Nikad's Notes on Art Education

Final Post

2008-12-01T12:03:00.000-08:00

A self reflection of Sketchbook...

Hmm. Well, I already turned in my 3 page paper on Sketchbook and I'm not sure sure if this blogpost is supposed to cover entirely new ideas. So I'll say this:

I think I am fairly satisfied with the way my project turned out. Of course, there are tons of things I wish I did in addition (more sample pages, a grading rubric, convert the logo into an image so it is not dependent on installing a certain font, etc). But, after a while I just had to stop. This project- like all the projects presented in class today- seems to be infinite in possibilities. Sketchbook, the digital project, is like any educational lesson plan; it should constantly be revised to improve it, and it will never be perfect.

I will say this, someday, I would love for Sketchbook to be an online application like its sister site Facebook. I believe that an online website would make Sketchbook as accessible as possible to the most audiences. Also, the idea could still work for computer design classes. The students could view the website and then try to replicate and improve its design in Dreamweaver, InDesign, etc.

Right now, I don't like that my project is not accessible. Sure, I finished what I needed to for the class and turned it in, but no one but Selila and me will have access to it. It seems like a big waste, in the grand scheme of things. All my classmates with websites have their work out in the world to help teachers, parents, and students already. Sketchbook can't do much for the academic community unless I get out there and manually peddle CDs with the project files on them. To be quite honest, I can't see myself doing that any time soon.

I guess I'll just have to sit on the project until I can cultivate the skills and resources I need to take the project live. In the meantime, anyone out that that wants my files can come and get 'em! (Or, email me and I'll find a way to get them to you.)

Anyways, congrats again to all my classmates. I was incredibly impressed with how everyone's projects turned out. They were all even more innovative and well-crafted than I expected. Corcoran Art Ed represent!

Interactive narrative

2008-11-30T18:58:00.000-08:00

Let me start off this entry saying, I am in no way particularly qualified to define the term 'interactive narrative.' I did not coin the term, nor am I any sort of researcher in the digital media field. However, I do have an idea of what 'interactive narrative' should mean.

Quite simply, the term should mean some sort of story that is created as a result of a person's answer(s) to prompt(s) set forth by and designed to further its plot. These narratives could have one, multiple, or zero set endings. It is the user-chosen process of progression that makes such stories 'interactive narratives.'

My first memory of (what falls within my definition of) an interactive narrative came in fourth grade. Two days a week my class went to the computer lab. We spent much of our time there playing my beloved Oregon Trail. For those of you who aren't familiar, Oregon Trail is a computer game in which the play assumes a role as a parent who tries to get his/her family through the trail to the Pacific Ocean. The player decides companions' name, what supplies to buy, what paths to take, how to cross each river, et cetera. More often than not, all of the wagons break, oxen run away, and family members drown in Snake River. That is, most of the time the player never makes it all the way to the Pacific.

Oregon Trail was very important to our learning. We learned about geography, history and societies, human and animal health, the pioneering lifestyle, agricultural, accounting and math, and changing covered-wagon wheels. (And don't forget the fine motor skills we refined while trying to click-shoot a buck for our dinner.) Most importantly, being able to inject ourselves into the game made us develop an incredible appreciation for the plight of our predecessors. After all, the men and women were placeholders for our real life relatives. Additionally, this game caused us to swell up with state pride (as we were Oregonians). I mean, what other state is the object of such an exodus AND the inspiration for a wildly popular computer game?

I do have one qualm with naming Oregon Trail a simple interactive narrative. The outcomes of the game depend on both player choices AND chance. For example, fording Snake River may be the wrong call most of the time, but occasionally it will be successful. It is up to the discretion of a computer game to decide. It prevents absolute cause-and-effect learning. But I wonder, does that mean the whole game is bad?

The metaphorical river of life as seen in Apple II's Oregon Trail

In my opinion, Oregon Trail is an excellent game to teach the vulnerable, luck-dependent lifestyle of those on the trail, among other things. Even if it doesn't work in exclusively in linear cause-and-effect ways, players still learn to weigh each option before making decisions in the game. When it comes to crossing a river, players consider the deepness, currents, rockiness, etc before opting to ford the river, wade across, or travel north to find a calmer path. So what if luck can override reason? That's the way it really happened, and isn't that we we're supposed to be learning?

For a unique and childish article about Oregon Trail's sly educational impressions, read this.

Who needs EHarmony?

2008-11-17T11:21:00.000-08:00

UK Couple to Divorce over Affair on Second Life

I thought some of you might find this article amusing. It's about a man who met and married one woman, then shtupped and spooned other(s?) online. He married the first woman first online then in 'real life' but she has recently announced he plans to divorce him. Why? Because the wife was upset about his Second Life avatar's "unreasonable behavior.' First it was cyber sex with a Second Life woman, then an emotional (and cuddly) affair with a virtual pal.

The wife was incredibly upset by his actions. The Times article quotes the real-life wife as saying: "It may have started online, but it existed entirely in the real world and it hurts just as much. His was the ultimate betrayal. He had been lying to me." She divorced her husband online, but elected to stay married to him in real life. However, she did not entirely trust or forgive him. After the prostitute incident, the wife hired a Second Life private investigator to monitor her husband's actions- which may be how she found out about the later couch cuddling.

But, the plot thickens. The husband claims his WWW infidelities sprang from his wife's addiction to the online role-playing game World of Warcraft. He also insists that the second offense meant nothing- "We weren't even having cyber-sex or anything like that," he said. "We were just chatting and hanging out together."

Fortunately, online romances have a tendency to prevail. The husband is now engaged to her online spooning partner (though I don't know if they're engaged online, in real life, or both) and the wife is now dating a man she met playing her beloved game World of Warcraft.

All these cyber soap opera antics just make met think, "Seriously?" I thought high school was needlessly dramatic and painful. I cannot imagine why anyone would pursue a lifestyle, online or otherwise, that would perpetuate this pain. What possible benefit can there be? I'd rather just collect cats, old newspapers, and bitterness in the 'real world.'

Quick sidebar: These articles refer to Second Life and WoW as being three-dimensional. But I don't agree. Sure, these little avatars have shadows, but they are housed within a flat screen. Optical illusions don't invent axises, do they?

Another version of the same story: "Virtual affair leads to real divorce for UK couple"

More on Sketchbook...

2008-11-16T17:10:00.000-08:00

I have already written about what I want to do for my final project. Simply stated, I want to make a facebook.com-like faux-website called sketchbook.com. The website would enable art or history students to assume the identity of a pre-existing artist and make a website about him or her.

Ideally, I could write the online application myself. However, my sources say that applications like facebook.com are made using ASP.NET which is waaaaay beyond my capabilities. Instead of condensing years of coding learning into a few weeks, I have been exploring other ways to create what I want. Previously, I mentioned using Adobe InDesign.

I met briefly with Selila last week about my final project. She was worried InDesign might not be the most appropriate program for what I want to do. Since then I have been looking further into programs that will make interactive PDFs (AKA PDFs that include buttons and links to other PDF pages and therefore navigate much like webpages). I have discovered that Adobe CS3's InDesign does have these button making/linking capabilities. And, since InDesign and PDF programs do not need the internet, a sketchbook.com lesson wouldn't necessarily need the world wide web to work (which some schools don't have).

Now, I just have to figure out how to do it. I have never had any training in this version of InDesign. During undergrad, I briefly learned a previous version of the program. And, at work we use QuarkXpress exclusively. So, all of my CS3 knowledge has been self-taught based on pulling in outside experience and playing around. This should be fun. If you have any advice, please let me know!!

Copywrong

2008-11-09T09:35:00.001-08:00

...get it? Sorry, I was just trying to make this subject a little more entertaining.

I'm not sure where I stand on all this digital copyright business. To an outsider (which I am trying to be right now), there is no clear right or wrong about transmitting digital information. I'm sure the original Napster generation (ahem, me), the intellectual socialists, the media executives, and Metallica band members disagree. I am sure everyone one of them insists the subject is black and white. So, what do we do?

There are merits on both sides of this argument; artists (filmmakers, producers, musicians, actors, etc) should be paid for their hard work, but how could one even consider trying to charge money for the binary manifestations of creative thoughts? And, what would be an appropriate price?

In theory, I think bootlegging, pirating, torrenting, etc is bad. At the moment, I'm not sure I'm comfortable calling that 'wrong.') Transmitting intellectual property without paying for it (when there is typically an associated charge) is bad. It is bad for the artists who don't get paid for their work; it's bad for the economy (though admittedly can be better for the individual); it's bad for the seeders who get sued by media companies; it's bad for the bandwidth when one roommate is trying to legally stream a TV show; it's bad for law and digital media students who now have all of the resulting copyright acts to sort out. Whether or not all these activities are 'wrong' depend on the moral beliefs of each individual.

The problem with digital copyright, I believe, is regulation. How can people discourage, track, and punish activities that violate the digital copyright acts? And, who's responsibility is it? Are there WWW police, or do we have to wait for an outside party to step in a la To Catch a Predator?

I believe prevention is another important measure to take. Prevention and discouragement could be furthered through legal and practical alternatives to stealing and scaring the crap out of downloaders by threatening to sue the. I do not think it was a coincidence that illegal music downloads plummeted after the introduction of the iTunes store and recent waves of threatening emails from the Recording Industry Association of America.

But the question remains, how much should a song cost? a movie? a digital novel? And, how can we make sure they don't get unreasonably expensive?

I have no idea. Do you? Maybe while we try to figure it out I'll go download a pirated movie.

Blogs in Space

2008-11-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I taught a session of my class Lego Star Wars and Motorized Machines. For this class, I bring in Star Wars themed word searches and puzzles for the kids to do while we're waiting for everyone to arrive in the morning. Usually I copy them out of a SW puzzle books I have, but it seems to have 'borrowed' from my organization's storage areas. So, I went to Google to find 'free star wars print puzzle.' Lo and behold, I ended up finding my puzzles on a (home school) teacher's blog. So, next time you need free, printable, children's Star Wars activities, check out the blog school@home.

Response to Nora's presentation

2008-10-28T10:25:00.000-07:00

I tried to post this on Nora's blog about Garageband, but I couldn't because I don't have a wordpress account I guess? Anyway, here it is:

First off, I have you say your presentation was very good. You seemed to have really looked into the program and why it's relevant. That was really slick info about how musicians like Erykah Badu and making and distributing music via Garageband these days. I think factoids like that would really help excite students about learning the program.
Also, Mr. William's multiplication rap was ingenious. I bet he could even inspire students to make their own informational music. All the writing and speaking repetition would surely get them to remember their multiplication tables. For that first track I wonder if he stripped the track Lean Back, or just used the tools on Garageband to replicate it? I imagine that song with muffled words couldn't sound as clear and even as track one (AKA the 2 times tables) was. Do you know if he made the music himself?

Final Project proposal

2008-10-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

After the Web 2.0 presentation, I began thinking about how to use a website as an interactive teaching tool (rather than an informational site about a program, school, et cetera). From this, I came up with an idea that I would like to (try to) make for my final project. I mentioned it very briefly during our discussion of possible Web 2.0 projects.

The website would be Sketchbook.com (or sketchbook.edu). The website would be a spin-off of Facebook.com with an art historical twist. Rather than making pages about themselves, the students could make personal pages as if they were a particular artist. The artist's pages would show many of the same features of Facebook: name, birthday, hometown, interests, favorite quotes, 'about me,' jobs, friends, photo galleries (of his/her real artwork), et cetera. The page could also have the 'wall' feature so that other students and/or 'artists' could ask questions (and get answers) in a public forum. Questions would cause the page creator to keep thinking about and researching the artist even after the sketchbook.com page had to be 'turned in' to the instructor. The students could even select font types and colors based on the suggested personal style of the artist they are assuming.

My intentions for this project are:

- to make sketchbook.com in InDesign or even Dreamweaver
- to create a few mock pages of specific artists
- create something like templates (AKA Master pages) in InDesign so that students may edit box content (text, font, image) while it is still locked in position (much like editing a form).
- and maybe, if at all possible, to use CSS and/or Dreamweaver's 'make template' capabilities to make a template so that students and instructors could complete pages without having to recreate the entire page (because I don't have the proper coding knowledge to make an actual application)*

*In a situation where technology limits and/or student age makes using Dreamweaver hard, the students can make the sketchbook.com pages in other ways. They could make them in Photoshop or InDesign or even adapt the idea into cut-and-paste posters.

These are just my ideas thus far. I do not guarantee in anyway that I will complete each of these goals. I figure the Dreamweaver idea is pretty lofty so I'll just see what of that, if anything, I can actually do.

Also, I reserve the right to freak out over Dreamweaver and therefore make the project entirely in InDesign (which, quite frankly, is far more reasonable a program to expect students to have and learn).

Please let me know what you think about all this. I'm very open to ideas and software tips.

Blogging alone in the metaphorical forest

2008-10-27T10:47:00.000-07:00

So I must admit I am having trouble with these blogs. Without a set topic, I have no idea what to write. I wait around all week, hoping to get inspired before class on Monday. However, such inspiration hasn't come easily the last few weeks. And, to add insult to injury, no one has commented on my blog on about a month, so I can't even make long blog responses to others' comments to me.

I guess this lack of blog-based inspiration is inspiration in itself. I guess maybe this week I should explore the age-old, newly-existential question, If a blogger blogs and no one is around to hear it, does it really make a difference?

Yes, each week I write these blogs without fail because they are essential to my ED6060 grade. However, is blogging without an audience beside the grader any different than writing a paper and handing it in to just that one professor?

I believe that depends on the intentions of the author of the blog. If the blogger wants others to read it but they don't, that is one thing. If the blogger isn't particularly enthused about the world and his classmates reading about how he hasn't had a profound thought about digital media in at least 7 days, it's another. It can be embarrassing and stressful. It takes the typical stress of academic writing and risks multiplying it by posting it in a public forum AND making it obvious when no one registers the text.

Of course, I am the latter of these students. Please, don't think I cry every Monday over my poorly-attended blogs. I do not take it personally. Rather, I think this is one risk of having individual blogs in a class that requires pick-and-chose responses from others.

To my readers (if any): please, do me a favor and just leave a note acknowledging you've been here and read this far. Thanks!

Open Source Movement article

2008-10-20T12:57:00.001-07:00

With this extra week I have taken time to go through "How the Open Source Movement Has Changed Education: 10 Success Stories" again. I thought I would just point out and comment on a random, nit-picky thought I had during my second (perhaps more thorough) reading.

The opening baited lines of the article read: "How would you like to study at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) for free? ... MIT announced that the OCW program, a free and open educational resource (OER) for educators, students, and self-learners around the world, is online and will be completed by 2008." These phrases were designed to work for exigence in this article. However, they are not exactly true. What's worse, they are proved false by the very first hyperlink in the article.

After clicking the first link, the reader is taken to a page with the article "MIT to make nearly all course materials available free on the World Wide Web." This article quotes MIT's President Vest as saying: "Let me be clear: We are not providing an MIT education on the Web. We are providing our core materials that are the infrastructure that undergirds an MIT education. Real education requires interaction, the interaction that is part of American teaching." This quotation instantly undermines the opening lines of the Open Source Movement article.

Is the misleading paragraph a severe case of botched citation? Maybe. Does it render the rest of the article untrue? Maybe not. Either way, from the start I decided to read the article skeptically. Couldn't the author find anything that was comparably exciting- but more true- to start off the article?

Additionally, as you can see about, the MIT released article had a typo, thereby lowering its credibility in my eyes as well. (Unless "undergirds" is a work Merriam-Webster and I haven't heard of.)

These articles echo the many people do not give the same affectionate copy-writing attention to materials published online compared to those in print. I find this bizarre as more and more collegiate journalism programs are beefing up on print-alternative education (like writing for the web). I wonder if all this sloppiness will resolve itself as the new generation for journalists (who have been properly trained for non-print publishing) will learn, graduate, and trickle into the work force. Certainly the Online Education Database and MIT should hire them.

Open Source Software

2008-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

An interesting example of Open Source software I found is Moodle. I think Moodle would be very, very helpful in an educational setting. Moodle is a "course management system." It is a tool designed to help instructors, students, and schools as whole cultivate online learning communities. The Moodle website is even created with the Moodle software! The website describes is further:

Moodle is a course management system (CMS) - a free, Open Source software package designed using sound pedagogical principles, to help educators create effective online learning communities. You can download and use it on any computer you have handy (including webhosts), yet it can scale from a single-teacher site to a University with 200,000 students. This site itself is created using Moodle, so check out the Moodle Demonstration Courses or read the latest Moodle Buzz.

Registrants speak over 75 languages and hail from 193 countries. However, most of the website and online support for the program is written in English. Moodle must have a good reputation throughout teaching communities if it has managed to cross over so many language barriers. Clearly it is refined and reputed enough that teachers in non-English speaking countries are able to use it effectively without easy access to online support.*

*Moodle.org does offer "Language Packs." These packs help automatically translate parts of the software into any of 78 languages. However, it must be hard to find the appropriate pack to download without some prior knowledge of English by which to navigate Moodle's website.

Since its creation Moodle has seen over half a million registered users on its website alone. There are at least 45386 websites made from Moodle. The Moodle Sites page offers excellent examples of Moodle-made webpages. Also, a resourceful instructor could browse these links for lessons and tips to use in their classroom.

An example of a Moodle-based site is A Way to Teach. This site uses Moodle to its full potential. It features pages for different subjects, forums, comments, galleries of audio and visual material, polls, current discussion topics, and more. It is also fairly aesthetically pleasing, probably from one of the many free Moodle themes available for download.

The easiest way to begin using Moodle is through their website http://moodle.org. From the homepage teachers can download the program and language packs, learn how to use the software, look over FAQs and tips, ask questions on community forums, see demonstrations of what Moodle can do. And best of all, everything is completely free!

The one inconvenient aspect of the website if that you must register to access many of its off-shoot pages. Luckily, registration is fairly quick and painless. For a direct registration page go here. You'll have an attractive, efficient, and free website for your class or school in no time!

Digital presentations

2008-10-05T19:38:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks of this class have started me thinking about digital media in the classroom. Go figure, right? Well, as I said in my blog last week, I have only just become really aware that I am a student of classrooms with digital media. This week I think I will continue my post-modernist musings.

On our Topic Presentations...

When I was younger, class presentations were constructed of posterboard, blocklettering, index card with writing scribbled on them, and nerves of steel. We would print out pictures from our home computer, grab some markers, and set to work making a kick-butt poster that would serve as our one-and-only visual aide. These posters were not interactive, nor were they any degree of dynamic. Alas, they were all we had.

Old-school style posters served only as evidence that we spent some time - usually about 30 minutes- on our presentations. Beyond that they are not incredibly helpful. They could not be used to illustrate or explain things (like how to make your very own podcast). We nervous student presenters had to verbally explain every detail and every step. To make it worse, a small, static, boring poster doesn't occupy the audience's eye like a digital presentation. Therefore, all eyes are on the presenter him/herself. I swear they were required so our teacher had something tangible to evaluate. At the very least, our teachers could give up grade points for them that could help make up for our sub-par oral presentation skills.

A lot has changed since my days of poster-making. Home computers became more common and a little program called PowerPoint was gaining a presence in schools. For much of college, we used PowerPoints to assist in our presentations. PowerPoint presentations can be incredibly useful tools. They can be displayed significantly larger than any Staples brand poster board, they can include audio and video objects, they do not have space restrictions to limit information, they link to websites, and they even offer nifty animations to transition to the next slide. Of course, they do have a downside. Many presenters rely too much on the slide show and their speech lacks. More often, people abuse the programs "nifty" possibilities and over load presentations with too much texts, clipart, and animations on each slide.

Perhaps the pitfalls of PowerPointing are the reason that thus far all of the Topic Presentations have been PowerPoint-free. Instead, we all have used our blog pages as a backbone of the talk and convenient place to have links. But why haven't we used PowerPoint? I had originally planned to use PowerPoint. I am not a huge fan of the program, so I was relieved to see the first presenter effectively used her blog. I followed her example. I think it worked out.

Blog-based presentations are not always appropriate. I cannot imagine giving a pitch at work on opening up nikad9.blogspot.com in place of Microsoft PowerPoint. Still I wonder, PowerPoint cannot be the final say in presentations, can it? I wonder what digital media is on the rise to offer students and professionals alike a better visual aide. No matter what it has to be better than my old block lettered, glue stick-stuck creations on posterboard.

I'm a student, too

2008-09-30T13:59:00.000-07:00

We have spent the last few weeks looking at the potential role of digital media in (art) education. We have seen how blogs, podcasts, vodcasts, Illustrator, game play, and other digital tools can enhance a student's understanding of the curricula.

Oddly enough, up to this point I have not thought of myself as a student in the digital era. Sometimes I hear so much about me future role as an educator that I lose sight of my current student status. So, now I wonder, how is digital media helping me, the student?

During my undergraduate studies, used digital process every day. I took classes in design and computer graphics. I also used digital processes in all of my artwork. Of course, I worked hard to ensure that the final piece did not look digitally produced. Instead, I used programs like Illustrator to create images, then I printed them on various materials, and finally collaged them or used them as positives.

However, I rarely had professors that would use similar technologies to aide in teaching. Once or twice, I took an art history class that had a website. My professor used the site to post slides of the most important art pieces from the term. Often, these pieces were not shown in our textbooks. We needed access to them on the web our we would have nothing to study.

Other than those art history courses, I did not seen any digital media. My instructors never offered a blog or a podcast. Even still many of them used Kodak-made slides to show artwork. Of course, the machines would always get jammed or there would be a huge strand of hair cutting the image in half. Many of us students encouraged the use of PowerPoints. Imagine if we could get through a class period without anything failing AND be able to access the presentation online!

I believe the refusal to embrace technology in the classroom stemmed from two thing. First, many of the professors were, shall I say, 'old-school.' They came-of-age in an era before digital media was prevalent. They still Abstract Expressionism painting is the most contemporary and fantastic art style available. And, quite frankly, I believe many of them plan to retire before digital media is mandatory. It works like the saying, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

Second, I think the class size was an issue. Because of the genre of my classes (studio art and art history) there were not a ton of people in each class. However, there were just enough students that they thought they could skip class unnoticed. Perhaps the instructors fear that posting things online would suggest that students could miss class more. After all, the notes are online, so why go? Still I do not think it is fair to make things harder for the entire class in an attempt to retain an audience. I think if a student is prone to skipping, he will skip even if it means copying notes from a friend instead of downloading them.

So, now I go to a school that frequently uses digital media as a teaching aide. I am still getting used to the weekly responsibility of blogging for two classes, looking for PDFs of the reading for three classes, and responding to several emails about everything. I must admit that I find these learning processes intriguing. While I normally hide my artwork and writing, now I am forced to exhibit it.

I suppose the whole process is helping me open up? I do now make a conscious effort to change my voice while blogging. What I can say matter-of-factly in a paper to be read by a professor seems to come off arrogant when posted in a blog. I am not sure yet if it is a good thing to be refining myself in this manner. At first glance, I say it is not a good thing. But, who knows? If semi-formal blogging and podcasting is the way of the future it might be good for me to let go of my formal tone. But somehow I cannot foresee a time when theses and scholarly articles would be accepted in a somewhat nonchalant manner.

Adobe Illustrator

2008-09-22T11:06:00.000-07:00

What is Adobe Illustrator?

Illustrator is a vector based graphic program. It creates images using mathematical equations rather that pixels like Photoshop. Another vector-based program is Adobe Flash. (See Links: Example Vector Images)

I1* I2* I3 I4* I5 F1 F2* +1 +2*

Images qualities and capabilities:

1. Vector - can be any size

2. Live Color & Live Paint - Colors can be changed in seconds

3. Use gradients and patterns

4. Integrate with Adobe Flash, Photoshop, InDesign, and Acrobat

5. Drawing tools

6. Easy to readjust strokes/lines

7. Cropping tool

8. Text fields, text wrapping

9. Click-and-drag font sizing

10. Create Outlines - customizable lettering

11. Typically "flat" looking

Ethics & Image Sources

1. Avoid using other people's images whenever possible

2. Do not even consider anything near this symbol: ©

3. Create your own using photography (convert into vector art)

4. Create your own using sketches (manually convert into lines and fills)

5. If you must use outside imagery, go to a stock photo website to get royalty-free images (buy images or use with watermark)

Illustrator & Education

Adobe® Illustrator® CS3 software is an essential design tool for students and educators who need to express ideas visually — in print, on the web, and in any other medium. Illustrator CS3 — which includes the same industry-standard drawing and typographical tools used by top creative professionals — helps students create powerful, compelling vector graphics for websites, posters, presentations, brochures, school yearbooks, magazines, and much more. Learning on industry-standard tools gives students a valuable head start in their academic and professional design careers. Educators can also use Illustrator CS3 to enhance course materials and enliven in-class activities. From http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/

Unfortunately, not many professional educators go public with how they use Illustrator as a teaching tool. Nearly all published materials (books, blogs, etc.) relating Adobe Illustrator and "education," "teach(ing)," and "class(room)" refer only to how to teach students to use the program itself.

While Illustrator is an incredible tool, it is not appropriate for all ages of students. I would assert that the average student cannot develop a independent competency in Illustrator before high school age.

Therefore, I have invented some ways I could envision using Illustrator as a teaching aide rather than a subject. The lessons go by age appropriateness from youngest to oldest.

Lessons & Activities

Example activity: Landscape

1. Draw landscape on paper

2. Scan into computer

OR Download my pre-drawn file & right-click to save
Warning: advertisements on this site can be risque

3. Open in Adobe Illustrator

4. Go to File/Document Setup... to change the file to ~8 by 11 inches

5. "Save As" new file Illustrator file (like "landscape2.ai") - it is always good to keep original digital copies

6. Trace in Illustrator to make vector objects

7. Save! And, be sure to save each project offshoot as a new file and re-save regularly

8. Continue with age-appropriate activities like those listed below

Possible Lesson Plans (Youngest-Oldest):

1. Wildlife studies- Students draw in appropriate forest wildlife, etc. (Science, Art)

2. Seasons studies- Students draw/color as appropriate for designated season. (Science, Art)

3. Media/tool interaction- Students draw in crayon first, then cover with marker. (Science, Art)

Example: Students use white crayon to draw animals that hibernate in Winter (blank image). Then they color the grass and sky with marker to see who comes back out to play in Spring...

4. Clues from reading- Students draw scene and color in objects as described in a story. (Language Arts, Art)

Example: Students are given an outline of a dog. They are instructed to color the dog as described in a story (polka dotted, striped purple ears, et cetera). Next, they draw his blue dog house in the background...

5. Puppets- Students color in template of a storybook character. Next, they cut them out and glue them to popsicle sticks. They can act out scenes from the story and problem-solve with the new puppets. (Language Arts, Drama, Art, Social/Personal Development)

6. Flyer/newsletter/poster (History, Art, Journalism, English)

Example: Make a poster to recruit men into the Union Army. Include (replications of) real photos and time-appropriate text and language.

7. Present a poem in a visual/decorative manner. (English, Writing, Art, Computer Skills)

8. Use Illustrator to create a school art/literary magazine or broadsheet. (English, Design, Journalism, Art, Computer Skills)

9. Use Illustrator to create a poster for a science project. (Science, English, Art, Design, Computer Skills)

10. Use Illustrator to make manga comic book images. Color on computer or by hand. (Art, Design, Computer Skills, Cultural Studies, History)

11. Make the school/class yearbook. (Design, Art, Computer Skills)

12. Design for design's sake- websites, posters, presentations, brochures, school yearbooks, magazines. (Art, Design, Computer Skills)

13. Digital or physical collage- Prepare images for collage work and print & make or assemble digitally. (Art, Computer Skills)

14. Prepare artwork to be screen printed. (Art, Computer Skills)

15. Make digital artwork. (Art, Computer Skills, Design- can be used to teach color theory, composition, et cetera)

Example: Illustrator Portrait Project

Links

1. Official product information

2. Product datasheet (PDF)

3. Example vector images
a. Illustrator #1
b. Illustrator #2
c. Illustrator #3
d. Flash #1
e. Flash #2
f. Flash #3
g. Advanced flash websites: Favourite Website Awards
h. Illustrator + Photoshop #1
i. Illustrator + Photoshop #2

j. Spoon Graphics- vector-centric blog with fantastic logo

4. Stock photo sites

a. Corbis
b. Shutterstock
c. Free Stock Images
d. iStockphoto
e. Free vector images

f. Spoon Graphics' freebies

5. Tutorials & Tips (beginning to advanced + random things)

a. Drawing for Live Paint (video)
b. Layouts (in place of InDesign to make fun flyers, etc.; video)
c. Live Color manipulation (including color schemes; video)
d. Hidden but helpful tricks (starting ~2:30/4:45; video)
e. Using symbols (starting ~11:40; video)
f. More tutorials (preview or subscribe; video)

g. Add-ons (scripts- very advanced; article)

h. Random helpful things (more from Spoon Graphics; blog)
i. A last resort...

6. Practice files
a. Original landscape drawing .JPEG
b. Landscape with drawing .AI

If any of these links do not work, please feel free to contact me for better links or more information.

Entry last updated Monday, September 22, 2008

Blog #2

2008-09-17T09:05:00.000-07:00

For next week, please spend time surfing the web in search of blogs being used in interesting or innovative ways in education/ art education. Please cite 3 of them in your blog post and tell us why you think their use is particularly valuable. Consider everything from the physical set up of the blog (its architecture, so to speak) to content to audience focus. What is its relationship to the participatory culture nature of the learning community and what does blogging accomplish, educationally, in each of the three sites, that cannot be done in another teaching manner?

I found links to several art education-based blogs at Incredible Art Blogs and Podcasts. However, I noticed most of the blog are personal endeavors made by art educators. I did not find any blogs that functioned exactly like our class blog- as central locations for passing on information and materials as required for a particular class. Rather, many of these blogs serve to house the musings of professional art educators and related organizations. Often these blogs offer tips and lesson ideas for other art teachers.

From all of the art education blogs I found, I chose three that serve very different functions.

The first blog I chose is KidzArt Official Blog. This blog is maintained by KidzArt! "The leader in creative art education worldwide." KidzArt! states their motivation for blogging at the bottom of each blog page: "We needed a place on the web to discuss ideas, promote expansion, and provide a place for educators and students alike to share information and help one another achieve their goals in the most creative fashion possible."

KidzArt Official Blog is designed to aide and promote art education. It speaks to educators to try and make art lessons more manageable. Also, it offers a variety of fun art lessons that could be executed in a variety of education settings. It describes art made from packing peanuts, for classes with less monetary resources for art projects, to offering personal enrichment camps and art kits, for students with a little more money to invest.

Additionally, the blog tracks the global trends of art education. Posts like "The Art of Creativity – How art lights the creative spirit and a 'lifetime filled with a desire to innovate.'" reinforce KidzArt's suggestions that art education is essential to personal betterment. Therefore, inspiring readers to do some of the suggested art projects with the children in their lives.

The blog's layout itself is fairly inspiring. It includes custom at at the heading of the page. This injection for creativity stands out beyond the a more standard blog template. It also is reminiscent of children's art and therefore reminds the reader of the wonderful possibilities of youth artwork. The site reinforces this further as the reader scrolls down and sees several children holding their art pieces along the left column.

The blog is also easy to navigate. It's links are on the left side of the page, reading more like a traditional web page than the typical right-docked blog. This setup should ease the tension of parents and teachers who are not familiar with the blogging world.

As to be expectation, the KidzArt! company information is the first set of links on the page. Right below that, however, are helpful links to navigate the blog and find what one is looking for. Overall, KidzArt Official Blog is fairly effective in promoting and aiding in the execution of art education programs by visiting teachers and parents.

The second blog is The Virtual Classroom. Unlike KidzArt! this blog is maintained by a single individual, a middle school art teacher. Again, it is intended for use by fellow art educators.

The purpose of this web blog is to showcase the lessons and artwork used with my middle school students. The information provided is intended for those interested in the K-12 teaching and specifically the middle school arts.

This blogger is committed to helping other art teachers find fun and effective art lesson plans. It is not a page created for a specific class. The creator offers sample projects, websites, and even podcasts that other teachers may use in their classrooms. She also goes into depth on how to record podcasts so that other teachers may share their podcasts as well. This teacher seems very committed to encouraging a web-based community to further art education and educators. She also openly welcomes feedback on her posts to "help me stay excited about updating with your feedback."

The blog's appearance also suggests the blogger's enthusiasm for art education. Even it's template is aesthetically inspirational. It reminds the viewer of a staple tool in youth art education, colored pencils. It also reveals an exuberance for art education by the webmaster that inspires visitors.

Furthermore, the Virtual Classroom has a very thorough links bars. It offers several ways to find a the same archived post; through date posted, post name, key words (tags), and category. It ever links to an online gallery of student work.

Admittedly, this blog may be too overwhelming for a stranger who stumbles upon it. However, I believe it is completely within the capable realm of anyone who would be interested in podcasting in the first place. To those art educators, the Virtual Classroom would be an invaluable tool for researching, planning, and executing art lessons.

The third blog is B.R.I.G.H.T Academy ART CLASS. This blog is presumably maintained by teacher(s) at B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy, though it is not clearly stated. This blog also does not have an explicit mission or intended audience. It seems like a the result of a teacher who thought it would be 'cool' to post his/her student's artwork on the web. And, I believe, it is a commendable pursuit.

The blog itself serves mainly to post student artwork, as well as of students making art, and to offer some art project lesson plans. The lessons (include several "How to Draw..." and origami-based projects) appear to be designed for incorporation into a school without a dedicated art classroom. The blogger(s) are determined to sneak art into a school setting, even though the school may not openly accommodate it.

The B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy ART CLASS blog also offers many art education-related links. The links include interesting contemporary artists, "A-R-T-ICLES," interactive art sites, helpful site for teachers, and more. The links seem to be to pique the interest of students and educators alike.

The design of the B.R.I.G.H.T. Academy site is typical blog. It appears to be, in the most basic sense, the one of the default Blogger templates, mixed with some widgets and an uploaded graphic of the school. While the blog is less than stunning, it is functional. Surely the students and their parents who log onto the site can navigate it. A more complicated layout may deter parents from logging on and emailing the URL to the students' extended family. The blog is successful for what it is, or what I assume it is trying to do.

Blog #1

2008-09-08T15:30:00.000-07:00

I believe “digital media” has an abstract definition. The denotation, I assume, would have a strong regard for electronic processes that present something sensory and changing. For example, not a light-producing lamp, but a projection of a video. Not tray of old Kodak slides, but a PowerPoint presentation embedded with digital images of artwork.

Traditionally, classroom lessons have been facilitated by bulky textbooks, fuzzy slides, and the occasional warbling VHS tape. Recently, however, such limited aides are being replaced with digital tools. These new tools are significantly more useful, portable, and efficient than older, physical tools. Such digital media tools are particularly helpful in incorporating art into a traditional classroom setting.

For example, an undergraduate art education class taught me one way to bring art into a schoolroom: I had to research a particular museum and exhibit and create a compelling PowerPoint presentation and related in-class activity. My professor offered this project as an effective way to bring a museum to a classroom when the students are unable to go there in person. This lesson plan is particularly useful in situations with students who are physically or fiscally unable to take fieldtrips. It may also be utilized in non-art classes by focusing on science museums, aquariums, et cetera,

When I was a child, digital media had very different manifestations. My largest exposure to digital media was the educational computer games that my parents made me play each school night. These educational games included Oregon Trail, Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing, SimCity, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego, and Where is the US is Carmen Sandiego. From them I learned empathy, state pride, typing skills, problem-solving skills, geography, and more. And, the best part is, the game play format made me enjoy learning it.

During college I became familiar with several digital processes. However, I would not say I have mastered any one of those. Now I work with Photoshop, Illustrator, QuarkXpress, and FTP programs every day at my job. I am very interested to learn how to better incorporate such technologies into a classroom as teaching aides, not just direct curricula. Other that how to accomplish the previous statement, I do not think I have any other questions at this time. As they arise through the semester, as I am sure they will, I will be sure to ask.