Background

• The design process is at the center of our work together this summer.

Task

• We invite you to visually represent or model your own design process using some digital tool.
• You can capture how you design or make anything — whether it’s related to your work as a teacher educator or not.
• You can share your typical design process, or create a vision for a more idealized or aspirational design process.
• We think doing this will help you learn a new digital tool, and to help you think intentionally about your design process in advance of our work together this summer.

To complete this task:

To visualize your design process, select and use a digital tool  – preferably one that’s new to you or that you want more practice with. You can use one of the ones we recommend below, or locate your own.

NOTE: Some of these require you to create accounts. If you’d like, take a look at the privacy policies of these tools to see if the benefits of signing up would outweigh the risks for you.

• Miro – create a free account (privacy policy)
• Padlet – click sign in with “Microsoft” and use your @login.cuny.edu email (the one you use for CUNYFirst) to get a CUNY account. (privacy policy)
• Jamboard – you’ll need a Google account (privacy policy)
• Loopy – no account needed, open source tool! (no privacy policy, see FAQ)
• Canva – create a free account (privacy policy)
• PowerPoint – available in CUNY’s office suite (privacy policy)
• Google Slides – you’ll need a Google account (privacy policy)

Stuck?

• Consult any online tutorials the tool may have on their site
• Try sketching something on paper first, or do some free-writing to generate ideas about how you generally go about design!
• Make multiple “rapid prototype” iterations until something feels right.
• If you’re stuck on something, we encourage you to troubleshoot. Google around, use your colleagues as resources, or go to our help sessions on Mondays!

To Share:

• Reply to this thread.
• Add a brief reflection:
  • Share something new you learned about the tool you used.
  • Did you look at the privacy policy? Did anything stand out there?
  • Share any limitations of the tool that you used that you discovered.
• You can share your work as a link, or an attachment to this discussion thread
• If you’d like to embed an image in your post, you’ll have to upload it somewhere first (for example at imgur). Then use the image icon in the discussion forum to link to it.

Background

• The design process is at the center of our work together this summer.

Task

• We invite you to visually represent or model your own design process using some digital tool.
• You can capture how you design or make anything — whether it’s related to your work as a teacher educator or not.
• You can share your typical design process, or create a vision for a more idealized or aspirational design process.
• We think doing this will help you learn a new digital tool, and to help you think intentionally about your design process in advance of our work together this summer.

To complete this task:

To visualize your design process, select and use a digital tool  – preferably one that’s new to you or that you want more practice with. You can use one of the ones we recommend below, or locate your own.

NOTE: Some of these require you to create accounts. If you’d like, take a look at the privacy policies of these tools to see if the benefits of signing up would outweigh the risks for you.

• Miro – create a free account (privacy policy)
• Padlet – click sign in with “Microsoft” and use your @login.cuny.edu email (the one you use for CUNYFirst) to get a CUNY account. (privacy policy)
• Jamboard – you’ll need a Google account (privacy policy)
• Loopy – no account needed, open source tool! (no privacy policy, see FAQ)
• Canva – create a free account (privacy policy)
• PowerPoint – available in CUNY’s office suite (privacy policy)
• Google Slides – you’ll need a Google account (privacy policy)

Stuck?

• Consult any online tutorials the tool may have on their site
• Try sketching something on paper first, or do some free-writing to generate ideas about how you generally go about design!
• Make multiple “rapid prototype” iterations until something feels right.
• If you’re stuck on something, we encourage you to troubleshoot. Google around, use your colleagues as resources, or go to our help sessions on Mondays!

To Share:

• Reply to this thread.
• Add a brief reflection:
  • Share something new you learned about the tool you used.
  • Did you look at the privacy policy? Did anything stand out there?
  • Share any limitations of the tool that you used that you discovered.
• You can share your work as a link, or an attachment to this discussion thread
• If you’d like to embed an image in your post, you’ll have to upload it somewhere first (for example at imgur). Then use the image icon in the discussion forum to link to it.

[Jacqueline Darvin (she/her)]

I used Jamboard to represent my typcial design process as it relates to my courses. I realized in doing this that I enage in a cyclical process and tend to revisit the places where my teachers find an activity/unit challenging. I also realized that Jamboard does not have the ability to link stickies with arrows (or if it does, can someone please show me how!), which would be helpful in creating a flow chart or sequence. I used to use a free software program called Inspiration that was very useful in creating various flow charts and visual represenations. It was free to educators but then became more costly, so I have not used it recently. Jamboard is part of the “Google Universe,” so we already know that there is no privacy policy really (just kidding or am I?).

[Jacqueline Darvin (she/her)]

I will try uploading my JB as an imager, since it will not allow me to attach as a PDF

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[Christopher J. Wagner (He/Him)]

I created the visual for my design process in Google Drawings. This is a variation of a design process I have taught to students in our early childhood technology course (EECE 750 – Learning and Technology in Early Childhood and Childhood) when teching about engineering, design, and makerspaces. It draws from some common ideas in engineering design processes, but has adaptions to reflect how I approach the process, such as a focus on iteration and space for tinkering before planning. For me, Google Drawings has some small advantages over other tools (like Google Slides), such as how it lets you work on a transparent background. This means when you add the diagram to other files, the background in those files shows through (rather than the diagram being on a large white square). On the other hand, this tool is somewhat limited in its features, which mainly let you use shapes and text. It reminds of Word Art (is that still around?) in old versions of Microsoft Office/Word.

Here is a link to my design proces: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1tJ9kCRQdy7RV7inDHDanLPXDDThhIpjTXtu0ZYNFXg4/edit?usp=sharing

(I also learned not to test a link in your post in the Preview screen below the post, because it opens the link in this window, which makes you lose all of the text you wrote!)

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[Grace Pai (she/her)]

I created a flowchart of my design process using Canva, which is a platform I’ve used for quite some time now (typically for personal uses or through a nonprofit account as a board member of my kids’ PTA). Here is a link to the flowchart.

I didn’t learn any new functions or limitations, but it was actually quite interesting to skim the privacy policy which I’ve never done before. It was not surprising that Canva collects things like location data and the content that I upload, which for me contains a lot of images of my children (e.g. to create birthday party invitations, holiday cards, and birth announcements). I hadn’t thought before though of how they use the data, so it was intriguing (and cringey) to read the section on how they analyze the media uploads to train their models and algorithms using machine learning. It was also nice to see their separate clauses on Canva for education, and how they do not advertise to or sell student data.

P.S. I love your design processes, Jackie and Chris! I was initially feeling a little stuck about what I have to do for this activity, but seeing your examples helped me to get unstuck. Thank you, colleagues!

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

For better or worse, I did this one without reading yours first – I probably should have to get some great ideas! Ok so something I’ve been thinking about is the iterative process of syllabus design and redesign. Some years I just tweak a syllabus if my students and I think it’s working well and if it is still new, but every few years (maybe 3?) I do a major rehaul to keep it fresh, but in the in-between years I’m also redesigning as I go and again as before each semester as I draft the syllabus for it’s next implementation. Sometimes I forget to take notes as I go, so also wanted to remind myself to do that so I remember what to change for next time.

I wanted a graphic that would capture the iterative nature of syllabus design. I’ve played around with most of these digital tools before, but had never heard of Loopy so tried it out. It’s a bit clunky so I decided to remix another one to try to capture my process. Here it is – Kate’s Syllabus (Re)Design Process.

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

PS please press play and click the arrows to see it in action, and you can get more that one cycle going at a time

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

I was also thinking about the cyclical nature of course design, though I focused on the syllabus in particular. Yours is a lot more detailed – it’s great, very thoughtful! I see what you mean that Jamboard makes it tricky to show a cycle. The digital tool Inspiration you mention sounds like a good one to try, but too bad about the $$ (hate when that happens).

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

looks great – I have never tried out Google draw. Have to check it out!

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

LOL I’ve also only ever used canva before for PTA – especially event invitations! What you have here is a lot more complex than anything I’ve done, I usually just remix Canva.

[Kate Menken (She/Her)]

one thing to note – Loopy has no privacy policy. Should I be concerned? Probably….

[Sara Vogel, PhD. (she/her)]

Loving all the visualizations and conversations over here in Queens 🙂

Kate — I was also thinking that the lack of privacy policy was concerning for Loopy. At the same time, it’s an open source tool created by an independent technologist. The site might collect some data like IP addresses / visitor count, but otherwise, you’re not asked to create an account or provide any personal data. So the risks are potentially lower.

[Michael Perrone (he/him/his)]

Thank you for all the great idea!  I have not used Google Drawings–thanks for highlighting  this Chris!

In reading your posts, several thoughts came to mind. Like you, very often, I try to incorporate a skill or strategy which our QC students can subsequently use with their own learners–asking a prompt such as, ‘How could this be used in your own classroom?’  However, I find myself struggling that so many of these programs charge monthly/annual fees which make such use prohibitive.  Yes, schools themselves will have access to some, but not all. yes, it can be frustrating.  In terms of the Design Process, I just used PowerPoint. I know, not exciting.  However, something that I feel that I am much more cognizant of now if the importance of providing of students with smaller bits of accessible data/information at a time and highlighting particular points.  So, using animations and transitions allows us to control this.  I have found this much more beneficial than the students seeing an abundance of information on one slide.  I know–nothing new here, but I was just thinking about this during this process.  Thanks!

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