This semester I teach a computer graphics course...which is really fun, because it's oodles of Photoshop (or Pixlr, which is essentially an equally as awesome ONLINE Photoshop program that is FREE!!) fun and all of the computer-techie stuff I enjoy doing in my regular life. (Side note: it's so incredibly awesome that I get to teach classes that I am not only interested in, but actually do in my personal time so it's fun to teach and show students how to use these programs to better and enhance the things they're doing in school (or outside of school too!))
Anyways, so this year I decided to launch an 'iPhoneography' course for my students -- basically, I walk through some ins and outs of taking good pictures (and editing them!) with their iPhones (or smart phones, it's basically the same stuff regardless of what device you have).
I had posted that I was doing this on a few of my social media channels, and I got several friends asking me about the course I wrote and if they could have a copy of it...so I decided to whip it up as a blog post here so I could 1. quick reference it if need be 2. pass it along to my friends who were asking about it 3. maybe it'll be useful to other tech teachers out there to use in their own classrooms!
The presentation I made (click here for the direct link to it) is pretty self-explanatory I think...I tried to make it as easy to self-navigate as possible, so that my students had a very information-packed guide to reference if they needed to go back to anything we went over.
My students will be starting this project soon and I cannot WAIT to see what they come up with (hint: the project asks them to put to the test everything we went over in the iPhoneography guide...so they'll have to play with unique perspectives, use sun flares, etc...).
I'd love some feedback on my iPhoneography guide too if you want to give it! Is there anything I left out?! Or anything I got wrong?! Or something that you'd like to see me talk more about?! I'm open! Let me know and I'll add it--cause that's the beauty of Google Slides, I can add it and it auto-updates on your end with the presentation link so no need to re-post or re-send out the presentation...pretty cool, eh?!! If you're not using Google Drive, you really REALLY should be...but that's a post for another day! :)
First off, let me apologize for the huge lack of posts recently...teaching is busy, life is busier, and I've seemingly neglected my teaching blog here. BUT! I hope to make amends this year and have more than the pathetic 6 posts I had for all of 2015. Stay tuned.
Anyways, I felt compelled to write this post today for so many reasons, but the main one finally pushing me to do it happened yesterday. You see, it's course selection week here at the high school I teach at, and all of the freshman, sophomores, and juniors are carefully plotting out the classes they will take in 2016-2017. In talking with another teacher yesterday, she was telling me about a conversation she was having with one of her students about what courses to take next year. The student told her she was going to sign up for Computer Apps (one of the classes I teach) because, "That class is easy." Immediately my defenses went up and I felt the need to justify and defend my course to my fellow teacher. How dare they say my class is easy! It most certainly is not...wait, is it really actually easy?!
That conversation stuck with me, because obviously students at my school think my class is easy. And you know what?! It is. It truly is an "easy" class, but I loathe, no I HATE that it is referred to as that. Why?! Because even though the content we are covering may be being labeled "easy" by it's takers, it most is more than just an easy class: it's a practical one. It's one that the content learned in here can be transferred and applied into every.single.one. of their other courses, and even into their lives outside of school. It prepares them for the tasks they'll have to complete in their future schoolings and even college! So yes, it may be easy, but it most certainly is not JUST that. It is applicable. It is practical. It teaches skills that will be used in countless other areas of their education and lives.
Generally my students do very well in my classes, and I always get the comments that, "If everyone has an A, then you must not be challenging them enough" --translation: your class is too easy. Again, this irks me the wrong way. And I actually secretly wish my classes were pass/fail because of this. Anyways, again, when people make these comments, I immediately go defensive teacher and feel the need to justify to them that that is NOT the case at all, that they are learning practical application skills. You blow your tire and get a mechanic to fix it. They fix it = you're good to go. They don't fix it (or don't fix it right) = they failed and you're still stuck...until they make it right. Thus is the jam for my class: students do the work = they pass. Students don't do the work (or do it incorrectly) = they don't pass...until they make it right. My classes are "tech" classes after all.
The next time someone tells me my classes are easy or that I'm not challenging my students enough, I'm pointing them to this blog post. I teach 3 different classes: video production, computer graphics, and computer applications, and what I've said here applies to all of them. Yes, they may be labeled "easy", but the are so much more than that. They are...
...and so much more. We learn the ins and outs of all things Google. We learn how to build a website from scratch, learn how to create an interactive timeline and story map, and learn how to use social media to organize and prep for projects. We do lessons on how to take good pictures with your cell phone called iPhoneography, we learn what mobile journalism is and how it applies to the daily lives of high schoolers, we learn how to shoot, record, edit, and finalize movies in a complex editor, and we learn how to manipulate images and create new ones using Photoshop. Every.single.one. of these skills and content we do in my class are used elsewhere in our school--and then even outside of it. They are applying and transferring the knowledge they learn and acquire in my class to others. Call my class fun, exciting, enjoyable, creative, hands-on, time-consuming, challenging, frustrating, engaging--but don't call it easy. It's so much more than that.
Our latest project in my computer graphics class has been one of my favorites: students were tasked with the challenge (given to them from Chris McGee, the STL EdCamp guru/leader) to turn this EdCampSTL logo into something that looks like it's thrown together/held together with tape and cardboard, for the upcoming May "EdCamp Express" unconference that will be taking place soon.
Students were also challenged to use Adobe Photoshop CS6 to create this project, instead of Pixlr, which is what they'd been using up until this point. As much as some of them resisted using Photoshop because "it's just too much," all of them embraced it for this project and their logo designs turned out awesome. I was super impressed with every single one!
I then sent over a folder to Chris of all of the designs, and the EdCamp team voted on their favorite. Here's the one that won, and will now be on the top of the flyer for the EdCamp Express event coming up in May! (Spoiler: this student is ecstatic that her logo is being published for a big conference event! --as she should be! This is pretty awesome for a high schooler to have happen to them!)
And here's the flyer that will be distributed to advertise EdCamp Express:
Although only one student's logo "won", they all were awesome and very creative (and uniquely different!) in my book. Here's the rest of the logo designs from this project/contest. Side note: I really love doing these type of practical, "real-life" projects in my classroom. I find them so much more engaging and interesting to the students because they're work is being showcased (and in this case, voted upon!) in the outside world.
This semester, instead of teaching video production, I am teaching computer graphics. I do miss my video production class and projects a lot, but I am LOVING the projects and products that my computer graphics students are producing!
They recently just completed a project using Pixlr editor--which is an online FREE editing software, very similar to photoshop (I LOVE IT). They can create their work online, save it to their online gallery, and pick up where they left back off the next day. Did I mention it's free?!! I love it.
Anyways, so after learning how to use the Pixlr program, my students completed this project -- they had to create 5 different edits using Pixlr. They had several days in class to work on this--after getting the hang of using the program, and I am blown away with what they created! Seriously, how awesome are some of these?!
Before I show off some of their work, here are the 5 edit categories they had to make:
Mini Project 1: Movie Poster
You will take a movie of your choice and re-create the poster in your own style. You can incorporate elements from the original poster in your new one, or start fresh and use completely new ideas to craft your poster.
You need to make sure you select a movie that you’ve seen, so if you drastically change the poster from the original it still fits in with the “theme” of the movie. Make sure your poster includes the necessary information as well (title, director, main characters, rating, etc…).
Mini Project 2: EdCampSTL Poster
Using information from this site, you will create a poster promoting EdCampSTL. You need to come up with a unique poster to promote this event, while making sure you give the appropriate information (date, time, location, etc…) from the website. You may incorporate any logos you see from the website, but you do not have to.
You want your poster to be creative, unique, and something that catches the viewer’s attention while also giving them the necessary details for the event.
Mini Project 3: Photobomb
You will take a popular image or picture and “photobomb” yourself into it. This means you’ll need to take/get a photo of yourself that would “fit” in the image that you are placing yourself in to be photobombed.
You need to make sure that you do indeed look like you are “photobombing” the picture; meaning that you could have actually been there in real life in the photograph (so you may need to do some color enhancements and editing as well)
Mini Project 4: Landscape Edit
Grab a landscape pic (mountains, beach, valley, prairie, etc…) off of Google Images and drastically change the picture: change the colors, sharpen/blur the image, add a sunset, etc… -- but your project must look vastly different than its original.
Make sure your editing doesn’t completely distort your landscape; add editing effects that are unique and enhance your new image and landscape look!
Mini Project 5: YOUR CHOICE
This project is your choice: create/edit/modify/enhance/WHATEVER! in Pixlr--you have complete freedom here to create something of your choosing.
BE PREPARED to explain your creation/edit to the class and why you chose to do something like that.
IDEAS: create a flyer for an upcoming sports event/school function, edit a picture, combine multiple pictures into one
Apologies for this late blog post...been a little busy around here! But I wanted to share with you some of my video production students' final projects from last semester.
I had them reflect on their semester and all of the projects they did in class, and then create a PSA with what they learned as well as promoting the video production course for others to take next year.
I am super impressed with how these turned out! Each of the students had to make their own storyboard first before filming/compiling their footage. I really think this is an essential part to doing any movie, and I hope I've ingrained it in these ladies to always plan out and storyboard first before jumping in to make a movie!
Well done ladies--you should feel very proud of yourselves for all of the awesome videos you made and what you've accomplished this semester! Bravo!
I have blogged recently about mobile journalism at UA, and this being an integral part of my video production class. Although my students do a large number of mobile journalism projects, they have recently expanded on their creativity to highlight issues that are unique to UA, such as fire drill procedures and "girl code" issues as well. Another group took their creativity to the next level and created a creepy, short movie in the spirit of Halloween.
I do want to again plug the awesomeness which is WeVideo--all of these movies were shot with iPhones, and edited using WeVideo's online editing software. I am so impressed with not only the quality of these videos but also the vast editing capabilities that WeVideo offers on a web interface that is accessible across all platforms, PC, Mac, or Chromebook (and mobile devices as well!). If you're a teacher and looking for fantastic sharable editing software that's web-based, check out WeVideo. You will not be disappointed! I cannot speak highly enough to it, and how awesome (and fast!) their customer service response is! Anyways, definitely check it out and give it a whirl in your classroom (or for your own personal video editing use!)
Enjoy these recent videos produced by my fantastic video production students! Well done ladies!
Northwestern University has come out with this amazing timeline application called Timeline JS, or Knight Lab Timeline as I refer to it. Northwestern has this "Knight Lab" that "advances news media innovation and education. Developing ideas from experimentation through adoption, the Lab makes technology that aims to help make information meaningful and promotes quality storytelling on the Internet."
After I came across Knight Lab's timeline, I immediately wanted my Advanced Computer Application students to dabble in it and create their own interactive (and beautifully looking!) timelines.
After a few requirements from me (at least 20 events, must have a start date, must have multi-sentence text accompanying the event, must have a media item and credit, etc...), students headed over to http://timeline.knightlab.com/ and grabbed the Google Spreadsheet template that they would then use to build their timeline. This is a feature I really loved--that the entire timeline was built using a Google Doc!! How cool is that?!! Hello auto-save, and syncing with Google Drive!
The goal was to have students embed their timelines on their Google Sites they created earlier in the semester, but that was one hiccup of the Timeline's embed feature: it wouldn't allow for embedding on Google Sites (which I actually think is on Google's end, not Knight Lab's). I did find a work around to this, but it was super complicated and wayyyyy more steps than I wanted to roll out, so instead I just had students share their timeline preview links with me, and that worked just fine!
I wanted to share a few of these timelines my students made. They got to choose what person/idea/event they were going to document on a timeline, so their timelines are very varied, yet all unique and well-created. Enjoy!
In my Video Production class, students have been diligently working on various mobile journalism pieces that are use in our bi/tri-weekly UA Today Broadcasts. They are currently working on new pieces now, but have finalized and begun to show their first pieces on the Broadcasts that are being aired currently.
Before each group made their digital MoJo pieces using WeVideo, they used this template to create a storyboard for their piece--because you HAVE to do an outline/draft before you do the final product, even with videos!
Each group came up with their own stories they wanted to showcase: the new lunch food program in the cafeteria, a fun US trivia challenge with the students, a showcase of a recent concert event (Loufest), and study skills.
Overall, I am very impressed with these ladies' first MoJo pieces! I cannot wait to see what their subsequent ones look like--I'm sure they'll keep getting better and better!
Also, students did only use their cell phones AND WeVideo to create these pieces--I'm super impressed with that and how these turned out!
In one of my tech classes we have been learning about and exploring all of the various Google Apps. Recently, students completed a Google Drawing project--which was actually 4 different mini projects all in one!
After learning the ins and outs of Google Drawing, students got to pick from a menu of project items 4 different projects they were going to complete using Google Drawing.
Along with the bullet points for each project, students were required to use Google Drawing to create their project. After that, the creative juices were left to flow with them to see what they could come up with to fit that project!
Overall, I am super impressed with what these ladies came up with for their projects! Very creative, and very detailed projects from all 8 categories were turned in!
Here are a few samples of the projects below that the girls' turned in. I really think these types of "menu" projects are great for students because it allows them choice in how they are demonstrating that they understand the content at hand, and they are able to pick a project that they like rather than just being assigned one way to do it.
Anyways, here are a few project samples from our recent Google Drawing project:
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