Communicate Knowledge

Competency 3: Communicate Knowledge

• Communicates effectively in oral and written formats
• Effectively communicates content through the design and delivery of teaching/learning activities that integrate content and pedagogy
• Demonstrates the ability to adapt instruction and assessment techniques to the needs of diverse learners

Representative Artifact:

Sample Web-Enhanced Instruction

login information

email: ddemaio@youngwritersproject.org

password: doug123

Narrative:

Communicates Effectively in Oral and Written Formats
The artifact that I chose to depict my competency in communicating knowledge, is an online learning series aimed at teaching a variety of learners how they can engage in video-conferenced learning opportunities at their local libraries. This “training” is to be delivered at a number of public libraries throughout the state, so it made sense to package it as an online series of modules that could be accessed at each of the locations. One of the requirements of that this training needed to meet was the ability to be used by any patrons, staff, or volunteers at the libraries. In order to reach that goal, the instruction needed to be simple, accessible, and inclusive.

This instruction exemplifies my ability to communicate in both oral and written forms, because the instruction is delivered with an optional audio track for those who have trouble reading on a screen for whatever reason. All of the information is conveyed in duplicate, but with certain adjustments that accentuate the strengths of each medium. Communicating in written form, I was careful to write in clear, simple sentences, with information divided up logically into manageable chunks. I was also thoughtful about the display of the text, including fonts, headers, formatting, and placement of other media. In the audio recordings, I used a friendly, upbeat tone, and used simple and direct phrasing. In both cases, I avoided superfluous information, and let my analysis of the learning needs guide the development on the instruction.

Communicates Content through Design/Delivery of Learning Activities
The teaching and learning activities included in this instructional content effectively communicate the content by including instructional media of various types, and learning activities aimed at keeping the learner on track, and determining whether they are progressing effectively. The instruction includes some short videos to convey complex steps in the process, images and diagrams of the various components needed, text explanations, audio recordings, and a number of interactive “knowledge checks” the learner must complete throughout the program.

Demonstrates Ability to Adapt Instruction and Assessment for Diverse Learners
The dedication to creating an accessible and inclusive online learning experience with this instruction shows my ability and motivation to create instruction and assessment techniques that benefit a variety of diverse learners. This particular course is designed for patrons of public libraries throughout my extended community. Our public libraries are a dedicated resource for a variety of learners, including continuing or adult learners, elderly learners, and those with physical limitations.

While this particular course is aimed primarily at adults and teens, it was important to keep a number of disadvantaged populations in mind as I developed it, to make sure that it was accessible for all public library patrons. This guided a number of design choices, including the sizes and styles of fonts, the inclusion of images, video, sound, and text to convey valuable information, and a variety of interactive “knowledge checks.” I hope to continue creating more distance education opportunities for learners–mostly for k-12 range kids–and these competencies will help and encourage me to develop my peripheral skills (graphic design, audio/visual work, etc.) so that my work can reach new levels of professionalism and accessibility. I hope to also develop these specific competencies further as I create more and better learning modules.