My Cartoon character - the New Me!

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Fun with photos and images

Besides online Photo editing software there are also many disk versions that can be purchased. They sometimes are free with a camera, printer or computer purchase. There are many versions that can be purchased fairly cheaply but applications may be limited compared to more expensive types like PhotoShop.
One disk I got free with a printer was called "The Print Shop" and as you can see it opens with a window similar to PhotoShop but with less options for effects and more templates however for the someone that is less confident in their own design capabilities. It's not bad but more geared towards printing projects like greeting cards or invitations. When downloading a software program from the Internet causes problems, as it can with some Internet service providers, you may find purchasing a disk a better alternative. And if the school is not open to adding expensive software you may be able to find a cheaper version that can do what is needed for your lessons.

This one is called "Print Creations" however it is limiting in effects you can use but comes with some really cute templates.

This is a screen shot of one that came with a Vivitar camera. Limiting but good for sharing and organizing.

A Self Portrait?

PhotoShop Fun!

The Dream Vacation Spot

Using Media Sharing Technology in the Classroom

Technology as a tool in the Art classroom can make group projects more efficient. A class could use a photo sharing like Flickr or webshots so students can post digital photos taken at a special event or a field trip (Digital Diet). These sites could be used for pictures that they want to organize into a slide presentation with voice over, music or text. These types of sites could be used by a school organization or club to organize photos for events. Students can also use a photo sharing site so they can view images taken by other students in a photography class or photography unit. This is another great technology tool that we have at our disposal as long as we make sure to make arrangements for students who don’t have a computer or internet service at home. If we have a digital camera that they could check out then they can take pictures and use the computer at school to add to the collection on the site. With the freedom of using images online along with posting our photos we need to address copyright laws and privacy considerations when we use an online photo sharing site.

Copyright issues wouldn’t be a factor if the images are photos taken by the students, however, discussions about image sharing and being considerate of others would be important before starting such a unit. If the students take pictures of other students that they want to post to the site they need to make sure the image is respectful and the person or people know how they are using the picture and they give their consent. Picture sharing technology being used in a class project would bring up discussion on confidentiality and good citizenship in anything shared on the internet. These sites are limited to viewing by who you want but these will be seen by the class so in a mini-world kind of way this would give them practice in acting responsible in using media.

As Educators we can use copyrighted material to teach but class discussion about using found images is also important. Images can easily be found online and there are scholarly debates about whether these images should be copied, altered or used as is. If the image is not being used for making money is copying O.K.? – or – If they are altered, added to, or a part taken away, can they be reclaimed as a new image created by the person using it? These debates can easily accompany a photo-shop (or equivalent) lesson or any lesson where found images are used. We can construct a collage of pictures found in published magazines for a class project in our school but when we use images that were posted online and then post the finished collage on a class or school web page we then need to ask if we are infringing on copyright laws or anyones right to privacy. We also need to understand the school’s policy on privacy and image or information sharing. Many schools have a technology contract that is signed by the students and their parents.  If they don’t want information about the students included in the school web site then the individual teachers need to also know this so they don’t publish information that the students and/or their parents already asked the school not to publish. Their probably aren’t too many instances where this is the case, but we do need to be aware of these possibilities and make plans to make sure we adhere to these types of requests.

As in anything new or innovative the implications of it’s use need to be considered. In careful planning the Art Educator can use technology tools to teach and model responsible behavior in image and information sharing on the internet. These tools can enrich lessons that encourage group work and cooperation, an important objective.

Resources:

Brooks-Young, S. (2010). Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Churches, A., Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). The digital diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Inspiration Map of Creative Ideas

This is a colorful example that leads the eye. I am going to use my free 30 days of Inspiration to help me find direction and focus in my body of work in Ceramics.

Error - Inspiration Board

I guess because I used images I found on Google Images in my Inspiration Board I can't upload it.
Here are some pictures of a work in progress - this vase has trees and branches with birds on them in the
foreground and scenes of environmental problems of today in the background. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this survives firing and looks as good as my image in my brain when it's glazed and fired!

I have another one together that has five sides and is a little shorter - I think the form is better. I used my inspiration board to help me with images for the relief sculpture. I find using Powerpoint an easy way to create a collection of images like this - sorry I couldn't share the outcome. A new lesson on technology! I had lots of images of flowering vineing plants that I need to look at for the new vase that I'm making. I also had many images of vases with interesting surface design and sculpture and interesting vessel shapes. Great way to get new inspiration for new ideas!

My Inspiration Board

My Inspirations for my Ceramics - I will include some of my work in the next two weeks, then these images will make more sense.

Cool Image Sites

I looked at 4 image search sites from our class blog.
The first one was lookbook and that one was for sharing fashion - I didn't keep this one for my use but it was a great site for people interested in fashion design.

The second one I looked at was imagespark - this one was a great place to organize images with tags, it also has a search of images by the catagories of newest, popular today, week, month or all time. You can also organize images other than theirs by uploading them and it's a free site. Their were lots of cool advertising images.

The next one I looked at was pixsy. On this site you can search for images on the web by the categories of news, celebrities, sports, travel, viral videos, entertainment, music, stock photos and misc. This site looks like it has everything you would want to search for and it's not site for orginizing them, just searching. Cool, relevant and current site.

The last one I looked at was Flickr. On this site you can also organize your photos and videos and also share them with family and friends. You can also crop, fix and edit the photos right from this site and they also have a library of images to search through. This is a free site with a Yahoo ID. Pretty cool if you need the editing software and to organize and share your photos and videos.

Creating Media Literacy and Digital Citizenship in the classroom

We all want to see the Internet as a place to go for learning but as this technology quickly became more accessible to everyone problems and conflicts started to emerge. People who thought they were just sharing music with friends (on the internet) became Pirates and were committing theft and as we were trying to figure out how to regulate information or whether it’s right to suppress free speech the overwhelming safety issues and deviant behavior issues jumped to the top of the list of priorities. It seems new issues come up faster than we can solve the present ones. We as Educators need to discuss these topics openly with students that are using technology on a daily basis. They are often times warned about talking to strangers on chatlines but don’t see the threat because they are not in the presence of the stranger. This can have frightening outcomes as the show “Dateline” documented in an online sting to catch child sex predators. These issues are serious and they won’t just go away, we all need to be diligent in finding ways to make the Internet a safe place for our children to learn and communicate. Using a safe and private intranet site for the students to use for online discussions about class topics or sites where they can work in groups on projects would be a good way to model safety precautions. Advising students not to share too much on sites like Facebook is important. In the first chapter of “The Digital Diet” it is addressed that the students should ask themselves if anything they put on the web may be a risk to their safety. Showing the students examples of information shared on a make believe site and explaining how that information can be used by predators would be one way to show them how important it is to be careful what they share. We want to shield our children but educating them can give them the tools they need to not become victims while using the Internet. These are important topics and issues that are being dealt with globally and the students are the technology enriched generation that will be important in dealing with these problems in the future, so they should be involved today.

Viewing, using, gathering information along with sharing and presenting information on the Internet comes with responsibilities. With the increasing amount of interactive spaces now in use the information is now like on overload and many of the resources may not be accurate. As discussed in chapter 7 of Larry Rosen’s book “Rewired” some sites like Wikipedia are frequently visited and the information is trusted as if it were from the “Webster Dictionary”. These sites are useful only if the user understands where the information is coming from. Young users of the internet need guidance in searching tools and how to use them to find what they really want in all this sea of information. We also need to guide them in how they should use the Internet when they are participating in interactive sites. They may not understand how many people can see what they post and that they can’t just erase it. The basic rules of behavior that we should teach our students are outlined in Chapter 1 of “The Digital Diet” to include: Respect yourself, protect yourself, respect others, protect others, respect intellectual property and protect intellectual property. These behavior ideas may seem simple enough but classes need to discuss them before using technology in a lesson. Then of course there are some that just live for the shock factor and they could get themselves in trouble and I wouldn’t want to be the teacher that was responsible for giving them a dangerous avenue for their extreme behavior. We’ve all heard of crazy shows like “Jack xxx” where dangerous stunts are performed so adult guidance and supervision should be included. When adding posts to a blog or web site the teacher should filter what’s permanently posted so issues can be addressed and changed to be appropriate before they are viewed by the public. Technology as everything else in this world can be wrongly used but we need a new generation who won’t put up with using their internet for wrong and will rally the world together for good when they need to - because they can.

 Visual Media is used to sell us ideas and shape our ideas to sell us a product.  It objectifies us and tells us what we need and want so we can be “perfect’, but what we really need is to embrace our differences and appreciate what we have. Advertisements that depict beauty as being tall and thin has caused many sensitive teenagers to have low self images and even eating and psychological problems so why do they keep using ads like that – well I guess they still sell! We’ve started to see improvement as we are becoming more focused on being healthy but even that has become a big business. You have to get that diet plan because a celebrity used it and it worked for them! So as we share information with millions on the web our thinking should broaden but as we stretch out our arms across the world making friends we seem to want to still own objects that mean we are in the accepted crowd or popular.  Name brand clothes are more prevalent than ever, instead of trying to create unique products companies would rather copy the popular brands in some way. So is advertising bad? Not really, or our society that evolves around commerce and the sale of goods wouldn’t really work. We need to be able to compare and see what’s available for us to purchase and with the Internet as a tool we can be more discerning consumers. If the product we’re searching doesn’t give the technical specs then they must have something to hide. Or if they don’t live up to what they promise we again shouldn’t put up with it and return the item for refund and chose not to buy something from that company again. So, the advertisers need to keep a balance between swaying the way the consumers think with appealing to their sensibilities and the ability we have to investigate their claims.

Perhaps I’m being idealistic thinking that our new generation is going to demand honesty and integrity on the Web but if we start teaching and modeling these behaviors early we can have an impact on shaping the future uses of technology. When teachers let the students create their own class rules they are more involved and engaged in following them and enforcing them. When our young students understand why they need to respect themselves and others on the internet they will be more careful about what they do. They wouldn’t put an embaracing picture of someone on a school wall for everyone to see because they know the person and their friends would probably want to kill them, so they need to understand when they put something on the web it can be seen by everyone – not just at school. Adolescents still may not always see the ramifications of their action on the internet so adult supervision should always be there. I don’t know if it’s as prevalent is it should be with the different gadgets that students are using to access the web, but the parents are paying the bill and should be supervising the use. They may think their kids know better but unfortunately media can pull them in and fool them into false trust so even with as much teaching and guidance as we can give them we still need to watch out for them.

Let’s all work together to make the World Wide Web the awesome tool it can be without being dangerous or threatening to our safety. The Golden Rule is even more important than ever because when something hurtful is put on the web the amount of people that could be hurt is a million times greater. We all need to be global, responsible, caring technology users.

Resources:

Brooks-Young, S. (2010). “Teaching with the tools kids really use: Learning with web and mobile technologies”. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Churches, A., Crocket, L., & Jukes, I. (2010). “The digital diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes.” Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Rosen, L. (2010). “Rewired: Understanding the net generation and how they learn.” New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.

Collaborative Technology in the Classroom

Collaborative Learning using
Collaborative Technology

The first use of technology by school students was taking advantage of the easy access to all kinds of information on the internet. That information is growing daily and students need guidance in order to fully be able to retrieve information that is useful to their learning. Educators have given research assignments and strict instructions on what not to do on the Web but with the millions of sites that result in a search the way the student conducts the search is just as important as being successful in using this information. In Chapter 2 of “The Digital Diet” it explains how the search engines work and why they retrieve the sites they do and what order they list the sites. We should demonstrate how to search using the Advanced Search so we narrow down the list and then we need to guide the students in what sites are the most informative or more appropriate for what the search objective is. It may seem like an easier type of research than the old way of searching at the Library and then having to copy resource books that couldn’t be checked out, but they also need to know how to search or it will be less effective. Students also need to know if the resource is an accurate one. Educators need to require that only accredited and trustworthy resources be used and students need to be given examples of good resources to use and not so good ones. Sites should always be listed as the resource so if students choose a site that may not be trustworthy the teacher can use it as an example of what resources not to use and the whole class can learn from it.

Collaborating with the use of technology can enhance sharing of knowledge. In chapter 3 of “The Digital Diet” the idea of saving and sharing web sites is done using the software “Delicious”. This tool is useful in organizing and keeping the wealth of knowledge we’ve found on the web. I’ve always made lists and lost lists so this bookmarking tool will help me retrieve helpful information in the future. We also have the ability to share with our colleagues. Many of the best web sites I’ve heard about have been from friends and colleagues and again I’ve lost many of them so I’m excited to finally get organized in this area of my learning, teaching (and life! Ha!).

Another technology tool that can help our students work collaboratively is an online editing word processor. Students can contribute to a group project and the teacher can easily see how much each student has contributed. This type of project should be demonstrated so everyone understands how to work together with others in the group. I feel this could be a good way to compile input from everyone in the group and then discuss and evaluate the ideas they want to keep and the ones they don’t. This way of using technology can make the group work process more efficient as students can work from home and then get together for discussions on the findings from the night before in class the next day. This type of collaborative writing practice would give the students experience they can use in their future careers as companies are using technology to work together across miles on projects instead of sending employees on expensive company trips.

These are just a beginning of the types of programs we can use in our classrooms to bring about collaborative learning and we can also use them ourselves to gain in our collaborative learning and interactions with fellow educators and scholars.

Resources:

Churches, A., Crocket, L., & Judes, I. (2010). “The Digital Diet: Today’s digital tools in small bytes.” Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin

Searching for the best technology using technology!

I needed a new printer. I couldn't put it off any longer, my old one was drinking me to death on ink and didn't make very good copies. I visited a local store and listened to the clerk try to tell me the best model for me. But the one he was telling me about didn't really do everything I wanted and it did things I didn't need. So, I searched online and found a multitude of information and printers. I'm excited about the one I ended up getting. It scans, prints two sided and does super photographs and has great color!! The search was fun but most of all I ended up with one I really want and it ended up having a sale on it anyway!!  Double Win!

*I'm not advertising this printer I just wanted to point out how I was able to find the perfect one for me by using the Internet. The web answered questions for me that the sales rep didn't and I could do it on my own time.

Is My Wiring Compatible?

I have always thought myself to be somewhat computer savvy (for being a baby-boomer) but with new applications being invented by the minute my ability to keep up is in question. Back in 1983 I started working for an Insurance Company and they trained me to process Insurance claims on the computer. I also used inter-company e-mail some but I didn’t have a use for the computer outside of work that I could think of. I remember trying to explain my job to my family and they would always just remember I was working on a computer, a computer operator. I felt that was a put down because the difficult part of my job wasn’t working on the computer it was reading and applying the Insurance policies correctly. At that time the computer did keep track of claims and the benefits paid to the Insured but other than that it wasn’t much different than manually tracking the claims in a paper file. After awhile in the profession the computer programs were devised to do more and more of the computations until eventually the computer can finalize claim processing on most claims filed, as long as the Doctor or facility bill electronically or use the correct forms. My profession all of a sudden had less opportunity for using my skills, the computer was replacing me! The point of my story is we not only have to try to keep up and current with new computer uses but we need to keep re-inventing ourselves and how we do things to kind of ride this wave of technology available today, and I think this applies to education, work, and our daily lives.

I see many applications for the classroom in the vast array of technologies available today. We not only have information about anything at our fingertips we also have the ability to share information. In trying some of this technology, like Voicethread, I found I was stuck! Stuck in apprehension! I don’t have a fear of working on computers as I’ve done it for years but the idea of talking on something that was going over the internet caused me a great deal of anxiety, and I didn’t expect it to. Perhaps it was the idea that I was putting myself and my ideas out there for anyone to possibly see that bothered me. I think our younger generation can become comfortable with adding to a class blog or web site as long as some preparation is used. The instructions for using the software is really quite simple and it seems like you can just do one quickly but It would be a great lesson in planning to have the students block out the comments they want to say for each picture or video. This could relate to a lesson on cartoons where the same type of planning can be involved. What does the student want to say? and What do they want to leave up to the viewer? are questions that can be answered in pre-planning.

Open reactions and comments are what we strive for when we look for class involvement so giving the students some different avenues for this can only add to class participation. Posting a comment on a Wall Wisher, a blog or to a voicethread can lead to greater learning and understanding and it also gives the teacher a better chance to connect and better understand every student. Understanding how best the individuals in the class learn is an important part of teaching and having students use technologies that they enjoy to express themselves is an advantage in many ways.

I can also see that we can give students guidance in creating these self-expressive sites in a way that presents them well. Not just in what not to say but in how they want to express themselves visually and esthetically. Technology is here to evolve daily (not just stay) so we need to evolve with it and use it as a useful tool in being an affective educator.