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.
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ReplyDeleteCouple things, I wanted to say yes I have read your posts, not all of them, but maybe around half. And I am sure others have as well. On the lack of comments to them. . . well I have no idea. So keep on writing and be assured, at least with me, you are adding to the conversation and have interesting things to say and bring up, and at least a couple times I read your post and it made me go "hmmm. . . "
Anyways, about your final project proposal. I THINK THAT IS A SUPER IDEA ! I wish it was my idea. I think I heard you mention it in class maybe once or twice before and the first time you said it I was like "wow thats a good idea" It's such an interesting project. If it was real I am sure kids would have a blast doing it and not even realize that they were learning at the same time.
I use to love filling out those online questionnaires and surveys, but often I didn't know how to answer some of the questions, even though it was for myself. Imagine trying to understand another person and pretend you are them and do an online profile for an artist. THAT WOULD BE SO MUCH FUN! And they would be learning so many things. About the softwares they are using, about being empathetic with the person/artist they are dealing with, about themselves as well, the history of the artist, all kinds of things. I still don't know exactly what I want to do for my final project but this is a great idea. I hope you are as excited as I am about it ! Can't wait to see how it turns out! Good luck !
Oh, Tina. It makes me happy to hear you like my project idea (and that you read this blog at all). Maybe you can help me out with it a little more? I'm not sure exactly what setting to design it for. Like high school or middle school? College even? And, should it be for a digital media class or an art history class? Or even a generally history class, as the pages can be made for anyone, not just artists?
ReplyDeleteI hadn't really thought about the specifics of the audience until I read the final project description. I was planning the project to be adaptable to different learning environments, but now I don't think I can get away with that. Please, can you (and everyone) let me know your thoughts on an audience? Thanks!