INTE

6710 ~ Creative Designs for Instructional Materials Project 4 Memo: Design Lessons Learned Ryan McClintock
April 2 7, 2 012

Overview
Throughout this course, I have relied heavily on Garr Reynolds ideas on visually designing presentation slides and from Heath & and Heath for the ideas of what to present and how to weave and pace my main presentation messages. Heath & Heath describe the Gap Theory on page 84 as a gap in our knowledge that leads to curiosity. I relied on this idea when selecting topics form my presentations and within my presentations to make them stick with the audience. Many of my colleagues had expressed curiosity about using Twitter (Pechu Kucha talk), implementing more Project-Based Learning (graphic handout), and reforming our schools academies (stand-alone). These projects, therefore, were born from my colleagues inherent curiosity. One important implication of gap theory is that we need to open gaps before we close them. (Heath & Heath, page 85)

Personal Reference
Within each of these presentations were questions that opened gaps in my colleagues knowledge that added a sense of engagement and curiosity as they proceed to view, read, and advance through the material. I closed the gaps by providing answers and steps describing the how to portions, but always left them a bit curious for more, which is why all three presentations have sort of gone viral at my school and are being used to drive instruction and school policy and program creation. If youve ever been to London and traveled their rail lines, then Mind the Gap is a probably familiar phrase. My sketch is simply a bridge over a gap, which represents curiosity leading to learning. The opposite sides of the bridge represent present and future, then and now, before and after; the slogan Mind the Gap is superimposed and woven into the material of the bridge.

INTE 6710 ~ Project 4 Page 1

Design Decision
As I watched my sons play in their sandbox, I thought I could also play in the sandbox to create my image. As curiosity and gap theory are my main ideas for the image, I thought I could utilize the slogan Mind the Gap in conjunction with a curious looking image, namely a small Lego bridge that plays with scale and forces the viewers to ask themselves about the location of the image. Together my sons and I built a bridge and sculpted the sand (well, sand and pebbles really) in their sandbox. We made the bridge rather colorful and symmetrical to add emphasis to the use of legos. We built the center portion of the bridge with white bricks so the words Mind the Gap could be contrast and stand out. We sprayed the sand and the bridge just prior to taking the picture to add additional texture to the image. We placed the sand bridge and gap in front of a section of wood with a knot in it to add another possible source of visual curiosity. We took several photos of the bridge before deciding it looked best when its shadow was cast down into the gap. Once the image was imported, I chose to add the words Gap Theory to connect to George Loewensteins Gap Theory of curiosity, as described by Heath & Heath (page 84) in their chapter regarding the importance of Unexpected to making ideas stick. I offset the words Use curiosity to add unexpectedness. to guide the reader from left to right and slightly down towards the lower right corner of the image. I emphasized (bold face) the word unexpectedness as it is the main reason adding curiosity to a story/presentation helps viewers (or listeners) recall the ideas and objectives of the story/presentation. All things combined result in a simple and visually pleasing image that conveys the importance of curiosity elements to a sticky story/presentation.

INTE 6710 ~ Project 4

Page 2