Maynard

Caitlin Maynard
ITEC 7500
Reflection – Standard 3.2
3.2 Managing Digital Tools and Resources - effectively manage digital tools and resources
within the context of student learning experiences.
______________________________________________________________________________
I created the Multimedia – WebQuest project as a part of ITEC 7445, Multimedia and Web
Design in Education, in the Summer of 2019. The WebQuest, “What’s In A Jingle?”, sent
students on a mission to create a fifteen-second jingle for a soft drink company’s launch of a
summertime soda line. I used a Google Site as the platform for this project, showcasing the
collection of resources that I either created myself or researched for appropriateness and
credibility. For this project to be a success, it was essential for me to effectively manage digital
tools to guide and enrich the student learning experience.
As part of the Digital Learning Environments standard, Element 3.2 focuses on the
management of digital tools and resources. This WebQuest project required me to tap into
many digital tools and resources and created many learning experiences for myself and in turn,
my students. Personally, I had to explore Google Sites as I was setting up the WebQuest,
learning the different features and embedding possibilities. One of my favorite options is the
Image Carousel that allows viewers to click through a large set of pictures without taking up a lot
of space on the page. Before this experience, I had little familiarity with Canva, but quickly
found it to be a great tool for creating many different graphics and presentations and it is now my
go-to creation site for Facebook, Instagram, and school website posts. While I didn’t mind
creating graphics and tutorial videos to be used in the WebQuest, I knew there were quality
resources on the Internet. Therefore, I had to comb through different YouTube videos and
websites to deem what was appropriate for my middle school students. After collating these
different resources, I had to display them on the Google Site in a way that was easy to access and
user-friendly. During an initial trial run of the WebQuest, I asked a student to test out the links.
One link had been deemed inappropriate due to mature content, was blocked for students, and
caused me to find an approved site with the same information I wanted my students to learn. All
of these actions allowed me to demonstrate management skills of digital tools and resources as
I created an effective and quality student learning experience.
While working on this artifact, I learned that there are a number of limitations or restrictions
that could be placed on digital content and these should be considered when developing an
activity for students or sharing resources with other teachers. Not only was there a site blocked
due to content by my school district’s web filter, but Google has placed restrictions on sharing
settings. For example, I uploaded some of my self-created resources into my Google Drive and
then dropped them into the site. However, I did not change my sharing settings, which had
defaulted to only members of my same domain. None of the members are in my cohort are in
my school district, so they were not able to access everything on the site. This was a minor
setback, but definitely something that I have kept at the forefront of design and management
since then.
Since I created this artifact in the Summer, I speculated about the quality of the school-
owned technology my students would be using in the project. My students were to use iPads
with Garage Band to create the jingle and share their creations with me through Google Drive. If
I had access to one of the iPads while creating the WebQuest, I would have realized that the
devices were outdated and were not scheduled to have any updated due to their age. Based on
that information, I could have then found a different digital tool for the students to use. The
management of the digital tools and resources during the planning process was fine, but I
definitely had to pivot during the implementation stage.
In terms of managing digital tools and resources, the work that went into creating the
WebQuest impacted faculty development. Not only did I grow in my own understanding and
skill sets, but after sharing my creation with my peers and hearing their interest in creating
something similar, I have since led mini-professional learning sessions on how to set up a
Google Site for more than class information and to create graphics in Canva to make your
Google Slides presentations more exciting. The impact can be assessed through observations of
teachers using these elements in their classroom and content areas. It truly has been wonderful
to see something that I have personally helped them learn turn into something useful for their
students.

Maynard

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Caitlin Maynard

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