Big Ideas
Big Ideas
The design cycle
includes updating content, tools, and delivery. The design process can be non-linear.
is an ongoing reflective process.
Personal design choices require self-exploration, collaboration, and evaluation and refinement of skills.
Design and content can influence the lives of others.
Content
Learning Standards
Content
design opportunities
design cycle
digital tools
for example, spreadsheet, databases, word processors, social media, blogs, infographics, polls and surveys, as well as graphic design and photo tools, such as Photoshop and InDesign
to communicate and solicit for example, polls, surveys, crowdsourcing ideas
information
impacts of social media
creating, sharing, or exchanging of information; sharing, co-creating, discussing, and modifying user-generated content; quality of information, content reach, frequency of access, usability, immediacy, and permanence; virality of content
in global communications
impacts on language use
for example, text-based and instant messaging, emojis, short-form communication, memes, gifs, evolution of grammar, spelling, evolution of Internet slang (e.g., LOL)
of online technology
issues
for example, netiquette, online courtesies, moderation, free speech, differences between digital, analog, and face-to-face communication; impacts of technology on interpersonal communication, relationships, and organizations
in digital communication
digital communication risks
for example, over-sharing, impulsive reactions, copy (Cc) versus blind copy (Bcc), personal and private information, immediacy of the message
ethics and legalities
for example, fair use rights, image use, copyrights, trademarks, Creative Commons licensing, anonymous authorship
in digital communication, including ethics of cultural appropriation using or sharing a cultural motif, theme, “voice,” image, knowledge, story, song, or drama without permission or without appropriate context or in a way that may misrepresent the real experience of the people from whose culture it is drawn
influences of digital marketing
for example, email, newsletters, mobile media marketing, social media marketing, videos, graphics, digital ad campaign strategies, measurement in clicks, analytics and metrics, audience reach, virality, generational targeting
in online content creation and curation
changes
changing dynamic of journalism, reporting, and content curation
in journalism and reporting
persuasive writing
for example, using the inverted pyramid method, avoiding jargon and repetition, using bold text, hyperlinking, underlining, writing with a digital audience in mind, summarizing, writing with search engine optimization in mind; ensuring contrast, clarity, and direction
for the web
critical evaluation
relevance, accuracy, bias/perspective, reliability, safety
of online resources
sociological impacts
for example, self-image, social connections (real versus imagined), mental health, self-esteem
of digital communication tools
technology to support collaboration
online multi-user tools and services to facilitate collaboration and communication on common projects, regardless of their physical location; for example, online chat/video communication services, document sharing services or sophisticated project management software
and interaction with others
strategies for developing a digital dossier
maintaining a positive public profile that highlights career objectives and showcases work and experience
career opportunities
for example, copywriting, Internet marketing, UX, SEO, communications officers, social media managers
in digital communications
appropriate use of technology, including digital citizenship, etiquette, and literacy
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Applied Design
Understanding context
- Conduct user-centred researchresearch done directly with potential users to understand how they do things and why, their physical and emotional needs, how they think about the world, and what is meaningful to themto understand design opportunities and barriers
Defining
- Establish a point of view for a chosen design opportunity
- Identify potential users, intended impact, and possible unintended negative consequences
- Make inferences about premises and constraintslimiting factors, such as available technology, expense, environmental impact, copyrightthat define the design space
Ideating
- Identify gaps to explore a design space
- Generate ideas and add to others’ ideas to create possibilities, and prioritize them for prototyping
- Critically analyze how competing social, ethical, and community considerations may impact design
- Work with users throughout the design process
Prototyping
- Identify and apply sources of inspirationmay include aesthetic experiences; exploration of First Peoples perspectives and knowledge; the natural environment and places, including the land, its natural resources, and analogous settings; people, including users, experts, and thought leadersand informationmay include digital communications professionals; First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; secondary sources; collective pools of knowledge in communities and collaborative atmospheres both online and offline
- Choose an appropriate form, scale, and level of detail for prototyping, and plan procedures for prototyping multiple ideas
- Analyze the design for the life cycle and evaluate its impactsincluding the social and environmental impacts of extraction and transportation of raw materials, manufacturing, packaging, transportation to markets, servicing or providing replacement parts, expected usable lifetime, and reuse or recycling of component materials
- Construct prototypes, making changes to tools, materials, and procedures as needed
- Record iterationsrepetitions of a process with the aim of approaching a desired resultof prototyping
Testing
- Identify feedback most needed and possible sources of feedbackmay include peers; users; First Nations, Métis, or Inuit community experts; other experts and professionals both online and offline
- Develop an appropriate testincludes evaluating the degree of authenticity required for the setting of the test, deciding on an appropriate type and number of trials, and collecting and compiling dataof the prototype
- Collect feedback to critically evaluate design and make changes to product design or processes
- Iterate the prototype or abandon the design idea
Making
- Identify appropriate tools, technologies, materials, processes, and time needed for production
- Use project management processessetting goals, planning, organizing, constructing, monitoring, and leading during executionwhen working individually or collaboratively to coordinate production
Sharing
- Sharemay include showing to others, use by others, giving away, or marketing and sellingprogress while creating to increase opportunities for feedback
- Decide on how and with whom to share or promote their product, creativity, and, if applicable, intellectual propertycreations of the intellect such as works of art, invention, discoveries, design ideas to which one has the legal rights of ownership
- Consider how others might build upon the design concept
- Critically reflect on their design thinking and processes, and identify new design goals
- Assess ability to work effectively both as individuals and collaboratively while implementing project management processes
Applied Skills
Apply safety procedures for themselves, co-workers, and users in both physical and digital environments
Identify and assess skills needed for design interests, and develop specific plans to learn or refine them over time
Applied Technologies
Explore existing, new, and emerging tools, technologies
tools that extend human capabilities
, and systems and evaluate their suitability for their design interests
Evaluate impacts, including unintended negative consequences, of choices made about technology use
Analyze the role technologies play in societal change
Examine how cultural beliefs, values, and ethical positions affect the development and use of technologies