Assessment item 1 – Digital Citizenship Guide and Digital Artefact

What was the most challenging?

Where do I begin?! As a non-tech human, I knew this assignment’s elements were going to be a nail biting experience and push my own skill level to extremes. However, I did not let that stop me from exploring new horizons of technology, from making my very first website to creating my very first animated video, my personal skill level has definitely elevated and I have formed some very pertinent TL skills along the way.

The Digital Guide:

I’m glad I chose Google sites, as it was quite user friendly and gave an overall polished presentation that was suitable for my audience (Australian Primary school teachers). I  kept my audience in the forefront of all design choices, such as the amount of theoretical information vs practical information, which was a little tricky when balancing the assignment requirements vs the audience’s needs. As a primary school teacher myself, I knew it was very important to have user friendly headings and sub-headings to guide the process of information, as well as the abundant supply of hyperlinks that lead directly to the exact sources of information, as teachers are far too busy to go searching for links themselves. I wanted the digital guide to be a one-stop-shop.

The Digital Artefact:

Two words- ‘Time consuming’, admittedly probably because it was my first time and I had trouble sifting through the array of  choices to find the software that was the right fit. Another challenge was the ‘free’ portions of the site, which didn’t always fit the type of media that we were expected to create. Once using Animaker it took me a few hours to find my rhythm and understand the software capabilities (if I had more time, watching some tutorial videos would have helped). Though, overall, I’m proud of the video I made, as I feel that it really adds a vital practical educational resource to my guide and exhibits TL knowledge and skills.

Future use:

I would like to share my website and digital artefact with my colleagues, as Digital Citizenship is a continuous topic in the staffroom. However, to make the digital guide a little more suitable, I think less text heavy and more clear points would be the changes I would make.