Gene Sullivan's Portfolio  

My Story

 

I picked Canva because it had prepared templates that I could work with. In the future I will explore a program that has more of the drawing and design tools available in PowerPoint. I believe I can get more dynamic infographics with those features. I was originally disappointed with the templates and particularly the icons available. I'd previously done a search and become disillusioned by the lack of icons I thought would apply to the conceptual material we are working with.

 

Eventually, I did a search "icons for Canva" and came across "The Noun Project". I'd previously done a search and become disillusioned by the lack of icons I thought would apply to the conceptual material we are working with. I later texted "recoloring icons from The Noun Project" which brought me to 'Method Draw". I later discovered that Canva had a feature which allowed me to recolor icons. Interestingly enough, the first icon I worked with, that generated my "Method Draw" find was in a format that could not be recolored by Canva! 

 

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Learning Theories that supported me in learning to use Canva

 

Constructivist - Zone of Proximal Development. While I would have liked my flexibility in the design options, I was supported in creating my first two infographics by having pre-formatted infographics to work with. These options were sufficient to present my ideas.

 

After creating the first infographic for the Constructivism portfolio page and not succeeding in finding icons, I was determined to improve the quality of the second infographic for Andragogy. This is an example of two Adult Learning principles: Adult learners are internally motivated and like to work on problems. The learning involved solving the "icons that make sense and work in the design" problem.

 

I tried various searches to find icons…temporarily stopping the effort with negative reinforcement. In search of that dopamine hit when I solve a problem I continued to pursue the goal. I was further motivated by a past comment in the 200x class where the instructor suggested I explore a new tool beyond PowerPoint. So I see some Operant Conditioning playing out here.

 

Obviously there was some Connectionist activity and learning associated with finding a node of knowledge, The Noun Project and then searching for more knowledge about how to work with their content. Okay, let's finish off with an example from Cognitivism…I have a self image as "someone who persists, who doesn't quit". I believe this exists as part of a schema that could be labeled "Gene is like this" or "this is what Gene would do". This motivated me to find the icon solution and not give-up and use text.

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My Ah-ha moment is the interaction between the self-identity schema and how I am "pulled" towards behavior that is "internally rewarded" by a positive emotion when I act in accordance with that schema. One question is "Is that schema a result of earlier operant conditioning?". Another more disturbing one "Is my interpretation of my ah-ha moment accurate or is the interpretation incorrect and simply an epiphenomenon of my behavioral programing?"  (insert head exploding emoji)

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Infographic created with Canva, click here