Sarah_Investigate




 * __The four parts of the Technology design cycle pages + Portfolio Main Pages:__**




 * __Introduction:__**

'Investigate'. This is the FIRST step of the Technology design cycle. During the e-card animation project, we did 4 different things; research on 'good' e-cards, create a Tutorial, complete worksheets about tweens, and write a reflection.

__**ESLRs:**__

Here are the ESLRs I met during this part of the TDC:

During the Investigate, I was being a //Critical Thinker// by using an appropriate website to look for nice examples of e-cards; I used resources effectively for the purpose of problem solving. I was also being an //Academic Achiever// when I continually assessed, evaluated and adjusted work to maintain high standards by trying my best in all parts of this TDC section. At the same time, I was being a successful //Self-directed Learner// by using my time wisely both in class and at home; demonstrating competency in goal setting, time management, and organizational skills.

__**Files:**__

Take a Look at my Brainstorm:

Here is my RESEARCH

Lastly, my Tutorial is here: media type="custom" key="73805"

__**Reflection:**__

During this Investigate, through which I learned how to brainstorm ideas using Inspiration and how to use Flash Tutorial in order to create a simple example of an e-card; we researched for successful e-cards, created a mind map about what our e-cards would be about and made a simple animation.

From the research I had done, I have learned how to make an excellent e-card by having my own uniqueness to express my message to the receiver. All of the successful e-cards I found were all appropriate and were impressive for the audience by using their own unique ways to express the for example, Amazing Mom had little cartoon characters who sang, talking about what they have done that frustrated their mom and how amazing their mom is. Also, I learned that the e-cards could have symbolisms through metaphor, simile or personification to make them sound more like a poem and interesting, like Friends are like fancy chocolates where a dog compared true friends to fancy chocolates and Friend is… where the message sounds poetic, impressive and therefore effective. Most important thing is that it should interest their readers through any of the many ways such as having a song, a joke, etc. as not so many people would want to look at e-cards that are boring and monotonous without any audio. From the brainstorm where I created a mind map that included all my ideas of what the e-card might look like, I learned what things I should include in my e-card in order to engage my readers; story, message, animations and audio. By having appropriate and good story, message, animations and audio, more people will be attracted to see them and the viewers will be astonished. While creating a demonstration through Flash, I learned that I would have to keep my e-card simple as it is very hard to make a complicated figure and animations. Also, I learned a very basic idea of how to create a e-card; how to make a simple animation where balls bounce around and how to make a stable background.

I am going to create a Happy Mother’s Day e-card for my mom from my brainstorm. However, I have thought about some things to change from the mind map for improvement. I would like to change the animations to my mom spraying water on the seed, and the seed grows into a flower, which symbolize my mom’s effort to raise me. The text would be changed as well, to ‘Thank you for Raising a child like me. Happy Mother’s Day’ because it is easier clearer for the viewers to understand the main purpose of the e-card. Although there are many other class-criteria, the criteria that I am planning to meet/that I think are the most important are creativeness and message because I would want to please my mom by creating my own unique e-card (as my mom will be the receiver) and because I think it is important to inform my viewer through message as that is the main goal of this quarter. Other than creativeness and message, I think clarity and smooth playing (transitions) are important as well because expert clarity and smooth playing will make better sense to the audience and therefore they should be able to recognize what is happening in the e-card.

__**P.S.**__

This page is the FIRST part of the Technology Design Cycle, and the second part is called PLAN.