iPhoneography

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! :)

Beach Motel Project

For this project students were tasked with recreating a single print image, based upon the specific requirements and a set of inspiration pictures (you can find the entire project description and links here).

Sort of like the EdCamp Express Logo Project, this project was also one that had a purpose: I have a relative who was looking to get a print done of the above content, and I told her this would be the perfect project for my computer graphics students, because it would really challenge them to be creative, use a bunch of different elements in Photoshop or Pixlr, and create the desired image print while pulling together all of their skills and computer graphics knowledge.

Students were left in the dark (at first) as to what their print was going to be used for, other than that it was for "someone" and needed to include all of the above requirements. 

I really love how each of these prints turned out, and especially how vastly different (yet similar!) they all area.  They definitely combined all of the elements required, but had their own personal touch put in by the student who designed them, which is very much what graphic design is all about.  Enjoy looking over these prints...I sure did, and wish I could be in some of them right now!

EdCamp Express Logo Project

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.

Pixlr Project

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