Technical

Artifact: EDTEC 775 SmartDraw Instructor Guide

If I had to rate my personal mastery of the many skills I’ve gained in the EDTEC program, I would probably rate my technology and development skills toward the bottom of the list. I’m primarily a left brain person, and feel comfortable with analysis, the design of learning objectives and strategies, and instructional writing. I love words (I’m currently a taxonomist by profession). Ask me to showcase those objectives and strategies in a graphically pleasing and pedagogically appropriate Web site or Flash tutorial, and I break out in a sweat. I have definitely learned enough about development to communicate effectively with graphic designers, programmers, and other developers, and feel confident that those skills will serve me well in my instructional design career.

Last summer I decided to challenge myself with an internship at – of all things – a company that creates and markets visual communications software. SmartDraw is a “visual processor” for the creation of tables, charts, drawings, graphs, flowcharts, and other diagrams. SmartDraw had recently partnered with Pearson to bundle their software with postsecondary textbooks. The marketing department had been asked by Pearson to develop instructor guides showcasing how SmartDraw could be used in a variety of disciplines. The intern would work on guides for nursing, criminal justice, paralegal studies, and business.

One of the things I’ve loved about the EDTEC program is that it has encouraged me to push beyond my perceived limitations as I acquire new knowledge and new skills. This internship was no exception. I had to see myself as a “software person” as I not only learned how to use SmartDraw, but used it to create sample assignments for a variety of courses. I perused entry-level textbooks in each discipline for basic understanding of introductory course content. I spent some time reviewing chapter learning objectives and review questions in order to identify assignments which would make sense as visual assignments. Then I created the sample assignments to show instructors how they might use SmartDraw in their specific disciplines.

I selected the first instructor guide that I completed as my artifact for this Technical competency. I’m pleased with all four of the guides, which can be seen here (scroll down and you’ll find them on the right). The assignments are likely not as visually sophisticated as, say, a graphic designer might have produced, but over the course of a 10-week summer session I was able to think graphically about learning. I also gained confidence in my ability to quickly learn new software, as the help and tutorial features for SmartDraw were lackluster at best. Hmmm, perhaps another internship opportunity?