed by Tuesday, December 11 (R day).

Image Credits:
Runner's Den by Dru Bloomfield. Creative Commons Licensed on Flickr