BP13_PeerReview_Alveraz, A.J.

"I recently had students create Family Trees for a project that wrapped up a unit on the parts of the family. To make this a more interesting and interactive project (had I known about Glogster then) I would have had students create their posters using Glogster and requiring students to include one media asset of either video or audio. This might have been more accessible to many of my students as so much of the photos that they used to illustrate their family trees were printed especially for the project. Most students had taken their photos using digital cameras. This might be a more interesting and accessible way of creating posters for my digital natives.

I love this idea and am definitely going to incorporate this into one of my lessons. I'm thinking this would be particularly good for my advisory class. What a wonderful idea. Thanks for the great idea!

BP12_2009123_Tool #2, Mevoov_Tool#3_Sketchfu

I found two very interesting art applications on web 2.0. One was http://memoor.com, which was a user friendly do it yourself animation site, and http://sketchfu.com, which was a painting/ social networking platform. I know my students would very much enjoy dabbling in the both of these. Particularly the students that don't like to get their hands dirty! Sketchfu allows users to share their finished art pieces to a variety of different social platforms such as; MySpace, Friendster, Facebook, Blogger as well as bookmarks like delicious. It also lets you browse finished art pieces updated real time. The artwork is replayed in fast forward, so that the viewer can see exactly how the artist made the art piece. On top of being an art showcase and gallery, it is also a social network, allowing users to view profiles and send comments and messages.

Memoor, was a bit more in depth, but along the same lines as Sketchfu. Animations are showcased with users having profiles and comment boxes. In addition to this, media, and dialogue are now introduced as well. This would be an excellent edition to any English or literacy class. Students do not need to have any exceptional talents to create these animations and could possibly animate scenes from the literature being studied at the moment.

BP_14_2009113_Media_Asset_2

http://sketchfu.com

BP5_2009_1201_SocialBookmarking

http://delicious.com/cavazzi

BP9_2009122_FlickrLesson

I think the integration of photography (art) and literacy is a wonderful combination. I was inspired particularly by a photography and poetry project I found on the web that had been created by an English teacher. Students took digital cameras with them for a few days, and were told to photograph a particular subject. Students then wrote poetry in reaction to the imagery and or experience. Students set up Flickr accounts, posted photographs, and wrote their poems in the comment boxes below their photos. The class presented work to the class and discussed individual experience using Flickr.

This would be a great project idea for high risk, ESL students, and visual kinesthetic learners as well as visual spatial learners. It hits upon so many of the intelligences and would come naturally to my students whom most certainly are “digital natives”. I would love to do variation of this very idea by using student artwork, having students photograph it, and having them write supporting artist statements in the comment boxes. Students would all join the class group an be required to make constructive comments about peer work. I’m inspired to do this with one of my classes soon, so I will be posting the results of this plan in the near future.

Here is a great link to many Flickr ideas and lesson plans for educators

http://www.techlearning.com/article/4816

BP11_2009122_One Minute Message_Mutapic

BP11_2009122_One Minute Message_Mutapic

BP04_2009_1206_Mutapic

I found Mutapic an interesting and user-friendly graphic design program and great way to introduce students to computer-generated artwork. This is really fun and exciting way to generate interesting patterns using symmetry, color and various other design elements. I think my students would love this. The only problem is that you have to purchase the professional version for $30 to save your work! Basically, you can choose a graphic icon from a list of icons and manipulate it with tints, textures and filters until you get something you like. I didn’t fully understand how exactly it worked until I played with it for a while, which was part of the fun. This would be a wonderful project for students who have limited hand eye coordination or students or students who are less interested in studio art projects. Students could just fool around and explore visual ideas and brainstorm, or create graphic images with a theme. It could be used as an in between project, or a lesson on it’s own about symmetry, texture, and mutation.

When you enter the application, you will see three buttons, the top green button creates the images after you click on one of the two below buttons. The middle button holds the icons. There are three tabs labeled 1, 16, and F. Number 1 has one icon, 16 has 16 icons, and F has even more icons. The bottom button has shapes. Once you chose your icon and shape, hit the green generate button and then play around with filters and tints. On the bottom right hand corner of the screen, there is a question mark, if you hit the question mark it brings up any questions you may have about an icon or what each button does. It was lots of fun and I spent way too much fun exploring it!