Monday, November 15, 2010

EDLD 5366 Week 5 Reflections

I’m beginning this reflection before Week 1 even begins. I’ve been excited about this course because it’s been 6 years since I’ve taken a design course. I’m not very good at design and don’t have an “eye” for it so I really have to work hard to get something that looks remotely “professional”. I do feel that I’ve gotten better over the years, but nowhere like I would like to be. I drug out my old copy of PageMaker and am about to embark on a long tedious mission with it. I hope my teaching friend who retired last year can help me. She was in charge of the school yearbook for longer than I can remember. (11/12/10 3:30pm)

I gave up on PageMaker in about an hour. It was taking too long to do anything and I don’t have the skill to make it do anything professional-looking.
I’ve started experimenting with the free logo maker sites and have found that I have to design something simple and then open it in PhotoShop to really apply any effects to the logos.
In order to add drop shadows, texture and stroke, I’ve had to use additional programs. I’ve used Paint.net in the past as a free facsimile to “Photoshop”. (11/12/10 5:27pm)

I couldn’t begin Week 1 Assignment 1.1 because the items we need for the assignment aren’t in the resource folder. Creighton said that he couldn’t find them either, but that he would keep us posted. In the meantime, I read Week 1 Readings 1 and 2 and began Assignments 1.2 and 1.3. Cindy Cummings uploaded the document we needed for Assignment 1.1 into the discussion board and I used the newspaper, Presentation Zen cover and the David Foster CD cover provided to identify CRAP in each one. The newspaper was easy due to the examples given in Week 1 Readings. The Zen cover is a beautiful, calming design that reminded me of the ocean. Foster's CD cover gave a number of examples of each design principle and Ididn't have any trouble with this assignment.

Assignment 1.2 was a great adventure into ancient art. An average person who hasn’t been a “student of the arts” their entire lives can’t begin to wrap their mind around all the ancient forms and examples of art in the world. I settled on the Book of Kells for my assignment. I read about the Book of Kells in Wikipedia first and then navigated to the website provided in the assignment. We were only allowed 50 -100 words to describe the 4 design principles in artwork we chose. That was NOT enough words. My analysis was over 700 words, so I slashed and burned over 600 words and then posted both versions here.

"The Book of Kells is the most famous, and one of the finest of a group of manuscripts in what is known as the Insular style, produced from the late 6th through the early 9th centuries in monasteries in Ireland."(Wikipedia)

My feelings looking at the many plates are that people with a complex and detailed eye for design created this beautiful work. To have the ability to create works of intricate, detailed art such as the Book of Kells required geniuses throughout the centuries. Prior to learning about design principles, a viewer would just comment on how beautiful a piece of art is without understanding or "seeing" the 4 design principles. Once a person knows what to look for or what elements are at work in a work, it makes the art more interesting to gaze upon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bok/index.htm (11/13/2010 1:30pm)


The completion of Week 1 Assignment 1.2 led me to Assignment 1.3. This is my “teaching tool” business card.
I began work on my Week 1 "Teaching Tool" today. I chose a MS Publisher business card template and combined that with logos I created using the same color scheme. I see all 4 required elements in this project. I spent most of the day working with www.logosnap.com and PhotoShop to produce a business card for Week 1 Assignment 1.3. I used contrast in the color scheme, as well as, the serif and sanserif fonts. Repetition was used in the colors and in the repetitive use of font. I aligned the logos in the middle third of the card and I aligned the address, phone number and email lines with each other and I aligned my business, name and title. Proximity of important information is shown by having my name and all information in the middle third of the card so the reader doesn’t have to hunt for any needed facts. (11/13/2010 5:00pm)


Personal Branding Week 2

Although it's just the first week of class, I've been thinking about design. I don't really have an "eye" for design, but I can recognize the four principles of design. This isn't the first DTP course I've taken that discussed design. I've learned to create things in PhotoShop and like working on our website. It takes me a long time to create something that I like; I wish I was faster and more adept at design.
I watched the video about personal branding, read the first 3 readings detailing branding and found a website that recommended guidelines for teaching teens about personal branding.
http://www.radicalparenting.com/2009/05/11/personal-branding-for-teens-7-steps-to-teach-and-learn-it/

My students did the Week 2 assignment concerning writing things about themselves and their goals for creating a personal logo. They used logomaker, logosnap and PhotoShop to create personal logos. After all the students created their personal logos, I had them make a business card using their logo. They had a good time with the business card, creating mostly fake, but some real, businesses. A few of my students have side businesses and hobbies that they based their cards on.

Week 3 ANIMATION
It's been about 6 years since I've worked with animation. I was trained how to use Adobe Director. It introduced me to the terms "sprites", "scripts" and "stage" as they apply to animation. I tried to load Director on my new computer and it wouldn't load. I don't know if I recorded the serial number incorrectly or if it isn't compatible.

I downloaded Stykz first, played with moving the stick figure around and eventually added several more figures to move in a "dancing" sceen. I stopped playing with that before I watched some of the videos showing how a background can be added and figures can be flown through the air and crashed into things such as mountains.
I tried using Google SketchUp and watched a couple of YouTube videos. I wasn't very impressed with that program and kept looking for others.
At this point, I moved on to Scratch. I was impressed with how user friendly it is and was able to create a short, three-sprite animation in a short time after watching only two YouTube "how-to" videos. I did begin remembering some of the actions that I used in Director when I began playing with Scratch. Programs like this take practice to get good with and I could sit for hours and play with it. I hope to gain a lot more knowledge about it after my students and I start an animation unit using Stykz and Scratch.


During Week 3 my students and I began watching Scratch animation tutorials. They are really excited to start working with the animation software. We've been learning a lot together this year. I downloaded Google SketchUp, Pivot, Stykz and Scratch. We're going to begin working on animation next week. I know that I'll learn more from working with them than from sitting by myself trying to figure it out.
I created a very simple animation with 3 sprites and 25-35 lines of script for them to interact with each other. Here is my animation:


Learn more about this project
Here is the website if the applet gives trouble: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/scopeland30/1421364


Week 4 began the newsletter. I created a functional newsletter that I will use at school. We've had many changes this year at school and I had more than enough stories to fill a 4 page newsletter. I informed everyone about our new Promethean boards and document cameras on the first page and caught everyone up on the basketball tournament, sale of a school house and the elementary fall festival on page 2. Interviews with the new HS principal and supt. were on page 3. On page 4, I included a self-interview on what my students are doing in class including the URL of my animation. I also added information about internet safety and cyberbullies on page 4. I enjoyed making the newsletter. That may be because I'm had so many topics to write about. Newsletters become a chore when I have to beg people to submit articles later in the year.


This is page 1 of my Newsletter:

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