Dyad 59

Beth Bailey is a graduate student at URI and marketing director, working for the RI Office of the Postsecondary Commissioner. In these roles, I frequently present information to many different audiences. Additionally, I create presentations for my colleagues who, with encouragement, a template, and tutorials of cool tools, could assume control of their presentations. Creating a method for our staff to create slides quickly will decrease the amount of time spent building presentations and provide a consistent look-and-feel for our corporate identity. With more professional-looking presentations, we hope to improve stakeholder understanding of our goals, accomplishments and needs.

LaTis' Barnes is doctorate student currently pursuing a graduate degree in Teaching and Learning from National-Louis University. I work as an elementary teacher for Chicago Public Schools and with the recent push for remote learning, many teachers were faced with the challenge of providing rigourous learning tasks while juggliing the abiity to maintain student engagement while addressing the barriers associated with adminstering assignments using digital platforms. With this presentation, I would like to provide educators with the opportunity to expand on thier knowledge of digital tools and incorporate some of these tools in their furture planning for student learning.

Beth Bailey

CREATIVE BRIEF

Inquiry: How can we adapt the use of digital tools in presentations to improve communication of content?

What is the project? To create a presentation template in Google Slides. It will feature tools that users can employ to create more dynamic content for WEC presentations.

What do we know about the project? WEC staff have been relying on one person to create all presentations. To allow a more democratic process, where subject experts can create their own compelling slides, a template design will live in the shared WEC Google Drive for universal, any-time access. Users should be able to link to free and easy-to-use tools for content generation. The template will also provide advice on how to lay out and embed content so it is aesthetically pleasing and not compete with other imagery. The template needs to be flexible so that it can be used by staff for fund-raising, budgetary, legislative, community, and sales and marketing needs.

What is the brand personality? Modern. Bright. As a public-private partnership, the brand emphasis should veer away from a “government” look/feel.

What is the audience? Primary: Adults 18-54. The audience is two-fold: staff and community. The staff will use the template to share information about WEC. Some are comfortable with creating slides and a few are beginners. Most presentations to date have included only text and a smattering of photos and spreadsheets. The community will receive messaging about WEC via the presentations and accompanying videos, charts, graphics, memes, photos, and more.

How will it be used? Initially, it will be shared with the staff and live in the shared Google Drive. Other potential uses will be 1) interns who may be contributing to presentations; 2) partners such as Electric Boat, Governor’s Workforce Board, and RIC, who conduct joint presentations with the Executive Director; and 3) staff engaged in professional development and postsecondary education who wish to enhance their student and learning projects.

What are some of the necessary elements? Must include tutorials so users can quickly grasp how to use new tools. Needs to work in a horizontal format. Simple design preferred. Colors should be complementary to WEC’s palette .Inclusion of the logo elements will be needed. A variety of slide layouts, especially a cover slide and conclusion/contact slide. Links to tools.

LaTis' Barnes

In 21st century teaching and learning, the use of multimedia activities has shown significant improvements in students' achievement. Multimedia activities encourage students to work in collaborative groups, express their knowledge in multiple ways, solve problems, revise their own work, and construct knowledge. The advantages of integrating multimedia in the classroom are many. This spring, many schools around the world were forced to transition to remote learning platforms. This proved to be exceedingly challenging for many teachers and student learning was impacted. It is my belief, that with the proper training and access to digital resources, many teachers would have felt better equipped to provide students with the most effective learning opportunities, even in the absence of physical classroom spaces in school buildings. Through participation in multimedia activities, students can learn a host of new skills, including but not limited to, real-world skills related to technology, effective collaboration techniques, how to present information in compelling ways and techniques for synthesizing and analyzing complex content.

In this lesson, I invite teachers to explore different resources for presenting instructional content and assessing student learning. Teachers will explore the use of digital tools through the use of graphics and video and learn the benefits of incorporating such media into a lesson. Teachers will have the opportunity to reflect on their experience in both real-time and anytime learning workshops, and they will also have the opportunity to explore some of these resources in order to develop an instructional piece to be used in their own classrooms.

The access to anytime learning provides teachers with the ability to revisit the site at any time that is convenient for them. The real-time learning allows for collaboration with other teachers and access to real-time support from an multimedia “expert.” Teachers will learn the technique of making and using MEMEs for instructional purposes, use professional quality video to provide learners with content in a fun and engaging way, and then use flipgrid to reflect on their learning and potential use for digital media.