Lessons in Design


International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Standards

  • 1. Empowered Learner -- Students leverage technology to an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goal, informed by the learning sciences.
  • 1a. Students articulate and set personal learning goals, develop strategies leveraging technology to achieve them and reflect on the learning process itself to improve learning outcomes.
  • 1b. Students understand the fundamental concepts of technology operations, demonstrate the ability to choose and use/troubleshoot current technologies.
  • 1c. Student are able to transfer their knowledge to explore emerging technologies.
  • 2. Digital Citizen -- Students recognize the rights, responsibilities and opportunities of living, learning and working in an interconnected digital world, and they act and model in ways that safe, legal and ethical.
  • 2a. Students engage in positive, safe, legal and ethical behavior when using technology, including social interactions online or when using networked devices.
  • 2b. Students demonstrate an understanding of and respect for the rights and obligations of copyright and sharing intellectual property.
  • 3. Knowledge Constructor -- Students critically curate a variety of resources using digital tools to construct knowledge, produce creative artifacts and make meaningful learning experiences for themselves and others.
  • Students plan and employ effective research strategies to locate information and other resources for their intellectual or creative pursuits.
  • 4. Innovative Designer -- Students use a variety of technologies within a design process to identify and solve problems by creating new, useful or imaginative solutions.
  • 4a. Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving problems.
  • 4b. Students select and use digital tools to plan and manage a design process that considers design constraints and calculated risks.
  • 4c. Students develop, test and refine prototypes as part of a cyclical design process.
  • 5. Creative Communicator -- Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.
  • 5a. Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
  • 5b. Students create original works or responsibly repurpose or remix digital resources into new creations.
    • *All standards listed above are from the SRR Industrial Technology Standards document based on the ISTE standards.
    Good Design is planned, thought out and then implemented.

    "The Non-Designer's Design Book" by Robin Williams is a good place to start.

    Students are shown examples of good and bad design.

    The class discusses principles of good design including:
  • Simple is good
  • Make important information stand out
  • Line things up
  • Don't make it crowded
  • Limit the number of fonts
  • Limit the number of colors

    • Students are to complete each of the three Design Lesson Sets below. Each can be easily completed in a day.

  • Design Lesson Set 1
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  • Design Lesson Set 2
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  • Design Lesson Set 3
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    Evaluation:
    10 points will be earned for each design set based on the following criteria:
    3 points -- Good use of Font size/style
    2 points -- Good use of Alignment
    2 points -- Good use of other design principles listed above
    3 points -- Neatness/effectiveness of finished product

    30 points total