Website readability

Blog or vlog post: Analyze the readability of a effective web site versus a less-effective or poorly-designed site or blog in terms of difference in the design features: what specific design features contributed to high versus low readability? Develop some activities that would help students learn to attend to design features in creating and editing their digital writing, for example, how to make their PowerPoint presentations more interactive.

Always on the look-out for creative writing prompts, I checked out two sites:

http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp?goto=closead

and

http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/

The Writer's Digest site doesn't hold up in readability tests (my own) compared to the Writing Prompts site. Here are some reasons:
1. Writer's digest has a pop up add when you first access it, asking if you want a free copy of their magazine. Gross.
2. The font size is small.
3. Flash advertisements.
4. Too busy.

The Writing Prompts site isn't fabulously fabulous (also too many small fonts and too much going on) but the cool part is its purpose is very clear: Writing Prompts. There are hundreds of them. You scroll across a number and a writing prompt comes up. It's all secret and revealing fun-like.

Writer's Digest also gives prompts, but just in a list. It's not as fun.

Activities for students to pay attention to design...

1. Show them strong and weak examples of websites, powerpoints, etc. and have them list what categories they can for what makes a visually strong website, etc.
2. Have them find websites that do/don't embody these categories. (Save websites for future use. :) )
3. Have students make the worst powerpoint they can and tell us what makes it so bad.

Box Logic

I did some gathering, based on Geoffrey Sirc's Box Logic. My "Box 'o Sisters" is here.

Making My Own Podcast

I basically turned a Creative Writing exercise into a podcast and shamelessly added sound effects for my own entertainment. I'm not sure where I'd actually use it in real life. If a kid was gone and I was SUPER on top of things, I could have podcasts for missing assignments. But that seems like a ton of work. If I was teaching via the internet it would be useful. Quite frankly, I do not know.

Making it was fun. My sisters and I made radio dramas (mostly detective stories) on cassette tape when we were younger. If we had had this technology back then, we would have had a blast with it.

I'm confused about how to share it with the world. Right now it's posted on the class wiki and it lives in my iTunes, but I'm stuck as to how to have it hosted someplace.

Podcasts

Oh my god. I found someone dorkier than me. His name is Luke Taylor and he creates the "Grammar Grater" podcast for MPR. Now, I know what you're saying, "Geez, Nicole, what were you thinking?" But I really like grammar. It's the math part of my brain. So I thought I'd dig it. But his delivery is so peDANtic and scripted and the jokes are all kinds of lame. Worst part: I didn't learn anything. Sigh.

Then I listened to the Bob and Rob show, which attracted me because it rhymed. Then I saw it was a "Yankee and a Brit" and this made me very excited. Their show is much different from Grammar Grater because it's a conversation and not a recitation. However, I hate the sound effects and laugh track. Why do we need that? After I listened to a couple snippets of shows, I saw that their intended audience is English Language Learners. What a cool way for people learning English to enrich their understanding of the English language. I admit it made me less interested for my personal use, however.

I sampled this and that, coming to the conclusion that I can see doing podcasts with students because once you read your writing out loud, you hear where you can make improvements. If students are recording their writing, I imagine they'll be even more committed to writing well (because of the audience piece).

But how...
-creative writers (maybe CW2) could record podcasts of their poetry
-creative writers could create their own radio dramas
-9th grade? Boy, it's so tough to think of them because of the curriculum monster that I wish would stay under the bed or in the closet, but continues to make himself at home everywhere. Romeo and Juliet, maybe? Maybe they could do modernizations and make radio dramas.

As for my own podcast, I could interview my mom (whose life has always been very interesting) or my sister. She has a brand new job as a morning DJ and this has changed her in various ways.

Or I could do a diatribe of some sort.