Talons Digital Literacy Assignment
Assignment #1 – Monarch Butterfly Infographic
Link: Monarch Butterfly (Danus plexippus) Infographic
Description:
For this assignment, everyone in the class picked a different animal and researched different things about their specific animal. Some of the things we had to learn about were the ways the animal mates and reproduces. Once we had researched everything we had to create a one-page infographic that included useful and relevant images. We had to make sure that we credited the photographer by including a citation for each image.
Criteria:
Creativity, Innovation, Technology Operations and Concepts:
- I enhance the impact of my research or presentation through the creative use of technology
- To create my infographic I used Microsoft Word and creatively organized my information in a way that was easy to read and appealing to the eye. Although it took quite a bit of effort the final product turned out good, and I think that it did a good job of presenting the information.
Research and Information Literacy
- I critically assess research sources for Currency, Reliability, Authority, and Purpose
- For every website and database I used for my research I checked to make sure that it has reliable and current. I specifically used the CRAP test to check that my articles and sources were current, reliable, and had good authority and purpose. This made sure that all of my information was accurate and that I wasn’t sharing false knowledge.
Digital Citizenship
- I ethically use content that is not created by me by using Creative-Commons licensed audio, video, or images and by properly citing these resources within my work
- I made sure to include a link for every image that I used so that the photographer would receive proper credit for their images.
Assignment #2 – Independent Novel Study
Link: Independent Novel Study (The Green Mile)
Description:
For this project, I read the book The Green Mile and wrote a book report on it. I analyzed three different significant scenes from the book and wrote about the characters in the scene. After I finished reading the book I wrote about other parts of it, like the theme, the overall message and, any personal connections that I was able to make. Lastly, I gave the book a rating out of five stars and said whether or not I would recommend the book to other people.
Criteria:
Research and Information Literacy
- I look at controversial issues or topics from opposed perspectives to gain a more complete understanding
- While completing my novel study I made sure to address some of the issues that come up in the book, such as racism. In order to fully understand the book, I made sure to consider the different perspectives, especially the perspectives of the author and characters in the book.
Communication and Collaboration
- I respond to the work or ideas of my peers in a way that is compassionate and productive
- Throughout the duration of the project, I asked my classmates to read over and edit my work. After they did I took their feedback and altered my work to incorporate some of their ideas.
Assignment #3 – Eminent Person Project
Link: Introductory Blog Post and Final Eminent Speech and Annotated Bibliography
Description:
The TALONS Eminent project is a project where you research an eminent person that you can connect with and give a speech on them through the perspective of someone they knew. I chose Abby Wambach as my eminent person. After a period of research and planning, I presented my findings in a speech about her life and in a learning centre at the Night of the Notables.
Criteria:
Digital Citizenship
- I attribute credit to ideas that are not my own by preparing a Bibliography/Works Cited and by using in-text citations
- Once I finished all of my research and writing my speech I created an annotated bibliography that included all of the websites that I used and what information I took from them. I made sure to include the author of the article, the day it was published, and a link to the site.
Communication and Collaboration
- I tailor my work to appeal to my intended audience and use language and visual design elements appropriate for them
- For my learning center at Night of the Notables, I made sure to shorten my speech about Abby Wambach so that it included only the most important facts. I also used soccer-themed elements in my learning center to show the main aspects of Abby’s life.
Assignment #4 – ZIP
Link: ZIP Infographic (To what extent is gender segregation in sports necessary)
Description:
A ZIP project is when you have to choose a topic and create an inquiry question related to that topic and to the English/Socials curriculum. At the end of the 4 days of work and research, you have to create an artifact that demonstrates your learning on this project. For my project, I chose the inquiry question “To what extent is gender segregation in sports necessary?”. I completed this project completely digitally.
Criteria:
Creativity, Innovation, Technology Operations and Concepts
- I determined and used the most effective medium to present my work.
- With this assignment, there were many ways that I could choose from to present my final work, and I chose to create an infographic on Piktochart. I chose this way because it would help me answer my question the best and show the most depth to my learning as it was directly related to the question that I was asking. It made the most sense in relation to the work I was doing and the audience that I was presenting it to.
- I design my work with consideration given to aesthetics and design, such as consistent colour schemes, symmetry or organization of visual elements, and overall layout.
- While making my infographic I chose colours that look good together and compliment each other. I also made sure to pick images that were related to my topic and added to the overall appeal of the artifact. I also made sure that all of the text was visible by making it a colour that contrasts with the background on the infographic.
- I challenge myself to increase my technological literacy by working with apps, software, or mediums that I have not used in the past
- I challenged myself and increased my technological literacy by using Piktochart, which I wasn’t very familiar with. I had to use it to show my learning throughout the project in the form of my final learning artifact. The new skills I learned will help me times in the future when I need to create other infographics for assignments.
Research and Information Literacy
- I identify and discuss bias in research sources
- I had to choose what websites I wanted to use to research my inquiry question. I made sure that all the resources were CRAAP tested and non-biased. If I did find an article that was biased but had information that I wanted to use in it, I made sure to try and find another article that argued the other perspective.
Assignment #5 – Parts of the Cell Presentation
Link: Cell Wall Script (the actual PowerPoint was deleted)
Description:
For this project, our whole class worked together to create a PowerPoint presentation with every part of the cell included. Each person was assigned a part of the cell and we had to create a slide on a PowerPoint our teacher had made on Teams. We then made each of our slides and presented it in front of the class. My part of the cell was the cell wall.
Criteria:
Communication and Collaboration
- I use digital spaces to plan and execute collaborative projects with others
- Our class used digital spaces to plan and execute our project. To plan the project, we made another document on Teams to find which part of the cell we were assigned to. Then we all went on Teams to find the PowerPoint presentation where we all added our research and information to create the final product.
- I constructively build upon or synthesize the ideas of others.
- I expanded and built upon my classmate’s ideas so that the final presentation was as in-depth and detailed as possible. We all looked at each other’s information to make sure that we weren’t repeating the same thing twice. This meant sharing any specific findings and general sources that I found were useful.