EDU 240 -- Capstone Project

DESCRIPTION: Storyboards are often used to plan visual presentations, such as videos and movies, and can include rough drawings of scenes.  In contrast, a lesson plan is used from a teacher's perspective.  This assignment employs the concept of using the viewer's/participant's perspective for 'blueprinting' your project.  The student watches and participates in an educational event you create.  Your storyboard should reflect that perspective.  It should convey what the student will see.

Your storyboard is also a tool for mapping your ideas and planning the best way to communicate your message. Your completed storyboard is a reference to analyze and revise your ideas as your project evolves. The storyboard goal is to provide a working design from which your project will develop, as well as a template for feedback about your project ideas.

FINAL PROJECT: Having a clear concept of the Final Project expectations is prerequisite to planning and design stages. Be sure to incorporate the course description, learning outcomes and standards in your considerations about the Final Project. You will receive feedback on your proposal and on you storyboard to ensure that your plans conform to expectations. An important aspect of the Final Project is also the creation of your electronic portfolio. Your project provides a means for you to showcase your technology skills, and should reflect your current level of learning.

Final Projects can be customized to suit your audience and form of delivery. Your project should meet the following criteria (for classroom instruction, or represent an equivalent amount of effort and instructional planning if in other delivery formats). You will develop courseware for a time span equivalent to at least three hour (four sessions) of classroom instruction. You will incorporate technology and multimedia in a form that is designed to enhace student learning. Each session will incorporate several forms of media.

WHAT TO CONSIDER:  Here are some questions and ideas you can employ in designing your project.

• Consider and define your audience.  Who will you speak to? What prerequisite knowledge must students possess?
• Formulate a goal statement and instructional objectives. What is the purpose of your project? What information or concepts do you want to convey?
• What content will be included?  Select the primary content for instruction.
• Determine what you expect of your students when they have completed the lesson. What is the expected outcome of your activity?
• What instructional strategies and techniques will accomplish your goals.
• Decide how you will employ multimedia to accomplish your goals and enhance student learning.
• Decide how your content should be organized. Once you have a general story idea, decide how to lay out the story in individual sections (or chapters, web pages, etc.).  Create a rough outline.
• Decide how you will present your material, or how the user will navigate your presentation. Decide how you want to present the individual elements of your planned content, with lecture, videos, hands-on activities, presentation software, etc., and how you will integrate these elements. How will you guide the user throught the material?
• Make a list of all the media that needs to be created or acquired, and how you will accomplish each.  What exactly are you going to include in the project?

WHAT TO DO FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT:
You need to storyboard all the elements and create a blueprint of your project.
You should create your storyboard using computer-based tools and save your product in an accessible and transmittable format ( Word is appropriate).  You should describe a planned scene that visualizes the classroom/learning setting and presents the contents of the lesson plan, the multimedia tools to be employed, the activities planned, etc.  For classroom settings a chronological plan with class sessions is appropriate.  If your project is a Web site or other user-operated instruction tool (a CD or DVD, for example), the storyboard should illustrate the components and their relationships and how they will be navigated.

E-mail your storyboard (as an attachment) to the instructor. The storyboard will be due by Feb. 22 at the latest. The storyboard assignment will not be graded, but is required. It is a step towards completion of the final project. Your grade will be based on the Final Project.

USEFUL LINKS: You might find some of these Web resources useful in developing this assignment and your project.

• Article Relating Technology Education Goals to Curriculum Planning.
• Education World home page > Teacher Resources > Lesson Plans.
• ProTeacher > Teaching Practices > Lesson Planning.
• Yale Web Style Manual > Site Design.