1 day ago
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Glogster
All day it took, mostly 'cause I couldn't decide what to do. Here it is http://hillmjan.glogster.com/Artists-Birthdays/ . Yes, lots of ways to use this. Googled glogster lesson plans and saw a really cute one - a whole class had written poetry and each created a glog of their poem. They were linked to a class glog showing each child's face and first name. Very cute. This could be an easy way to create a quick discussion on an artist - without creating a power point - all the images on one page.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Collaboration tools ( task 7)
Checked out and joined Wiggio. Not sure I'll use it, but hey, it's cool to play with!
Skype is wonderful - I used just the audio when my daughter was in Greece two years ago. The sound of her voice was wonderful and we were able to chat often. Since then, technology has touched both of us via laptop cameras, so if she - or one of my sons- goes far away, we'll become steady users of skype. Lukas is headed to NY state for college and asked me to use Skype instead of my requested weekly phone call.
Skype would be really cool to use with a class from another state or country. Not sure how we'd do it with art unless we shared ideas or critiqued each other.
Skype is wonderful - I used just the audio when my daughter was in Greece two years ago. The sound of her voice was wonderful and we were able to chat often. Since then, technology has touched both of us via laptop cameras, so if she - or one of my sons- goes far away, we'll become steady users of skype. Lukas is headed to NY state for college and asked me to use Skype instead of my requested weekly phone call.
Skype would be really cool to use with a class from another state or country. Not sure how we'd do it with art unless we shared ideas or critiqued each other.
Task 6 Digital Storytelling
Digital Storytelling seems to offer much wider flexibility as a teaching tool, compared to the online writing tools we looked at previously. Kerpoof and Animoto seem to be much closer to the heart of creativity in writing - and illustrating.
I liked the layout of Digital Storytelling which also gave some helpful prompts and information for teachers like me who are not language arts specialists. Here's another site on Digital Storytelling which is similar. This second site is also brief, to the point, with various types of supportive information.
Kerpoof was limiting because of the precreated backgrounds and pictures. Guess the art teacher in me cannot be subdued. I ended up creating a drawing there, "Ahem." I'll try to create a link.
In Animoto, I made a short video of the quilted accordian book, The Mistaken Anole: An Underwater Odyssey I finished a few weeks ago. Animoto was pretty fun and easy to do, altho yes, no words are included in the story.
Still, after all this, I keep thinking of Flickr and Photostory ....
I liked the layout of Digital Storytelling which also gave some helpful prompts and information for teachers like me who are not language arts specialists. Here's another site on Digital Storytelling which is similar. This second site is also brief, to the point, with various types of supportive information.
Kerpoof was limiting because of the precreated backgrounds and pictures. Guess the art teacher in me cannot be subdued. I ended up creating a drawing there, "Ahem." I'll try to create a link.
In Animoto, I made a short video of the quilted accordian book, The Mistaken Anole: An Underwater Odyssey I finished a few weeks ago. Animoto was pretty fun and easy to do, altho yes, no words are included in the story.
Still, after all this, I keep thinking of Flickr and Photostory ....
New Orleans - and back
Whew! My husband and I took 4 kids to theEvangelical Lutheran Church in America's National Youth Gathering in New Orleans.
What a wonderful time! All the kids (yep - 37,000) spent at least 1/2 a day working somewhere in the city on a service project. The total hours of work finally tallied equalled one person, working 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 90 + years! My group took a bus to Dr. Charles Richard Drew Elementary, a K-8 school in the 9th Ward, where we scraped and painted classrooms. Our evening gatherings took place in the Superdome, daytime activities took place at the Convention Center. Frankly, it was very moving to be in New Orleans even tho many signs of Katrina in tourist-traveled areas have been revitalized.
Something I'd like to discuss with this group was one popular (rampant) kind of social networking - texting. I have a new respect for the Middle and Upper Division teachers - how do you all control this during class? Talked with my college age daughter about it and she apologetically said that her peers were equally bad - texting others during conversations with her, for example. Clearly this is a case where technology has shot far ahead of current social 'rules.'
What a wonderful time! All the kids (yep - 37,000) spent at least 1/2 a day working somewhere in the city on a service project. The total hours of work finally tallied equalled one person, working 4 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 90 + years! My group took a bus to Dr. Charles Richard Drew Elementary, a K-8 school in the 9th Ward, where we scraped and painted classrooms. Our evening gatherings took place in the Superdome, daytime activities took place at the Convention Center. Frankly, it was very moving to be in New Orleans even tho many signs of Katrina in tourist-traveled areas have been revitalized.
Something I'd like to discuss with this group was one popular (rampant) kind of social networking - texting. I have a new respect for the Middle and Upper Division teachers - how do you all control this during class? Talked with my college age daughter about it and she apologetically said that her peers were equally bad - texting others during conversations with her, for example. Clearly this is a case where technology has shot far ahead of current social 'rules.'
Monday, July 20, 2009
Task 5
Online writing. Not sure how I'm gonna use this.
-Tried the Fairy Tale one, and wrote a sentence for the princess's name. A sentence including the meaning of her name. - Oh yeah, and I named the King "King ___" so every time the story mentioned the king, it was "king King ____. " Guess you'd have to go thru the whole thing and discover all the glitches or twists and turns. Pretty prescriptive - not enough options.
-Loved the notion of the Bayeux Tapestry one, both for medieval exploration and the art, but struggled to get it to work. It's pretty cool. Sent this to my daughter (ready to enter grad school) who loves medieval art and she enjoyed building a story with it.
-The Story Creator is pretty cool - reminds me of the "escape the room" games my kids love.
-The Digital Story Kit looked interesting - a building of a video story.
and so on.
Most of these sites look good, but artistically they fall short for me. I wonder if there's a way to scan your own characters in and then build a story. The format of the Make Belief Comix is straightforward and simple to use - makes the story easier to share when building the illustrations are quick to master. Maybe after one or two uses it would become too simple?
So here's my simple comix. Already wanted more emotions than it gave me. Frustrating!
-Tried the Fairy Tale one, and wrote a sentence for the princess's name. A sentence including the meaning of her name. - Oh yeah, and I named the King "King ___" so every time the story mentioned the king, it was "king King ____. " Guess you'd have to go thru the whole thing and discover all the glitches or twists and turns. Pretty prescriptive - not enough options.
-Loved the notion of the Bayeux Tapestry one, both for medieval exploration and the art, but struggled to get it to work. It's pretty cool. Sent this to my daughter (ready to enter grad school) who loves medieval art and she enjoyed building a story with it.
-The Story Creator is pretty cool - reminds me of the "escape the room" games my kids love.
-The Digital Story Kit looked interesting - a building of a video story.
and so on.
Most of these sites look good, but artistically they fall short for me. I wonder if there's a way to scan your own characters in and then build a story. The format of the Make Belief Comix is straightforward and simple to use - makes the story easier to share when building the illustrations are quick to master. Maybe after one or two uses it would become too simple?
So here's my simple comix. Already wanted more emotions than it gave me. Frustrating!
The Hoffman Challenge project is finished! That's what I've been doing these last days (weeks) - working on my entry. The HC is an annual quilting/sewing challenge, using a particular fabric as a part of the final work. It's my summer art 'assignment' for myself.
As I worked, I tried to incorporate Flickr into my process. A few things I learned quickly - to resize the pics so as not to use up all my space on just a few shots; and resizing pics takes an extra step (when time is valuable.) You might wonder why I take pics during the process - and it's not just documenting the process. The pics help get a perspective or distance in viewing the 'whole' in a way that one cannot do by hanging it up and looking at it from across the room. Before digital photography was so easy, I used a peep hole - you know - to peep thru a door to the other side. You peep thru it backwards, getting a huge distance to evaluate the composition of an artwork.
Here are more pics of my work on Flickr.
Tomorrow 8:00 a.m. will find my husband and me in a van headed to New Orleans with 4 kids from our church youth group. We will meet up with 36,994 other kids and assorted adults for the ELCA's National Youth Gathering. Yikes!!! We will return next Tues. At that point, I plan to live with my laptop to complete this class.
As I worked, I tried to incorporate Flickr into my process. A few things I learned quickly - to resize the pics so as not to use up all my space on just a few shots; and resizing pics takes an extra step (when time is valuable.) You might wonder why I take pics during the process - and it's not just documenting the process. The pics help get a perspective or distance in viewing the 'whole' in a way that one cannot do by hanging it up and looking at it from across the room. Before digital photography was so easy, I used a peep hole - you know - to peep thru a door to the other side. You peep thru it backwards, getting a huge distance to evaluate the composition of an artwork.
Here are more pics of my work on Flickr.
Tomorrow 8:00 a.m. will find my husband and me in a van headed to New Orleans with 4 kids from our church youth group. We will meet up with 36,994 other kids and assorted adults for the ELCA's National Youth Gathering. Yikes!!! We will return next Tues. At that point, I plan to live with my laptop to complete this class.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
one more question
How can I alter the sequence of entries in my blog? I'd like the letter pics to be a visual title to Task 4. Tried changing the time entered as was suggested when I checked in 'help' but it didn't work.
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