Tools

Font Size. It Matters!

Awesome article in Smashing Magazine by D. Bnonn Tennant, “16 Pixels for Body Copy. Anything Less is a Costly Mistake”

As the title suggests, the whole point of this article is that websites should be at 16 pixels and above. The default for most browsers is 16 pixels, or about 12 point font or 1 em. Anything less is way too small – take a look at the examples. If you write your CSS to specify a font size, you run the risk of your text being too small for people to read.

But people can change their settings, right? Well, Tennannt says:

The users who will most need to adjust their settings usually don’t know how.

True.

He makes some interesting points about reading online:

  • at age 40, we take in about half the light we did at 20
  • comfortable reading distance from the computer is 28 inches; from a book is only a few inches. That’s why books can be set at 10 or 12 point font.
  • 9% of Americans have a visual impairment that cannot be corrected with glasses.
I admit I don’t particularly like the Smashing layout – I despise red as a link color (it SCREAMS at me) and I’m not fond of the font they use. But that’s their brand, and I don’t have to agree with it.
This does have an impact on educational technology design in two ways:
  1. In my post about the Parent’s Perspective on Standardized Tests, I talk about one companies test that, at the time I reviewed it, did not allow the student to change font sizes. Why would that matter? those kids are all under 20, so they get lots of light to their retina! That may be, but still, each kid is different and might prefer a larger font. The font on the test I reviewed was quite small, and as kids hopefully are 20+ inches from the screen, rather than the few inches from a printed page, the font should be bigger.
  2. Font size also changes with grade level. In my focus groups with teachers, when I asked what makes a website/webpage work well with kids, all teachers — even high school teachers — responded that font size makes a difference. Teachers in younger grades want quite large font with a great deal of white space. Even high school teachers want larger font. Some of them mentioned that when showing a website on their projectors, it is very hard to read blocks of font.
So you web designers and instructional designers. Remember your font size!

iPhone 5 & Infographics

I usually post about education topics, but sometimes there are other things in my wired life… like the iPhone. I currently have an iPhone 3GS, love it, use it extensively. I am, however, likely to upgrade to an iPhone 5 when they come out. I won’t be camping out to get it. I’ll get it when it is convenient for me, when I don’t have to wait in a long line, etc.

The post was prompted by Mashable’s iPhone 5 infographic, “iPhone 5 Infographic: Will You Upgrade?”. This is where the connection to education comes in….

Is this information something I needed? No, but was it interesting? Yes. Would I have spent time reading an article that told me the same information? Probably not. Did I spend the two minutes it took to “read” the infograhic? Yes. I probably got more out of the infographic than I would have from text.

Infographics are incredible teaching tools. The New York Times did a series of articles about teaching/learning with infographics  (intro article: Aug. 23, 2010 ). Infographics are powerful, visual teaching tools for giving kids information.

Richard Byrne (of FreeTechnology for Teachers fame) points out, “Viewing infographics can be helpful, but designing an infographic is a better way for students to increase their understanding of data sets.” That’s our next challenge – having students build their own infographics. Check out 10 Aweseme Free Tools to Make Infographics from the  makeuseof blog.

You, too, can annotate in YouTube

Check out this interesting article from MindShift, “Five Reasons YouTube Rocks the Classroom.”

The first three are philosophical:

  1. Inspiration (HUGE access to digital content)
  2. More Access to Students (Flipped Classroom model)
  3. Global Connection (Yup… self-explanatory)

But it’s the 4th and 5th ones, the practical ones, that provide great tools!

4. Customizing Videos
Did you know you can edit videos right in YouTube? Not fancy, but hey. This article says you can do it with a smartphone….I will check that out.
5. Quizzing Students
This is too fun. You can add annotations to your YouTube videos, with speech bubbles, notes and highlights. Then, make them interactive by adding links to other video content (can only link to other YouTube content.) Many possibilities for quizzing, extended learning, self-exploration.