BP11_2009103_Pencil

Pencil

Pencil is a 2d animation, open source, cross platform free software program. It is simple to use and there are plenty of videos on how to get started. It just seems perfect for beginning animators in the art class. It is easily downloaded onto a computer and students who have ever used even a “paint” program on a computer can learn it right away. The task of drawing each image over and over in order to create the movement in the animation is wonderful practice for drawing skills. Students from about fourth grade and up would be absolutely delighted with this activity.

In my fifth grade art classes, I recently asked how many students like to doodle. All hands went up. We went on to talk about doodling creatures and continued on a project in which they turned their “doodle creatures” into a surreal painting. They turned out great. I can see that these students would be totally engaged in making an animation using their scanned in surreal paintings.

This is a wonderful tutorial that was done by a young person on using Pencil. It is easy for follow and is very charmingly done.

Once the animation is made, it can be exported as a sequence of PNG images, or as a Flash movie or a QuickTime movie. Then the movie can be shared on the web. Wow! Instant animator. These can then be viewed and a class critique done OR, if we have blogging set up or portfolios on Flickr, students can post their critiques in the comments.

This “pencil” art lesson can not only help students better drawing skills, but also can include art history, with surrealist painters, animation artists such as Disney and more recent filmmakers and animators.

The drawback is that there may be problems getting permissions to download the software or posting the videos on the web. I believe that these could be managed. The software IS free and open source. If permissions cannot be gotten to upload to the web, the movies can be copied to a folder on the server accessed from the school computers and students can view them that way. I believe that I will find a way to use this one!

Credits

Photo obtained via Flickr. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/hownowdesign/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

BP10_2009102_FavoriteWeb2.0App

XTimeline
Here's an application that I feel could be used very effectively in education!

BP9_2009102_FlickrLessonPlans

Art Lesson Plans Using "Flickr"

I did a search on “lesson plans,” “Flickr” and “art,” but only came up with a couple using flickr as an online gallery and critique tool. These are great uses for it, actually. Students upload their work into their own Flickr site, then share their best work with the class group. Students can then write about their own pieces and the rest of the class can read this. This can lead into a critique in which students share ideas. Better art, or at least more reflection, grows out of this. In fact, it was just in September of this month that Flickr “announced a new feature they're simply calling "galleries." Using Flickr's galleries option, anyone can assemble a gallery of up to eighteen images. You can arrange galleries around a theme or idea and add your own commentary about the collection. Galleries can be made from images you've uploaded to Flickr or you can use public images found on Flickr” (Byrne, 2009, n.p.). Pretty handy for us art teachers!

Another art teacher pointed out that searching the tags “color wheel” brings up many interesting color wheels (such as the one above) for use in the classroom.

An idea that hit me as a VERY convenient use, is to have art students search through photographs on Flickr to find good examples of the elements and principles of art in the photos. I have done some of this in the past with magazines, but it is not a very efficient way to work. This could be done easily, with students creating “sets” for the concept that he or she is representing. It would be quite easy for the art teacher to see who was “getting it” and who was not as they worked. Or it could be done as a class project that the teacher views afterward. Good examples could be viewed as a class in a slide show to reinforce the concept before an application activity.

References

Byrne, R. (2009, Jeptember 15). Flickr galleries – Art students curate collections. Blog posted to Free Technology for Teachers: http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/09/flickr-galleries-art-students-curate.html

Image obtained via Creative Commons http://www.flickr.com/photos/23888999@N04/ / CC BY 2.0

BP8_2009102_CommentOnPatriciaMarcinoBlog

Post from Trisch Marcino’s Blog

YouTube is free. With YouTube, you can upload movies created in the classroom with digital cameras, web cams or even create a slide presentation and incorporate music from programs such as Garage band. It has many capabilities. There again, will your school districts allow YouTube? I have loaded YouTube movies onto a flash drive and shown them to my students, totally educational, of course. It is a great way for students to see what other students are doing around the world. I think the possibilities are endless for using this Web 2.0 tool in the classroom. Maybe you are having a little difficulty getting a particular point across in your lesson plan. You could create a slide show, or a movie explaining that point. Since most students are visual learners, and, they like movies, you will be able to demonstrate the point visually. I want to create something that will demonstrate mean, median and mode to my students. I was shocked yesterday when half of my class failed a math test covering this content! I suggested to the math teacher and the math coach that perhaps we could create a slide show or movie that would explain it in graphic animated detail. They jumped at the idea, so that's what we are working on next week. I'll let you know how it works.

Comments

I loved the idea of creating something to demonstrate mean, median and mode! I think that including real world examples of using those concepts that the students can relate to will give it the relevance that they need to even want to know. I would be very interested in seeing your video when you are done! I'm sure it will be fabulous.

BP7_2009102_Web2.0-TimelineCreation

Timeline Creation Applications

www.Timetoast.com

After viewing and trying out several timeline creation applications, I settled on using the Timetoast timeline. With it, timelines with images and texts are easily created and can be embedded into blogs or webpages.

Personally, I have always loved timelines. They give a visual way of understanding that action progression that we call time. For classes or for personal uses, I can see many possibilities. There is the traditional one of the teacher creating a timeline in order to give information to students, but better, I think, is to teach the very simple process of using the application to the students themselves and have them create timelines. In fact, different data sheets could be given to students to research and put into timelines, then students could collaborate on a theme and present it. 

This video gives a quick overview of how to use Timetoast and from it you can see that it is so simple that it can be mastered in a matter of minutes.

This video was created by RadfordEducation.

Here is an example of how it could be used in art class. In a photography class, one group of students could be given the assignment of creating a timeline of the early development of photography and and present it to the class, then another group could be given the assignment of correlating that to historical events happening during the same time period.

Another use in art class would be for a student to do a personal history, using old photographs and childhood art to depict his own personal artistic development or personal history. This could be an artwork in itself.

A use that I might have is to embed timelines relevant to the period of art being discussed on a webpage for students to view if interested.

However it is used, I believe that I will find this application simple, quick to use and very often used by myself or my students.

BP6_2009102_Web2.0_OnlineMovieEditing

Online Video Editing and Sharing Application: Pixorial

I found an interesting video editing and sharing application called Pixorial. Although I was looking for educational uses, when I came across this one, I was excited for personal reasons. Using this application, you can not only edit movie files that you have uploaded, you can send in all sorts of old movie files and they will digitalize them FOR you and put them on your site for 60 days for free. Yes, I had personally been looking for something like this for the old 8 mm film that my family had started taking of our family for about 47 years! I have about 40 small reels in addition to the more recent videotapes. What fun I could have editing and making DVDs for my family!!

But what educational uses can we make of this application? Well, that’s kind of exciting, too. Just a couple of uses that I thought of as an art educator were video of critiques. A ceramics piece is 3-dimensional, so a flat photo never really does it justice, but with video, the piece could be shown, handled and looked at from all angles. A critique in one class could be done, then done in each ceramics class on the same piece. Those videos could then be uploaded to the pixorial account and, even better, shared. The classes could collaborate on the editing of the video! Or each class can edit its own from the same footage.

Many versions of this could be done. Students could create videos of how to achieve special glaze effects. A student could create a special journal entry using pixorial and share it as part of a portfolio. And these are just ideas of how it could be used in the ceramics courseroom, by students.

As a teacher, I would love to do the more traditional how-to videos on basic techniques. Ahhhh, the time it would save. As the video played, I could walk around the room working individually with students, stopping and starting as necessary. Students who were absent that day could watch the video on a make-up day or after school. Or the videos could be shared on my teaching site!

This is exciting, too, because no software is required and it is VERY simple to use.

Needless to say, I signed up immediately and sent off for an envelope to ship all of my film there in! Soon, my class and I will be stars!

Permission to use the above photograph given via Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/26474431@N00/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

BP5_2009102_Web2.0_Issuu.com

Web 2.0 Tools: Self Publishing

Two publishing Web 2.0 tools which will complement each other for me are found at http://issuu.com and at www.wordclay.com.

At Issuu.com, you can view publications, upload owned online publications for storing and organizing, and upload your own online publications for storage, organizing or sharing. Two uses that I will make for this site right away will be in organizing my research reading library (this will not be share due to copyright issues) and creating a publication of my own as a companion to my teaching site.

A video  here gives a bit of an overview of uses for what is called the “library.”

I realized that this would be perfect for the organization of my resources for my own action research project as I could have all of these in one place online and organized in my own way, available at the touch of a button. I found it to be very visual in organization which suits my own learning style perfectly AND it is easily changed as my project develops.

I can even keep my own writings here, organized in the same manner. For me, this is a perfect tool for this project.

Additionally, my action research project involves re-creating all or a portion of a teaching website that I currently have published online. Several users have requested components such as a teacher handbook, answer keys to activities and a student workbook to go with the digital site. Issuu.com can be my tool for creating these components.

Another publishing tool that I consider a Web 2.0 tool, though it may not meet all qualifications as such is Wordclay. This is a self-publishing tool with which physical books can be made and published. My use for this will be to self-publish the above mentioned teacher handbook, answer keys to activities and student workbook to go with my digital site and these can be printed on demand for those teachers who would like to have them. Here’s the link.

I can imaging that these could be very valuable tools to other teachers, also. Check them out!