BP14_2009103_Reflective_Media_Asset_Week_3

60 Second Commercial for Photoshop Express

also posted at http://web.me.com/crafts6100/FullSail/Commercial_Photoshop_Express.html

BP14_2009103_Web_20_Comment

Musings About Education: BP12_2009103_Reflective_Media_Asset2_XTimeline

Awesome tool, thanks for sharing. In the past in my computer multimedia classes I have always tried to create a mental timeline and scaffold that timeline with events I think they should know from history. I would like to use this tool in the future to have create a tangible/observable timeline with not only the cross curricular historical events but perhaps memorable events from their personal lives, or the lives of people who mean something to them.

BP13_2009103_Web_2.0_Technology_#6

Lucidchart.com – We learned about two tools last month lucidchart and dabbleboard that allow participants to collectively work on graphic organizers. The primary function is for flow charts but also lends itself to diagrams and organizational tables. We learned two months ago about an intelligence that specializes in visual understanding and literacy. These two, online and free, web applications were built to communicate information for a visual learner as well as allowing a visual learner to communicate what they have learned. Our school used to purchase licensing for a program called Inspiration, which starts with a single license at $59. The problem is not every computer needs it and not every teacher used it. Another solution would be to allow students to use LucidChart, which they can do from the schools computer lab or a computer connected to the internet outside school. This is of course also the web applications drawback, you need access to the internet which is only becoming more and more prolific every day and therefore less and less of an issue. These applications may be of use to those who like the picture but are looking for a 21^st Century solution.

Image from Flickr Creative Commons

BP12_2009103_Web_2.0_Technology_#5

Slideshare.net – Is used to share presentations created in Powerpoint, Acrobat Presentations and Word Documents. It can be an interface for your audience to view your presentations or a hosting place where you can embed shows into your site or blog. Content can also be linked to from social networks such as linked in or facebook. Presentations you share can be public or restricted based upon several variables.

Much like any site open to the public some presentations are better that others. The first show I viewed had no audio and consisted of about 35 slides that contained text and pictures to teach the audience a process. The next two were essentially slideshows of pictures set to music. The first was Hawaii wallpapers for computers and the images were stunning but no information was provided as to whether the person who posted them was the photographer or simply assembled the show from found images. The second of these was more interested because while it was still just pictures set to music you are informed that it is an artists portfolio of work and they composed the music as well which made it a much stronger presentation for me. After viewing two more that I thought were very informative and possible useful to colleagues, I used the embedded share feature to email the colleagues links to the show so that they could evaluate for themselves whether they could use it.

BP11_2009103_Web_2.0_Technology_#4

Photoshop Express Icon - Copyright © 2009 with express permission from Adobe Systems Incorporated

photoshop.com/express – Photoshop Express (PSX), provides my photography students 2GB of online storage for free. If they need more room they can upgrade up to 250GB. It allows them to tag their picture with searchable words and create custom albums. There are four primary sections of Photoshop Express: Upload, Organize, Edit and Share. The online editing tools allow color tweaking, distorting, adding “decorations”, some basic filtering choices, crop & rotate, and exposure correction among others. Sharing tools allow you to export to Facebook, Flickr, Photobucket, Picasa and other photo gallery web hosting sites. You can even use this tool with mobile devices and they have an app specifically for the iPhone

This tool has a very different interface than the professional version of Photoshop and is not a replacement for it. However, the full version of Photoshop retails for around $600 and the student price is about $180 while PSX is free.

BP10_2009102_Reflective_Media_Asset

60 sec Commercial for RSS Feeds in Schools

blogger's video conversion squeezed the video funny and lost the audio/video sync so I've also posted the movie here http://web.me.com/crafts6100/FullSail/Commercial_RSS_Feed.html

BP9_2009102_Flickr

As a high school photography teacher there are many ways we could use Flickr in the classroom, if it were not blocked by our district firewalls.

A google search turned up http://www.jakesonline.org/flickrinclassroom.pdf, which suggested Single Image Analysis, Single Image Writing Prompt, Virtual Field Trips, Visual Documentation of Student Artwork, Creation of Digital Visual Portfolios, as possible lessons that I could use in class. But, since Flickr deals with images these are just some of the ideas that would relate to our class curriculum.

After creating an account students can even use their iPhoto to upload directly to Flickr. In our AP 2D Design Class, students could be uploading their Concentration works to Flickr and allow other students to log-in and comment on their technique, quality or direction. Students peer evaluating each others work in this and the Breadth and Quality sections tend to drive the quality of the artists growth and discipline. Evaluating others work also tends to improve the focus of the evaluators' work as they learn from the mistakes of their peers.

Currently we use class time to have these discussions, moving this discussion online to Flickr would allow the conversation to continue and constantly evolve throughout the school year rather than the times selected in class. Plus, Flickr supports RSS feeds so students can subscribe to each others Photostreams or to a group one and automatically get fed new photo's to be commenting on as they are posted.