Style over substance?

This one will hopefully set the cat among the pigeons or even put some Piranhas in the tank as one of my friends says.

There is a common misconception that content is paramount to style. That what you say is far more important than how it looks. That if your content is sufficiently well worded or factually accurate then any style will be superfluous.

I hate to say this… I totally disagree.

Personally I see “Style over substance” as a phrase that some people use to be lazy, or to conform. Both are bad in my opinion. The other that I hear a lot of the time is that we must consider those with Specific Learning Differences like dyslexia, dyscalculia or dyspraxia. Again I feel that this is wrong, not because I discriminate against those with SpLD’s but because I feel that there are far better ways of doing things that make everybody’s life easier.

What we end up with in my teaching establishment is something along the lines of:

Yellow text in comic sans on a bright blue background

As someone interested in design this makes me feel physically sick!! Now imagine that you are a student who is having to sit through 7 hours of this a day… over as long as twelve months. At some point you have to ask yourself: WHY????

The answers that you get back are the two that I cited above: what about SpLD’s and my content is that good that it stands alone.

Well to dispel each of these in turn. Firstly it is true that high contrast between fonts and  backgrounds make reading easier for SOME people suffering with SpLD’s However, anyone that knows anything about scotopic sensitivity knows that each person is slightly different and that if you get the colours wrong then you make things worse. Therefore the opinion that we will be serving most people with SpLD’s better is, in my opinion, balderdash. We can serve everyone better by using the software properly, making the presentations available and teaching our students how to alter the colour schemes for themselves. In doing so we teach our students coping strategies that will enable them to move forwards and not be left abandoned when they leave.

The second point is that content stands alone. Hmmmm…. if that were true then there would be little work out there for web designers, graphic designers, illustrators, advertisers, movie directors, animators… you get the gist.

We need to make our content appealing to maintain interest – at the very least so that it does not put people off. But if we try hard we can make presentations that actually grip the attention of those listening. By not cramming them with information we create key points which the students can focus on, even better would be to use a single slide with a model map or another graphic organizer!

The simple truth is that we can work both smarter and more creatively to achieve more… in actual fact, a lot more.

There is a feature within PowerPoint (our tool of choice) that allows us to create a template by which all slides conform to. This is the Master Slide and you can find it under the View menu. The reason that this is so important is that if you design your master first and use it as a template for all the other slides then you can make a change on the master and it automatically updates every other slide. This reduces the amount of work that you need to do to produce the slide show initially but more importantly it makes your design infinitely more flexible.

Now you can design to your heart’s content, and should one of your students have trouble with your slide you can quickly tailor the slide-show to their needs. Even better than that:

They can download the slide-show from Moodle and alter it themselves so that it fits their needs exactly!

Now that you have done that, you can break free of the monotony of yellow on blue and begin to get creative. Have a faint picture as a backdrop or a smart gradient fill. Try other fonts, but choose Sans Serif fonts (without the squiggles on the letters) so that they are clear to read. And remember it is always best to get your presentation previewed on the medium that it will be used on, for example an interactive white board or a screen to make sure that the colours work. It is often best to get some help with this as a second opinion can bring in useful feedback and some brilliant ideas.

Most importantly TRY!!! If it doesn’t work the first time then try something different: colours, gradient direction, font, placement, images, borders, animation, transitions. Just remember that a slide must only be as complicated as it needs to be: a single word does not need lots of animation, an explanation of a circuit diagram may need more.

The way that I see things is that style adds to content. It helps to create the narrative and ethos of your lessons. The students see how much effort and care you have taken with your media, whatever it may be, and they will respond accordingly. More to the point, when you produce good work, you show it off to the best of your ability.

Good style coupled with good content produces an excellent backdrop for learning.

In the meantime, here’s some points to think about.

The way things are

Gradient fills

Adding contrast can add coherence

Too many styles loses coherence

Be Bold, Be Brave

dy/dx

If I had drawn a graph of progress up until a week ago it would look something like this: —————

At least that is against my own personal goals for what I am trying to achieve.  Things have changed.

I have got my development suite that I have been asking for for ages!!!

Well when I say got, it should be here by the end of the week!!!. When I say ages I’m talking over a year. It seems like a silly statement but this has been really important to me as it will help me achieve a number of goals, from the creation of complex content using Adobe Flash through to the ability to generate proper podcasts using Adobe After Effects and Premier.

But the biggest reason for my suite, for me at least, is that I want to get all the staff in our establishment trained up in all the new technologies that we are trying to introduce. I’m a firm believer in positive intent, that if you act positively and honestly then others will to. I know that there are always some who will take advantage, however the others will see this and generally either make them feel bad or to just disown them. I’ve seen both happen and the latter is not pretty but they haven’t done it again.

My theory is that if we invest in our staff then they will pay us back in at least a small way subconsciously. Even if it is just a slight shift in attitude then it is still an improvement on what we had before. I am to achieve this by teaching our teachers how to use technology creatively so that they can create better media and supporting materials for their lessons. The theory is that if you have built it then you will want to see it succeed. And I want to give people lots of reasons to succeed.

So here’s my plan:

1. Get everyone trained up on Moodle, how to use it and how to build with it.
2. Get people being more creative with their lesson materials, give them ownership and fun.
3. Get people making more interactive media for student support away from the classroom.
4. Get people teaching each other how to do good stuff in all of the above. This is really important!!!!

The reason why number 4 is so important is simple. If I tell you that something is good then you might or might not believe me. But if your friend was to tell you exactly the same thing, then you would believe them more than me. The other reason behind 4 is to encourage the spread of best practice. We want our teachers to feel that being creative, innovative and fresh is good.

By encouraging the fun aspects of the new technology the acceptance of it will grow. By getting more and more people on board, the inclusion of it within lessons will grow. By better supporting our students they will grow and the instructors will gain better results.

The benefits to all really do outweigh the costs. I just hope I can get enough people through the doors.

History

How do I kick this off???

Well I thought that the first thing to do would be to give you a brief synopsis of the past year: where I’ve come, from what I do and where I am intending to go.

Well… I’m a “happily married” father of four who used to work in the UK Armed Forces. I left after completing 12 years working with IT, communications kit and students. When I left I got a job as a teacher with my current employer and haven’t looked back. Cutting the “shackles” of Forces life has given me a new lease of life: I am embracing my creative side both from a design and a management perspective.

The role that I was employed to carry out has changed. I am now managing and developing the technology with which our establishment delivers it’s training. I am creating the concept that hopefully others will see, like and take on board. It may not be new to some employers, but to mine it the equivalent of moving from gas lighting to electricity, and that change is hard for some.

In short I am trying to move my place of work away from endless Powerpoints to a more interactive and enriching learning experience for our students. I am trying to do this using Moodle as a delivery platform as this meets a number of business needs while allowing us the freedom to provide both gradual change and easy integration.

But that is not my only role. I also develop proofs of concept: showing teaching staff what they can achieve and how they can use it. This ranges from developing Computer Based Training Packages, through to wiki’s, forums, online testing, online student feedback and much much more.

I am also the lead developer for my organization: responsible for producing deliverables that can be used in lessons. This  ranges from templates for Powerpoint through to video and web editing: if it involves creative tech then it comes to me. In fact if it involves teaching and tech then it comes to me.

So where am I going…

My aim is simple – to provide ubiquitous access to interactive and engaging learning materials to our students. Sounds posh but all it really means is that I want our students to be in charge of learning that they enjoy.

Can I do it??

As I keep telling my colleagues: anything is possible!

You just wait and see!!