Planning a project.

Hello!
Welcome back to my blog!

Today, I am going to write about the DDD-E model and more specifically about the decide and design stages.
As I have previously said:
D- stands for Decide. In this phase, we choose what kind of project we would like to do.
D- stands for Design. In this stage, we choose the tools we will use in our project.
D- stands for Develop. In this phase, we pull together all the materials we have found.
E- stands for Evaluate. It is an ongoing process in which we reflect and assess our project.

Decide phase.
What do we do during this phase?
We determine some crucial elements such as the topic or the subject of the project, the goals or the learning standards. What are the students expected to achieve at the end of this project?
We should introduce the goals at the very beginning and we should choose a project which meets those goals. While deciding all these things, we should set the time. How much time does each activity take?
How can we organise them in order to meet the time limits?
We also decide if the use of multimedia is appropriate or not. What can we do to use it properly in order to enhance and not to destroy our project?
While deciding this, we should also think if there are all the needed conditions to display this project such as good internet connection, students should have at least basic computer skills, students should also have the necessary equipment.
We decide if the activities planned can be done individually or in pairs/groups. If a certain activity can be done in groups, we should be able to create cooperative groups, which are better to be selected by the teacher, because it ensures balance. If we let our students choose with whom they are going to work, they will be paired based on their relationships. This is not bad, but if we allow them to do this all the time, there won't be diversity in class and we should make sure to choose the groups based on students' abilities, project requirements and so on.
After deciding how we are going to deal with our project, we should teach students some social skills such as: listening carefully, being polite, sharing ideas and opinions, reducing tension and pressure, disagreeing in a polite way, without insulting the others and so on.
Those skills are as much important as computer skills because without them students can't even work together and the whole project would be a mess.
After making sure we have dealt with the first phase properly, we pass to the:

Design phase.
In this phase, we provide information about the aspects of multimedia or the technology being used for the project. It is very important because it produces a plan for the whole project.
This phase includes:
Outlining the content.
Teachers should provide students with what is expected of them.
We should specify the requirements. What is the topic that should be developed and how are we going to deal with it. What aspects are we going to include in our project? We should also take into consideration the target audience. The whole project should be focused on the level of the students we are dealing with. The topic, the activities, the multimedia used should be appropriate for the students' level.
If we are dealing with children, we should be careful not to exaggerate with the expectations and if we are dealing with the adults, we should not think that they already know everything.
Creating flowcharts. There are different flowcharts that can be used depending on our type of project.
We can create flowcharts by using
Lucidchart.com which is a platform that combines different elements such as drawing, diagramming, visualization and collaboration. It is an innovative platform.
Specifying screen design.
Here we determine how our screen template will look like. We should choose the right colour and navigation options. The screen should be functional and usable.
Writing storyboards. Storyboards are very important because they convey how the story will develop through images displayed in sequence.
They can be general or detailed ones. The detailed ones are more used and they should contain all the information needed.
Design guidelines to specify information related to text, menus, icons and buttons and colour.
We should try to create short and appealing sentences and avoid long lines of text. That's because long lines distract students.
What about the menus? How many options should they contain?
Well, at least 3-6 options on a menu.
We should also make sure to use common icons, in order not to distract students and to put them in difficulties.
It may seem like the colour we choose for our background is not important, but at least make sure not to use a red one.

The design phase is important, because here we start creating the real project. We should make sure to include an appropriate, short and simple text, mostly if we are doing a Powerpoint presentation.
Next week, we are going to learn more about the two other stages of the DDD-E model.

Thank you for reading my post!
Stay safe! :)