Week 12

I had quite the experience developing all the elements for this final project.  I was able to explore and use various advanced technologies to create some really amazing projects.  I plan to even use some these same projects in my curriculum.  This final project experience has truly inspired and wowed me, by guiding my research to discover so mush that I never knew existed or was possible.  It has be questioning where we are going in the world with technology and how long is it really going to take us to get there?

Components of Final project:
Video: Created in WeVideo
Video of Eye & Students: New footage shot in classroom
Parts of the Eye: Grabbed from "The Eye" video on youtube
Parts of the Camera: Made frames in photoshop/Pixlr Editor
How the Camera/Eye sees images: personal photographs
Tinkercad 3D eye: made from scratch in tinkercad
3D printing from 2D: Grabbed from "Touchable Memories" video on youtube

Final Project: The Eye and The Camera

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fezkhoYwJ3oLx2WkghIGEBW0Q8sWgQ_bowP21p2JAes/edit?usp=sharing

To all you educators!

The reality is that no one can really tell you how to be a great teacher.  The truth is it comes with experience.  Like most jobs you are going to learn things that were never mentioned in any textbook.  The key to being successful is knowing how to flourish in challenging situations that occur in every professional environment, especially in a classroom.  With all the advice one can give you to become a more effective or "better" educator, I leave you this.
The three P's that make a teacher great.
Patience. You must be patient, not only with your students, but yourself.  One can not get frustrated with misunderstandings and accommodated needs. There is no such thing as a perfect class.  You have to take time to think, see how you can better your students learning experience, and through the accomplishments of breaking through classroom barriers you will better yourself as an educator.
Passion. You must be passionate about your work and the work you do with or provide for your students.  If you don't love what you teach, that will make your job more difficult than any disruptive student.  Your attitude reflects on your student's actions. Again there is no such thing as a perfect class, but your passions of what you teach will instill in your students, and those that grab onto it will thrive in ways every teacher wants their students to.
Perseverance. There can be no giving up when it comes to teaching and learning. It is crucial to know that no matter the challenge whether it be student or educator based, one must persevere in reaching the goal of understanding the misunderstood, and giving assurance of ability to accomplish the unachieved.  
Take this advice and use it with all you have learned.  But most importantly use your instincts as an educator, and learn from your students.  Knowing who you are teaching, is as important as knowing what your are teaching. 

Final Project Proposal

“Technology is just a tool. People give it a purpose.”

The importance of understanding the tools of technology is crucial to our current and future generations.

For my final project I plan to focus on the relationship between the human eye and the camera. This is a unit designed for an upper level photography class that has multiple components and projects to be explored and completed.  The unit should last six to eight weeks. This unit will have students working individually and collaboratively on a series of diverse projects in areas of digital technologies ranging from editing software to 3D printing.  The primary focus is understanding the importance and power of photography, it's relationship to advanced technologies, and the appreciation of the gift of sight we should all have.

This unit was inspired by “touchable memories”: http://youtu.be/f-4AmztnIYw.

Week 11 Refelections

Teaching can be more of a lifestyle rather than a career.   Ultimately a teacher wants to care for the greater good of their students in terms of their current and future abilities.  It can be the most exhausting but most rewarding calling if done correctly.

The key to raising achievement is to recognize that teaching and learning is a relationship. Students need teachers who connect with them. And above all, they need teachers who believe in them. The best teachers are not only instructors. They are mentors and guides who can raise the confidence of their students, help them find a sense of direction, and empower them to believe in themselves.

Robinson had several strong quotes that back up my view of teaching more creatively achieving balance in the content requirements.

1- To achieve this balance, expert teachers fulfill four main roles: they engage, enable, expect, and empower.

2- Teachers need to engage, inspire, and enthuse students by creating conditions in which those students will want to learn.

knowing how and when to use the appropriate technique is what great teaching is all about. Like all genuine professions, it takes judgment and connoisseurship to know what works best here and now.

3- Good teachers know that however much they have learned in the past, today is a different day and you cannot ride yesterday’s horse.

If teachers convey to students that they expect them to do well, it’s much more likely that they will.

4- The key to raising achievement is to recognize that teaching and learning is a relationship. Students need teachers who connect with them. And above all, they need teachers who believe in them.

Reflecting back on any of these one of the most valuable characteristics of a good/strong teacher is the presence of empathy in your teachings.  If you care your students in turn should care as well.

Week 11 Refelections

This was a challenging but fun project.  I did have some difficulty with the movements.  I was trying to make my android dance but for some reason I could not get the movements to work the way I had envisioned.  With a lot more time I would love to explore the more advanced features of character design.  I like how the sound really flows with the end of the movement.  If this is that basic of basic, I can't imagine the type of work that goes into game design.  I new found respect!



 This game was fun to build. I added a few features to this game.
- You change tracks by clicking the green button in the bottom right.
- Change player characters by clicking the number 1 for player 1 and the number 2 for player 2
- You can move in all directions:
- Player 1 use arrows (up, down, left, right)
- Player 2 use W-up, Z-Down, A-Left, S-Right

I decided to add a sound when the two players touch and a few variations to the tracks.

Week 10 Reflections

Article 1

3d printing and education

10 WAYS 3D PRINTING CAN BE USED IN EDUCATION 

 http://www.teachthought.com/uncategorized/10-ways-3d-printing-can-be-used-in-education/

This article is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, it's a general list of ways that 3-D printing can be used in education, but to takes it a step farther shows somewhat of a mind map to demonstrate how 3-D printing works in a classroom. The quote that stuck out to me the most from the article is as follows. "As far as how this can be used in education, it’s a matter of bringing objects out of the computer screen and into the hands of students for inspection, analysis, and other processes that can get the benefit from physical manipulation." I can't agree more with this statement, and how teachers and students can be immediately turned on to the idea of 3-D design/printing can be used to further and better their educational experiences.

Article 2

Video: 3D Printing Ignites STEM Education

https://www.asme.org/engineering-topics/media/manufacturing-processing/video-3d-printing-ignites-stem-education

This video really excited me, not only because of seeing the abilities of 3-D printing in the arts and sciences, but the fact that this was a SUNY New Paltz program which I am an alumni.   I wish they had this facility there when I was a student. It's great to see how the school has grown with their technology department and that it is being utilized in various academics. This is making me want to get a 3-D printer for my classroom.  How close is photography and 3-D printing related?

Article 3

Importance of 3-D printing in education

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/03/importance-of-3d-printing-in-education.html

This one absolutely wowed me! Basically the reason that 3-D printing is important to understand is that it is going to change the world. It technology is like something out of a movie it's almost hard to believe it exists. You'll understand after watching the video that's attached to this page. Enjoy!

As an art educator it's hard not to get past the creative possibilities of 3-D printing, but considering how one can create prototypes to bring into automotive classes or biomedical classes you still have to incorporate the understanding of the machine or organ that you're going to be 3-D printing.  The educational value of 3-D printing is in the further understanding of the working functions of tools, machines, and even body parts.  It seems that the sky is the limit when it comes to 3-D printing possibilities.

Week 9 Reflection

This week we explored different ways of creating a podcast.  After watching some of the tutorials, I became concerned with the quality of the sound that I was limited to with just using my laptop or desktop computer.  I decided to ask my buddy who is a musician to help me out with mic equipment. After a crash course on setup and refining, I began my podcast.
I decided to focus around the theme of photography and the topic of photographers vs snappers.  In the podcast I discussed my own personal opinions on the topic, along with conducting three different interviews to attempt to get the most diverse range of opinions.
After all recordings were made, the editing process began.  This was a lot different from editing a slideshow or even a streaming movie.  Sound can be so funky depending on were the recording was made, how good the equipment you are recording with, and the volume of the voices being recorded. It took several hours to get everything in lined up and sounding right.  I played with adding some music to add a fun mood to the show.
Overall I really enjoyed this project.  Even with the frustration of the extensive amount of editing, it I'm glad it was so involved because it allowed me to work with WeVideo even more, getting me to a higher level of understanding of the program.    

Mind Maps for Creativity

Here is the final video that my collaborative partner Nick and I created.  It focuses on using mind maps as a key tool to use for exploring how to help schools become more creative.  We used the video share feature in WeVideo to collaborate with our creation.  Google docs allowed us to create a list of facts and ideas that could be used on both ends of our work.  I feel that we were successful with creating our artifact, and know that from this experience, I will not only be using WeVideo more in my own curriculum, but also create more collaborations in my teachings.  

Weeks 7&8 Collaboration

For the past week we had to collaborate with another classmate and come up with an artifact showing how schools can become more creative.  The process began with personal brainstorming of ideas. Then the first difficult task of finding a partner.  This is not the same as sitting in a class looking at faces you recognize, and have sat next to for months.  Looking at the work and posts of fellow classmates, along with the assistance of the teacher, groups were created. 
Once there was a clear understanding of who was working together, ideas started to meld.  Through various back and forth emails, my group partner and I decided to focus on a mind map theme, while incorporating other tools we have learned about during the first half of the course.  This is where online collaboration can become difficult.  
Working together is one thing.  Working together when you may never have the same time schedule is a challenge that I have never experienced before.  You have to put all trust in your partner that they are going to complete their end of responsibilities for the project. With time restrictions, that can be a stress,  limiting the time for revisions or alternate ideas.
I'll admit there were frustrating moments where I wanted to know what was being done and felt like time was being wasted because I didn't have full control over what was being done for the project. But respect and trust are key factors for a successful collaboration.
As the days passed more and more communication was made, sharing the progress on each end of the workload ensuring we were each doing our part.   Now that we are coming down to the final days of our collaboration,  I am proud of what we have created and have become that much more confident with online collaboration. These skills are crucial to understand if I want to offer new directions of offering online versions of my own course.

Week 6 Reflections Part 2

Working with WeVideo was a lot of fun.  I decided to take a different approach with the the subject matter, focusing on a type of photography I really enjoy doing.  Using the program was very similar to iMovie, which we have used for projects in my class.  It is so great to be introduced to more and more tools that I thought was only limited to hard drives.  I challenged myself to work in the more advanced mode playing with sound fades, transitions, overlays, and recordings.

Week 6 Reflection

After reading through all of the creativity challenges, I realized that I face these types of challenges almost every day.

CREATIVITY CHALLENGE #1: PUSH YOURSELF TO THINK DIVERGENTLY AND CREATIVELY.

During a recent photo shoot to challenge myself to new techniques that I have not explored before I observe what others have done or attempted and with the van with Bill environment I was able to achieve something I've never done before.

CREATIVITY CHALLENGE #2: INCREASE YOUR CREATIVE OUTPUT.

I do not journal my dreams typically but I do journal moments of “genius” that occur to me. These ideas are a bit out of the box but some have led me to become more creative with my teachings or even more self-efficient in my own life. With these ideas, I typically use speech to text because my typing skills are not on par as my thoughts skills. Speaking into my notes allows the thoughts to pour much faster hour rather than thinking about typing the words.  These ideas are not strictly based around my own wants and needs, many times I'll be thinking about the students work and brainstorm an idea based around their project. Intern helping others with my thoughts ideas.

CREATIVITY CHALLENGE #5: ENCOURAGE AND ACCEPT CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK.

Being an art teacher this technique is used every time we look at different artwork whether it is by a professional artist/master, or has been created in my own classroom.  I am in complete favor of pointing out flaws in areas where improvement can be made.  Even if it's related to the world of art, there's reasoning for all creative decisions we make.  Backing up that reasoning and reaching a full understanding is what I teach and what i personally strive for.  

CREATIVITY CHALLENGE #6: WARM UP A GROUP.

At the beginning of each semester I like to do what I call a getting to know you spectrum. Giving various topics ranging from preference of season to types of food you consume along with various other topics.  Based on where these kids feel they are on the spectrum they move and shift watching as their differences and similarities bring each other closer and farther away from one another, while they all stay on the same spectrum.  After noting various differences and similarities students attempt to partner up with people that they had the most differences with, and introduce each other to the class.

Week 5 Reflections

Post a  reflection that  includes some information on the tools we practiced this week.  Which parts were new?  Which parts did you already know?  What parts were challenging?  What insights did you have?

There were many different features of the interactive creations that we explored this week that really grabbed my interest. Although I never thought of transforming my presentations into e-books, its great to know that there are new ways to grab kids attention. I attempted to create a short ebook out of some of my students work. I really like the edit Master Slide feature. I generally stick to whats offered because I never knew the capabilities of customizing a slide. In terms of interaction with links to other pages in a presentation or site, I am fairly comfortable. The work can be a bit tedious, but simple once you have all of your links accessed. I love that I was able to create a Jeopardy quiz game with some of my quiz material. This is something I have wanting to do for a while now. I think that these new resources can truly grab the attention of all types of learners. When something is customizable to your style, it becomes more of a desirable and enjoyable project to complete, presentation to give, or quiz to take.  


I can see using the Jeopardy games fro the rest of my career. I wish I learned how to create this years ago.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1HnVN-EpPb_uYWcM60R6KtHH0tOXOvP_EC0R7o5M3TuM
I see my students creating digital portfolios through different ebook options.  They have the ability to design every aspect of their book.  I love it!!! Here is a link to my ebook created simply through google slides. https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4iT_O5KUgRaa1A4cm1DSmtjbWc

Along with these new techniques, I have utilized other interactive techniques with the photography class website I designed.  It is my hope that I can one day use my site as an online option for students to take.  Here is a link to the BUHS Photography class website: https://sites.google.com/a/wsesu.org/buhs-photography/home

Week #4 Reflection

Between PicMonkey & Pixlr Editor I found many features that surprisingly had a strong relationship to photoshop, but also equally limited when compared to the features of a current version of the professional program.  The Pixlr Editor seems to have the closest resemblance to Photoshop.  Layout and all.  There are definitely big differences between Pixlr Editor and Photoshop, but there is enough that carries over where one can become very savvy using either program by learning one or the other.   

These programs mainly accept JPEG files. I could not open a RAW or PSD (Photoshop file). The various file formats for saving were nice but limited. I did like the choice of file sizes to start with. Even though it is very basic, I was impressed with the quick adjustments within PicMonkey. But once an adjustment is made there is no undoing.  The PicMonkey app is very similar to aviary, a photo editor I use for my cellphone photography. I was happy to see blending modes as a feature for different overlay effects. I am used to lots of layers in photoshop, so whenever a program has that option, it gets a check in my book! A downfall with editing with these programs is that they can be slow with large files, and in the case of a crash there is no recovery of the file.

For my posters I based them off a project I am doing with my students now based around portrait transformations.  I experimented with the layer features and tools with both PicMonkey & Pixlr Editor.  Knowing how to manipulate layers is probably one of the most important elements of working in photoshop.

I will definitely introduce these apps to my students.  It's great to know that they have access to a program that is similar to photoshop, from any computer they sit at.  The biggest problem in my class is the limit to access equipment and programs.  I am hoping to get to a point where students can take my class online and if using the Pixlr Editor app as a substitute to needing photoshop, I think I can make that dream become a reality.  As an educator this app can be a reassurance that with their photography work, my students can always have access to the digital tools necessary for them to be successful in my class.

Creations

This week I was really excited to explore the different photo editors.  Being a photography teacher who teaches photoshop, I was really interested in putting these apps to the test.

Poster #1 Happy Halloween!

For this image I used a few different features in PicMonkey. Explored the texture overlay and the masking feature to Isolate the texture to my skin.  I used the text tool for the lettering, and explored the blending features to have the lettering blend as it overlaid the texture.
















Poster #2 Flow
I feel that I have come a long way in the 32 years I have been on this planet.  I have to say that where I am in my life now, on top of all that is piled up in my mountain of responsibilities and hobbies, the backbone of my flow comes from the support of my wife Jennifer and our loving dog Osi.  With them in mind, even though Jenn though it to be a bit creepy, I created this poster.

 Exploring the more advanced features in Pixlr Editor I wanted to see how close this app was to photoshop, and if it was something one could rely on for advanced edits.  To an extent it proved that one can.  I used layer masking and blending modes to blond the 2 portraits together.  Using the transformation tool I was able to size the one image perfectly inside the other.  I added the M as a symbol of our last name.  I used layer features to add the embossed effect and color.

Week 3 Reflections

I'm fairly familiar with using Google blogger, or so I thought, until I discovered all the advanced settings you can control in the layout. I am really intrigued how you can transform the blogger into a fully functional website, which I had no idea it was capable of being.  I was really impressed with the ability to customize a banner but was having some trouble with the sizing. I was trying to have the banner stretch across the entire page but seems to stop one the left size.  I really enjoy having the feature of the color picker at the top of the Google chrome screen.  As these apps fill up is there a way to create a more organized pallet of tools?  The biggest challenge for me was the customization of the banner and I would assume that customizing other features with images along around the site based on pixels and what type of screen you're working with would be the most complicated.

The various resources for acquiring images for creative use is incredible. I love the refine search on some of the sites, and the high resolution images that you are able to download for free.  I do try to use my own images as often as I can, but for quick examples that students can work with, this is a great resource set of resources. I'm curious how I can get my photography on to some of the sites, and is it a decent source of income for the artists that submit their work for the world to use?

When it comes to the creative Commons I think it's a genius way to have digital artists and presenters know that they're getting and using images or other work legally.  This creates a worry free environment that can be more gratifying in the end knowing you couldn’t have pissed of the artist by not having their consent to use their work.

Reflecting on David wicks summary of the benefits of using a blog he touches on all the points of why I use a blog in my current classes.  He also shows me how utilizing a blog personally could benefit my own business or voice as an artist.

As far as choosing a blogger template or site to start your blog I think that comes down to personal choice. How much time do you want to invest in the creation and customizing of what your viewers are seeing clicking on. This will range from creator to creator. Educationally I think it's important to keep things fairly simple but not too dull. if things are visually loud and busy, the site could be distracting in it being hard for students to stay focused or even understand how to navigate through.

My Aspirations

We all aspire to do great things in life.  The level of greatness is set by each individual who may have different views of "setting the bar" with their goals.  Personally I hope to accomplish many things in life that are based on my continuing educational experiences, work, and my personal life.  Some of these things can overlap in terms of the individual accomplishments achieved, while others can be strictly focused in one area of my life.

One of my life aspirations is to be remembered for my teachings.  As an educator you have the ability to touch the minds of everyone you encounter in the world.  I know that even outside of my classroom, I look for or embrace opportunities to add some helpful insight to a particular learner, or even give myself the opportunity to learn something new from a complete stranger.  With this goal I have created lifelong opportunities to share who I am, what I know, and continually learn from others.  

As far as this class, I aspire to become more confident with using and incorporating the Chrome based apps in my own classroom, along with personal projects.  I aspire to use the skills learned in this course to help guide my students and fellow educators on how to utilize these tools in and out of the classroom. I know that there are many projects that I use more advanced programs for, but it would be extremely beneficial to know that programs like photoshop & illustrator are not always required for digital design.

One of the main things that attracted me to this class was the mention of creating 2D and 3D modeled objects that can be prototyped using 3D printers and laser cutters. I have been trying to collaborate with our career center class about this, but it would mainly be using the advanced programs that are not available to the everyday google user. I would like to be able to create designs for the collaboration without the need of having the tech class mapping everything for us.

As a final outcome I hope to be able to confidently bring my teachings, and students abilities to a higher level. As teachers master their craft it is important to find ways to challenge themselves to explore areas that may never have been thought they would teach in their own class, and in turn challenge their students to explore areas they may never thought they could learn about in their own class.