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The experts I consulted did not have many suggestions, however, the artist
had really good ideas. Unfortunately, I could not implement them all due to the
limitations of the software I am using, and time constraints. The advice I found
the most useful and the easiest to follow was:
- Start each new section with a heading,
- Repeat graphics that may serve as visual clues, e.g., repeat the smiley
face for answers, or the walking computer for the same subject continued over
the page,
- Only center a picture when you want to focus on it; if it is being used to
illustrate text place it next to the text and turn it so that it faces the
writing,
- Lead onto the next page with a graphic in the lower right hand corner -
facing out.
I constantly made minor revisions to the materials as the students and
experts evaluated them.
- Obviously, I corrected the transposed number immediately, as I did not want
anyone to be confused by it.
- Graphics that were interpreted too literally, I removed and added ones that
the students thought more appropriate.
- I added an example of what a number looked like when it is written in
subscript.
- I filled in two of the base 10 digits, in gray, to guide the
students.
- I added a little more explanation on how to start filling in the base 2
numbers.
I realized, from working back from the formative evaluation, that I could
have simplified the instructional analysis. This would have meant changes in all
the subsequent sections.
I do not think I made any major errors in anticipating how homeschoolers
would learn the material, as none of them had any serious difficulties. I would,
however, write a note to parents explaining more of the theory as all the
students wanted more information. I would include more examples of different
bases, and a table of the decimal equivalents of ASCII - they all wanted to know
if that was real or whether I made it up. (It was real.) This was, however,
beyond the scope of this project.
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