Blog 6- CITEd

I have already began with my plan to share what I have learned in this class. I am organizing a teacher workshop for this upcoming week and have incorporated a lot of the ideas from this class as well as "assigned" some of the readings we had to read for this class.

I website like CITEd and other resource sharing, group bookmark places are a fantastic tool to use when coming up with ideas changing your school or even your own classroom.

I started out with this concept of bookmarking links I can share with other teachers...and somehow ended up focusing on my own interests instead. I wanted to find resources that were more technology oriented but of course got side tracked with the technology and science ones.

Some of the links are below.

Froguts: Just because it's not a physically hands on lab doesn't make it any less educational. Virtual dissections, which can be performed any time, as many times as you want, without the ethical concern, the money spent on live animals and the mess.

HHMI virtual labs are a little more advanced and appropriate for college level students. When I was an adjunct at Drew this past fall/spring I had a lot of trouble organizing their immunology lab since they had no equipment. Something like having this resource would have been useful and this will be something I pass on to the next person teaching the course this year.

When I was looking under curriculum development I found the link for a great organization website, which would be great for collaborations in higher ed. And then there is the Knowledge forum which is more appropriate for high school level students and teacher collaboration work.

I'm excited to share these resources because they help to make technology and multimedia use appropriate for the lesson rather than being stuck in. I have always said what the Dugan article said, effective use of technology starts with knowing what purpose you are using it for.

If I was sending this to an administrator I would try to make it more general rather than sciency since there are other resources like Min/Max minimize distractions, maximize efficiency. As for the teacher who doesn't want to hear the T word...why are they teaching again? Ok, ok I'm mostly kidding.

Edit: And just to add my two cents...that website is NOT easy to navigate. Someone should really consider re-designing it and following the rules from WSINYE!

Blog Post 5- Storyboard and Video

I will post the video first and then go into my storyboard. For my video I decided to use wedding pictures from my wedding 1. Because those are the only pictures I have on my computer and 2. Because I can reflect on my life and the recent events that have led up to where I am now; it's bittersweet really.

 I have created a video and a picture video before using iMovie so for me this didn't take too long. For the other project I used this for we had to do a voice over, transitions, text and a lot more than what's required for this mini video. I feel pretty comfortable with this editing software and I will have no problems using it in the future for teaching. The difficult part was making the video a minute long since there are a lot of other pictures I wanted to include and the fact that the song cut out before the best part! The song I chose was the one my bridesmaids walked out to for the wedding. And as a bonus I will post our first dance too!




Storyboard:

As I mentioned in my proposal, a lot of my website is finished but I still need to work on the professional development part of the site. I've been spending a lot of time working on the actual lesson plans rather than on the site itself. I do however have a basic idea about what I want to do.

 The top page will be a basic introduction to the site with an easy to access panel to go between different pages.

 When you click on the PD tab it will take you to another page with 4 images, each one will lead to a new page.

 Tutorials will focus on how to create your own multimedia resources.
Multimedia will focus on where you can find resources, so that you don't have to create them yourself.

 Lesson Plans will have the lessons I create that teachers, professors and graduate students can use.

 Overview of the storyboard!

Overall, I am going to keep the tabs bar on every page in order to make it easier for visitors to go back to the main menu. They also have the option of moving on to other pages of the site without going back to the main introduction menu, which I think is convenient.

I'm trying to make sure that my website is a "multi-sensory experience" for visitors by adding pictures and videos instead of just writing down words and descriptions. I'm not a colorful person so I will not be using too many colors and only sticking to one or two types of font- all of which follows the rules of good webpage design. I am not very artsy in general so when I designed this I tried very hard to make it plain but engaging, without the extra glitz and glam.

Golombisky & Hagen, 2013)

Blog Post 4- Mini Art School continues

Design Basic Index: Cropping Exercise (p. 193)

Survival of the Fittest

Original Image: http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/18gk4sf8cqyu5jpg/k-bigpic.jpg

 Cropped Image:

 

Doesn’t quite send the same message…does it?

Sometimes zooming in it not the answer. The center of attention went from the predator eating the prey to just the face of the prey, who for all we know is frolicking through the tall grass dreaming about water.

Runners

Original Image: https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-prn2/p480x480/969867_620839934600356_772095143_n.jpg

 

To me this shows the turnout for a race and how all these men are competing for the same prize.

Cropped:

 

When I started running my sister said that as a runner, you are constantly competing with yourself to improve you own time. By zooming in on this image I see the determination on this mans face and at least in my mind, the image is improved. Cropping also changed the dimension of the image from horizontal to vertical.

Atlas Shrugged

Original Image: http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/imgLib/20110206_AtlasShrugged.jpg

 

If you have ever heard about or read Atlas Shrugged you know it’s a story about a metaphorical Atlas and a railroad (plus a whole lot more!). Atlas is offset here and there are a couple of ways to play with this image 

 

“If you saw Atlas, the giant who holds the world on his shoulders, if you saw that he stood, blood running down his chest, his knees buckling, his arms trembling but still trying to hold the world aloft with the last of his strength, and the greater his effort the heavier the world bore down upon his shoulders - What would you tell him?"

I…don't know. What…could he do? What would you tell him?"

To shrug.” Ayn Rand <3

 

Atlas needs to shrug!

 

Centering Atlas and having the railroad cut off a bit even improves the image and keeps the focus on the “shrugging” theme of the book rather than the sub-story about the railroad.

 

And getting rid of Atlas just gets rid of the fact that this is Ayn Rand’s masterpiece.

Zombies

Captions:

She WILL get him to marry her! Run while you can!

Or

A family that runs together sticks together:

 

Original Image:  http://thumbs3.ebaystatic.com/d/l225/m/m-qc-n2QTOTZ8pRq3D5ro1g.jpg

…And they will stick together when they are running away from a crazy man with a chainsaw!!!! Or Zombies…that works too. I added this one for the humor. Cropping it above just showed you that sometimes the zoomed in version doesn’t tell you exactly what is going on in the original picture.

Building- Natural Frame

Original Image: http://remodelshouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/unique-building-structures.jpg

 

 

Image is intended to show the unique window this renovation company can insert into your house/ business office. The other objects in the room take away from the focus on the window.

Cropped:

 

Still sends the same message about the uniqueness of the window but now the focus is on the beautiful view you will have when looking out of it…the actual purpose of having a window. I cropped the picture to improve the message this image is trying to send.

Funky building pt. 2

Pg. 194 in Design says “an image need not always reside within a box” but for some reason it took me 5 boxed images and into the 6^th to finally be brave to modify an image not to look “boxy”

Original Image: http://thechive.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/a-unusual-unique-homes-buildings-17.jpg?w=500

 

Cropped

 

Cropping the image in this manner makes it look more interesting and intriguing. Plus, this is a building!

Reflection: Moral of the story, it's all about how you crop things! Cropping will emphasize where the center is and where the audience should be looking.

Design Basic Index: Typographic conveyance (p. 299)

Looking through the eyepiece of the gun you would see the crosshairs on letter “P”. The reds and the blue in “a” and “b” are the paintballs.

Reflection: I didn't want to do this one on the computer since it seemed like it would be more fun to do by hand. I also only included one example of my work since this post is getting ridiculously long as is. This was my favorite part of the blog activities for this week!

Design Basic Index: Boarder Variations (p. 197)

Original Image: http://www.dead-sea-cosmetics-shop.com/files/images/224.jpg

Reflection: Depending on which boarder you use will make a person want to or not want to look at your final product. For example, I made Image 3 ugly on purpose and it draws attention away from the beauty of the Dead Sea.  Whereas image 3 takes away from the beauty, the boarders around the top two images enhance the beauty and give it a postcard sort of feel, making you want to travel to the Dead Sea.

P.S. The dead Sea really IS this beautiful!

Mini Art School Blog Post 3-pt 2

WSINYE- Chapter 6- “Try This” #1

Below is the image WSINYE recommends using as a template grid for website layouts:

The two competing websites I selected are:

Apple

Dell

Neither one of them is following this basic grid format!

Apple has a navigation bar at the top of the page, instead of on the left side as is advised in the book. The center image on the main page is of the new iPhone and if I scroll down I can see 4 squares I can click with different promotions or coming soon technologies.

Dell’s layout is similar to Apple but they have different bright images flashing through a loop on the front page and it makes it distracting for the customer.

Apple sticks to the two fonts max rule where as Dell uses a like 4. Dell’s pages seem to be more cluttered, less color, less emphasis with bold fonts and size differentiation of the font.

Mini Art School Blog Post 3-pt 1

-->

WSINYE- Chapter 5- “Try This” #2

-->

Elements:

Space: I love how the woman and the smoke are the only images in this painting and the artist is not afraid of the empty space and doesn’t try to clutter the image.

Scale/Size: The image could have been turned vertically and filled up the whole page, but the author decided to make the woman smaller and that’s part of the beauty of this image.

Color: The woman herself is pretty plain but her hair and sash stand out, making her come alive for me.

Principles:

Focal Point: There is clearly only one focal point in this image and the observer can tell exactly where it is.

Contrast: Contrast here is between the black background and the light colored woman. Contrast is also between the dull color of her dress and the bright color of her hair and her sash.

Balance: This is an example of an asymmetrical, off center design. While this may not work for a lot of images, in this case the result is beautiful

Movement: The cigarette smoke makes the eyes continue moving to the right.

Unity: Everything in this image just seems to flow well together. There is nothing random or dramatic that jumps out at you and disrupts the calm effect of the image.

-->

Elements:

Space: The artist is not afraid to leave white space at the top of the image, above the monument and that gives the image room to breathe.

Lines:

Size/ Scale: Even though everyone is looking at the monument, it is clearly the one of the smaller things in this image. The scale is perfect! The image is more about capturing the people looking down rather than the monument itself.

Color and Value: The image is from the segregation era and so it is appropriate that it is in black and white. It makes the image more dramatic. The other great thing about the color is that it’s not just white and dark black; there are ranges and shades of gray to emphasize certain points.

Principles:

Focal Point: While it’s not the main point of the image, the focal point (the monument) is very easy to find.

Contrast: Since this is a black and white image the contrast is between these opposing colors. I don’t think this image would be as powerful in color.

Balance: This image is symmetrical, meaning if I cut it in half, each side will pretty much have the same thing. As a scientist I certainly respect “bilateral symmetry”!

Movement: The invisible lines guide your view to the monument.

Unity: This may be a weird interpretation but the unity in this image comes from the unified direction everyone is looking. At the same time, the monument, the people, the flags all seem appropriate for this image.

-->

Many people believe that Ayn Rand’s character of Howard Roark is based on the architect Frank Lloyd Wright. His main idea was that you work with the setting and design a building to fit into the environment rather than force it to fit. The Fallingwater house literally has water flowing through it!

Elements:

Space: While the building is the focus there is still some empty space where the sky shines through and the river is displayed.

Lines: The “natural” lines of the building, the beautiful perfectly straight lines, are in contrast with the wavy, unruly branches, the smooth curves of the rocks and the flowing water.

Shape: I love the perfect rectangles of the building and this image captures them beautifully.

Color: The artist could have taken this image in the summer when there were more colors (leaves on trees etc.) but part of my attraction to this image is color from the man made building and how light it is (maybe even drab) in comparison to nature.

Principles:

Focal Point: The focal point is the building and everything else in the image brings the attention back to it.

Contrast: To me the contrast is between the dark water, the light colored house and the vibrant blue sky. This makes the image come to life and emphasize the beauty of this building.

Balance: This image is well balanced since each component takes up about a third of the space. I guess we could also call this one symmetrical since if I cut it in half each side would be about the same. I don’t think this image would look as good asymmetrically.

Movement: The way the waterfall was captured makes it seem as if the water is still flowing right in the image rather than being frozen in time.

Unity: Since this was FLW mission, everything in this image is in perfect harmony. The river flows through the house, the trees gently surround the building and just the entire image comes together perfectly.

 ___

I have never really cared about art and so I have never really analyzed images to see if they follow rules and such. I feel like I have a pretty good eyes for images most people would consider beautiful and this was a pretty interesting experience for me since now I guess I know why these images are considered appealing.

Blog 2 pt. 2

I did the exercise on pg. 71 of Design Basic Index: Decisive Presentation Exercise. I basically had to fill in the paper with rectangles and then draw in other basic or complex geometric shapes, color areas in and just play around with the format. I learned that it is hard to fill a page with designs, especially geometric ones when you have no art skills. I learned that I will never go into design since a third into this exercise I was already annoyed how long this was taking. I certainly appreciate others doing the work but I am not creative myself. I apparently don't even own color pencils! I don't have an eye for special formatting and I'm ok with that. I'm the "word creator" to a drawing.

I had a great time going through all the books and the readings to see what is the "right" and the "wrong" way of doing things...but I also realized that I like to analyze art rather than create it.

Blog Post 2- pt. 1

For my ad analysis I will use WSINYE guidelines (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010) – pg. 32- 13 Amateur Layout Errors.

1.     Centering Everything- The ad breaks this rule by centering everything. The reason behind not centering is because the eye has a hard time finding the “entry point”- pg 33

2.     Warped or Naked Photos- the photo looks great and to scale.

3.     Too Many Fonts- only two fonts are used and only 2 colors.

4.     Bulky Borders or Boxes- everything is naturally bordered without a need for an actual box around the words

5.     Cheated or Missing Margins- There is a natural boarder around the ad separating the image and text from the edge.

6.     Stairstepping- at least this horror was prevented.

7.     4 Corners and clutter- there is no clutter in the corners, which makes the ad look clean

8.     Trapped negative space- there is no trapped negative space. The available space is used efficiently

9.     Busy backgrounds- while the background is not “busy” it certainly is bright. On the other hand, this certainly screams McDonalds, so even if people didn’t recognize the name “Angus 3^rd pounder”, based on the ad design they would know that this was available at McD.

10.  Tacky type emphasis

a.     Reversing- The while isn’t that bad but the orange on red is certainly hard to read

b.     Stroking- not used

c.     All caps- Used for emphasis and while it’s “a sin” it certainly doesn’t look bad

d.     Underlining- the underlining seems random. There really is no reason to underline “third pounders” so it seems out of place.

11.  Bad bullets- no bullets were used

12.  Widows and orphans- “Delux” is a single word on its own line. It would have been better to combine it with the “Third Pounders” line above.

13.  Justified Rivers- nothing is justified but considering it’s centered, justifying things may have been a better idea.

Overall, I like the ad because whoever created it really knows the audience and I can tell right away for which fast food restaurant the advertisement is for. I don’t like that everything is centered and I really don’t like the orange on red font color.