Dean Shareski has created a Design Matters Keynote for the 2007 Flat Classroom Project.
This is a remix of his presentation for the K-12 Online Conference in which Shareski challenges the fact that “creativity and design are often seen as frivolous or at best icing on the cake of learning” and presents reasons why design is an integral part of effective communication. He gives specific techniques on how to improve design when it comes to using multimedia and technology so that projects are of excellent quality.

Having worked as a newspaper sub editor before becoming a teacher, the importance of design is something that I feel passionate about. One of the big ideas we discuss as part of the senior English curriculum is how “meaning is shaped” in different texts, whether they are visual, written or multimedia. Design plays a key role in this shaping of meaning and I’ve written about the importance of visual literacy here and here.

In newspapers, a favourite maxim is that “white space is your friend” and sums up how design should be based on the principles of simplicity in order to make the information you are presenting accessible and engaging to the chosen audience.

Some of the main ideas in the presentation are:
Planning: As Eisenhower said, “plans are nothing, but planning is everything.” Storyboarding and having a clear concept before you begin are important aspects of making an engaging video with a clear message.

Imagery: Dean advises that students should avoid using Google to find images and instead find images on dedicated sites such as flickr.
“When you are publishing to an public audience, simplicity is so important.”

Have a clear, concise message that you are wanting to convey.

Having white space, or negative space enables you to focus on the things that are really important.

Simplicity in communication. If they aren’t adding to your message it’s likely they are taking away from your message. Think about how you are transitioning from big ideas.”

Constraints: Whatever we do we need to ask ourselves “can we make it shorter?”

Originality: “Being original doesn’t mean you can’t borrow ideas as we all do that. Consider one or two features that might make your movie different, not just to stand out but to add to the message. Third, how do you elicit emotions from people, even if you want to inform you want people to feel something about your message. The images, font, audio can all contribute to this. Look at movies and advertisements and ask what do they want me to feel.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/vLAqqvAdTYQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Inspired by Dean Shareski’s K-12 presentation, Clay Burrell has also explored the significance of design, in Cutting the Crap (from student iMovies). In this eight-minute video Clay shows how to 1) find content on Creative Commons, 2) use Zamzar to download YouTube and other videos for mashups, and 3) do advanced Ken Burns Effects.

The section on finding images using a Creative Commons search is especially useful as it is important that we reinforce to students that content on the internet is copyrighted and that there are rules that govern how we legally (and ethically) use other people’s content.