Yale Style Guide
How do we do go about incorporating these principles into our work?
A good place to start is at the Yale Style Manual Web site. Even though it is targeted towards web design, the principles are applicable to most mediums we work in.
Please review the first section in the Yale Style Manual on determining the first goals of design: determining the audience, purpose and goals of our product.
Take a close look at this diagram from the Yale site under Design Strategies. Let’s have a short discussion on the significance of this matrix as we examine the tasks we give to our students.
Within this matrix, we can see that when we move towards non-linear design, the purpose changes. Basic instruction falls within a linear -concise model. There is certainly nothing wrong with that if it matches your goals and purpose as well as the needs of your audience. Teaching stays linear, but takes longer. Reference materials are non-linear because the user chooses where they want to go, but it is still concise. As the user explores more deeply, the learner moves into the education mode because they are “going deeper” into the area of focus.
All of these are legitimate.
As you are thinking about the project for this class, where on this matrix do you see your work? Remember, it is your audience and purpose as to where you land on this matrix. What is the PURPOSE? What is the LEVEL of your audience? How much TIME is being dedicated to their interaction with your project?
Although my project is still in the brainstorming process, after reviewing the yale matrix and keeping my entry level learners in mind, I think I land on the training part of the matrix the most. My students are explorers and continual users who definitely go deeper in the area of focus and branch off as they interact with each other and the tools provided. I think the amount of time daily being devoted to training the students is important and necessary for them to be successful users. Knowing my audience, it is important to limit the training time in sessions due to their attention span and to allow separate time for evaluation where I ask them to reflect on what they learned, what could make it better, what they liked, disliked, etc. Feedback is important in the training an learning process for both the students and the teacher.
I see my project as intersecting at the point of narrative with lengthy/ complex. This is a high mark but, my subject matter is geared toward the purpose of understanding and not mastering skills. Valorizing language variation is a difficult leap in a conservative environment. I think this topic requires me to aim a little higher. Fortunately, it is my hope that college students, in a generally free learning environment, tend towards open-ended assumptions. The project of itself requires only small amounts of time however the understandings are planted and will, if my practice has merit, enable the student’s conscience to enter into the debate and leave the student with understanding.
My project may be sight word drill and practice. The purpose is to practice and review and memorize sight words. My kindergarten students are learning that some words can be read while other words just have to be known when you look at them. This type of activity lands on the matrix near training. Since they are just memorizing material and not applying the knowledge to reading text, it is very concise and brief. The class would learn the program or game, together as a whole. Then they would be given time to practice the words independently.