Dennis BarhamKim Davis Pathways to Technology MHS, Hartford Ct.

OutlineIntroductionsAbout our schoolProject BackgroundFirst BreakoutSecond BreakoutStudent samples Website Project DemoWhat we learned - Good NewsWhat we learned – Improvement OpportunitiesQ & A

Pathways to Technology

Grades 9 – 12 Approximately 350 students All students receive technology instruction;

Graphics, E-commerce, Web Development, Digital Video, Sound Production, Programming and then choose a specialty

College Prep (96% placement rate)

Project Background –Mountain Classroom

Mountain Classroom is the project of Mr. Alan Spier, a retired lawyer and long time outdoorsman

The project is a collaboration of the Hartford Public School system, The Appalachian Mountain Club, and the Trust for a Mountain Classroom

Approximately 40 students travel to New Hampshire for 4 days to study the environment – free of charge

The project completed it’s sixth year this Spring

Starting the Project –What NOT to do

PBL 101 ….How not to run a project (video)

First Breakout –Audience Analysis Audience Analysis identifies the groups that

will utilize a web site

Let’s try a simple technique to complete this task

First Breakout –Audience Analysis Think about www.ups.com

What groups of people would use or visit the UPS site?

First Breakout –Audience Analysis Rules for Brainstorming:

1) Postpone and withhold your judgment of ideas2) Encourage wild and exaggerated ideas3) Quantity counts at this stage, not quality4) Build on the ideas put forward by others5) Every person and every idea has equal worth

Second Breakout –Logo Design A quality web site functions, but is also

attractive and well designed

Let’s examine the guidelines for graphics design

Graphics Design Guidelines

Second Breakout –Logo Design Federal Express had several ad campaigns;

Here are some samples Fedex Ads

Your assignment is to sketch out a design for the Fedex campaign “The World, on time” that recognizes the principles of design

Second Breakout –Logo Design The next approach is called a “gallery walk”

Tour the room and after seeing everyone’s work, assign one of your dots to each one:

Blue – best Yellow - 2nd best

Red - 3rd best

Here are some student samples

Student Samples

This is a sample of a student produced prototype of the site.

Every student produced one of these

Web Site Prototype

Project Demo –Final Website The actual project is presently on the

internet at http://mtnclassroomhfd.org

Production Web Site

What we learned – Good News

Problem Based Learning works! A project focuses on the skills acquired in Web

Design Student “ownership” drove the project Learning is facilitated by student inquiry Getting to work is never a problem Classes began with customer updates and

project pointers Small teams are key

What we learned – Improvement Opportunities

Formal training lessons for all project jobs Weekly Rubrics for grading and feedback Electronic Brainstorming Teamwork and collaboration training

Can we answer any questions?