Graphics for Learning teaches you how to design effective graphics for print or online and computer-generated materials--multimedia, texts, working aids, and slides--that will maximize learning, understanding, and reasoning. Based on solid research on how people learn, this crucial resource contains best practices and shows you how to go beyond the visible features of graphics to plan visuals that are based on their communication and psychological functions. Written by instructional design experts Ruth Colvin Clark and Chopeta Lyons, Graphics for Learning includes a graphic design model that guides you through the visual planning process--from needs assessment through production. No matter how much or little expertise you have working with graphics, this book will help you boost your return on investment by giving you the information you need to design and implement the most effective visuals. Graphics for Learning shows how to:
Impelled by a demand for increasing American strength in the new global economy, many educators, public officials, business leaders, and parents argue that school computers and Internet access will improve academic learning and prepare students for an information-based workplace.
But just how valid is this argument? In Oversold and Underused, one of the most respected voices in American education argues that when teachers are not given a say in how the technology might reshape schools, computers are merely souped-up typewriters and classrooms continue to run much as they did a generation ago. In his studies of early childhood, high school, and university classrooms in Silicon Valley, Larry Cuban found that students and teachers use the new technologies far less in the classroom than they do at home, and that teachers who use computers for instruction do so infrequently and unimaginatively.
Cuban points out that historical and organizational economic contexts influence how teachers use technical innovations. Computers can be useful when teachers sufficiently understand the technology themselves, believe it will enhance learning, and have the power to shape their own curricula. But these conditions can�t be met without a broader and deeper commitment to public education beyond preparing workers. More attention, Cuban says, needs to be paid to the civic and social goals of schooling, goals that make the question of how many computers are in classrooms trivial.
Who Owns the Learning?: Preparing Students for Success in the Digital Age 
This highly praised handbook presents proven strategies for incorporating multimedia projects into the curriculum. The authors use the DDD-E model (DECIDE, DESIGN, DEVELOP, EVALUATE) to show how to select and plan multimedia projects, use prsentation and development tools, manage graphics, audio, and digital video, and evaluate student work.
