Prototype of UI for SciAnim2

This is prototype of the user interface I have designed for the SciAnim2 Project. You can view the finished SciAnim2 projects on the STAR Wiki. The large white area is where the graphics and animation will be. As the teacher, I did not create any graphics or animation, that is the students' job.

Each scene (or page) of this project will have animation. This image is for scene 4 - Streaking the Bacteria. When you first arrive on the page, the animation will be stopped. Clicking the Play Button will play the animation. The animation on Scene 4 will end with the image of a streaked plate. Clicking the Play button again will replay the animation. When the animation is playing, audio of the text will play. The Previous button goes to the previous scene, the Next button goes to the next scene. Clicking any of the buttons will also Stop and previously playing sounds.

For this design I tried to incorporate the following:

• A strong visual framework. - I wanted to locate the various elements on each page so I chose to use shades of gray for each section. A border and title of dark gray, the text on a light gray section, and a white window for the images and animation.
• Repetition - I repeated the Font in the title, text, and buttons... this would also be repeated on every card. Also, the design of the buttons is repeated.
• Alignment - The text, the buttons, and the titles were all carefully aligned with each other and the edges of the page.
  

Welcome - About this Blog and Me

Welcome to the Multimedia@CPH - Spring 2011 Blog. I am the Multimedia teacher at Castle Park High School in Chula Vista, CA. I started teaching Multimedia@CPH in 1998 and have been teaching some form of it ever since. This year, I am teaching Drafting (also since 1998), Multimedia, and STAR (Science Technology And Research) - a part of our Science Innovation Academy (SIA) but currently just a variation of Multimedia.

At a recent meeting with teachers of similar subjects in my district, another teacher and I shared how we do Digital Portfolios with our students. I have been using Wikispaces with my students for about 2 years. The students upload their finished projects and each student has a portfolio page where they link all of their projects. I also use the class wiki to grade their projects and we have a page for each project. You can follow these links to the Multimedia and Multimedia (SIA) sites on Wikispaces.

The other teacher has been using blogs for his student portfolios. There are some advantages to each, so this semester we will use both. It will be my and many of my students first attempt at using blogs.

My initial vision is that students will be posting projects to their blogs. Students could both upload their project and write something about it. This could be very enlightening, especially for mid-project deadline where the student might be asked to explain what they completed recently or what they are planning to do. Additionally, other students could leave comments on the blog. I plan on continuing to use the wiki for the finished portfolio and projects though.

I will use this blog to post samples for my students so they can see how to use their own blogs. Additionally, I may use this blog to post some student work.

I hope this will be a powerful learning experience for all of us.