Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

Standard 2.6 Instructional Design:

Candidates model and facilitate the effective use of research- based best practices in
instructional design when designing and developing digital tools, resources, and
technology- enhanced learning experiences.
1. Briefly describe the artifact and the context in which it was created. What was/were
your individual contribution(s)?
This artifact was created for 6th grade students, ages from 11 to 12 years old. This project
will allow students to predict the weather for their own town and two distant locations
and then evaluate how well they have done by comparing their results with the actual
weather and with professional forecasts. After this project, students will be able to

Interpret the symbols in online weather maps

Compare weather maps from day-to-day to find patterns in the weather
Compare their own predictions with professional forecasts and the next
days weather
Predict the weather for tomorrow based on the weather today
Communicate their weather predictions by creating weather maps and
presentations either on power point, prezi, video, or poster board

In ITEC 7445 when creating the Multimedia Design Project I used design principles to
help make my web quest a technology- enhanced learning experience. In other words
this project increased in rigor with the technology that I added to it.
2. Explain how this artifact demonstrates mastery of the standard/element under which it
is placed.
This web quest artifact demonstrates how I used some of the best practices in
instructional design when creating the layout and flow of the web quest. I developed this
project over a two week period. I had to create an online lesson for another class and that
allowed me to work with weebly a little more and learn how to add documents and
graphics to the site. Once I figured out that I wanted to use weebly and found the four
websites that I wanted students to use the project went a lot smoother. This class taught
me design principles that I used when creating the visual aspects of my web quest. I used
a color scheme that repeated itself throughout the entire site. I used consistency when
inserting links and aligned them to the left for easy access and visibility. There were

Laila Taylor

ITEC Portfolio Artifact Reflection

certain points that I wanted students to pay attention to therefore I changed the color of
the text in order to create contrast and draw the readers eye to the text. All of the
downloads, links, and videos work properly on my web quest.

3. What did you learn from completing this artifact? What would you do differently to
improve the quality of the artifact or the process involved in creating the artifact?
I learned how to work with several Web 2.0 tools when creating this
web quest. I also learned how important it is to make sure the lay out
of the web quest is user friendly and that the student can easily work
through the cite. The students had several product choices they could
have made either a power point presentation, prezi, video of weather
forecast, or poster displaying weather map. I would add another rubric
for the weather chart to allow for the students to document two weeks
instead of one. I have used weebly for my portfolio and for an online
lesson, doing so showed me how user friendly weebly is. By looking at
my peers web quest I also saw several web quest on wix, I liked the
design that they had so I might try that next time. I would also make
sure that my web quest was embedded on my website instead of
giving them the url. I spent several minutes the first time helping
students type in the web quest address which could have been spent
completing the activities.

4. How did the work that went into creating the artifact impact school improvement,
faculty development, or student learning? How can the impact be assessed?
Several science teachers used my web quest with their own classes and wanted to learn
how to create a web quest themselves. This led me to some of my unstructured field
experiences, where I taught mini professional learning classes of how to create a web
quest using weebly and some instructional design strategies.