Blog 12 Review of Peers Blogs

1. For choosing which blogs to view I just randomly selected two others that seemed to have in depth answers to the blog assignments, showing quality effort and intrest in whatever the topic that week was to be blogged about.I looked for organized blogs that had easily read headings and a decent amount of writing.

2.The blog postings I chose to comment on were ones that I also was interested in when I had created my own blog. I was interested to see what other students thought of the epals and how it would be used, and I liked how it gave the students' I viewed a great lesson idea to use with it. I agreed with this posting. I also liked creating the self portrait assignment in photoshop and I wanted to see what others thought of it, and how they approached the assignment and what inspired their final result. I wish we could've posted these final photos of the self portrait. I also found the learner centered article interesting because developing 21st century skills has become one of the most important components in teaching recently and this class allows for such skills to be developed. I wanted to see someone's blog you clearly read the article and could give insightful feedback. I like how the students' I read didn't agree with all parts of the article and explained why. I liked getting to see each person's point of view on each of the assignments for the blogs.

I could use a blog in the classroom as a communication tool for feedback material at the end of a lesson for students to discuss their thoughts and feelings on the outcomes with one another. It also is a great tool to look at other's ideas and make sure you are on task with the rest of the class. It can also be used by teachers as a resource to keep students up to date on what is going on in the classroom during that month, like for creating a unit. It can be a great place for students to quickly check back for a teacher's suggesstions, ideas, and feedback for different assignments. It's great for writing galleries views as well for teacher's to see students' thoughts, without having to print out papers as means for handing in work, this could definitely become more efficient.

Student Blogs I reviewed:
http://arteducationmm.blogspot.com/2010/04/learner-centered-classroom-response.html#comments
http://kalangka01.blogspot.com/2010/03/h9.html#comments
http://pamrubel.blogspot.com/2010/03/self-portriat-what-i-want-to-portray.html

Resources in the Classroom

When working with Adobe within the classroom I would have my students use the photoshop and elements and premier elements program. By using this as a creative tool students could create a group video project after visiting a museum. A slide show could be made, or a inteactive video slide show that could show case what was viewed at a visited art museum. This could also be beneficial for museums students or the teacher visits not in the area, to portray what is held within the museums at the time (of video taping is allowed) then this could be used as a learning resource. I think students could make great short skit movies to teach about a artist or art movement to the class using the Photoshop elements&Premier elements program.Through using this program students will have abetter understanding of the 21st Century Skills that will allow them to be prepared for the workplace, by collaborating with other students, sharing ideas and working on problem solving skills this is a technological innovative way for students to learn.
http://www.adobe.com/education/solutions/k12/crosscurricular/

Using a mac students could use the i life program to review a lesson that was taught that day, that a student could have been absent from. By creating an audio tape of the lesson the student could get caught up. Teachers could also use this as a resource to hold a video conference with other classes from around the country, and to do a collaborarive learning experience with these other students. There are almost no limits to using the mac, so teachers are able to better reach their students and teach them in a way that they are used to.
http://www.apple.com/education/teachers-professors/


Looking through the edutopia websites under core concepts I discovered the social and emotional learning component of what should be part of an education. I definitely would focus on this issue during a middle school or high school lesson, placing students in groups to create a symbolic art work of a current issue within the school or community, where students will have to come up with a possible solution to the problem, and demonmstrate this in a video project piece. In order to allow students to learn it is important that how to deal with issues they are faced with and how to solve problems in a non violent way can be a successful start to a well rounded student, and prepares one for a successful and strong future as an adult. By allowing students to work in groups to break up stereotypical cliques within the school, through a collaborative artwork where all students must contribute to is a start to breaking down the barriers students place amongst others.
http://www.edutopia.org/social-emotional-learning

Adobe InDesign Cs3 review#2

I have learned that when you work with a document you only see one page at a time, also with how to work with the panel of choice and to move it around. I now understand where the control panel is located and that the tools located there are present because i will be using those most frequently. I also learned about the keyboard shortcuts to better access what I want to edit. Then when working with the different menus I could also edit them to contain what I 'll need, this could be useful to me as a new user and allows me to better arrange what I'll need to use more efficiently. I also learned how to load images with indesign, and where I want to place each imag and then resize, using the scale field.

I think that the working with objects option will definitely be helpful when working with the different images, and arranging them in the layout just so. In a newsletter filled objects could work well to draw attentiont to images, and texts. Importing images will be beneficial in the portfolio assignment, and the text tool will be helpful with giving explanations of work, and within the layout of a newsletter. I also feel that working with the line tool I can create my own customized lines, to make the newsletter interesting to draw attention to certain images.
Creating the multiple pages using the tips from the video will come in assistance with the layout of newsletter, but for organizing the order of a portfolio as well.

Refrence for self portrait

I found this set of directions helpful for editing color within a black and white image. Reading this directions that are step by step seem to be a great reference to refer back to if I decide to work with a black and white image, and then add color to it. I'm thinking I will just be adding parts of color to the self portrait I chose, so I found this site helpful with breaking down the steps. I wish it were a video though, so I may look into another tutorial video for further assistance if needed. However, I thought that this one was basic enough to get started with my ideas.
http://emptyeasel.com/2008/04/29/how-to-add-color-to-black-and-white-photos-in-photoshop/

images for inspiration

These two images I found I liked because they aren't specifically of a person's
face, but more figurative in displaying the self. I definitely like the black and white images, I think I would like to do something like this for my own self portrait, but possibly with accents of colors in certain areas. I like the reflection used within the firts image of the sneakers, I like the idea of 'self reflection" and I think this resembles it well. I also like the second grouping of images, showing different parts of a person in different ways, showing emotion or just parts of the whole. I think both are great inspiration for using reflections, and parts of an image for a figurative self portrait that is black and white.

Photoshop ReVieW

By watching the videos on adobe photoshop I learned a lot, I had some use in the past with photoshop but watching the video gave me a better understanding on how to make selections to do what I want best with images. I learned how to edit the mid tones in the fill light command part of the correctin lighting video. This was helpful because that way when editing jpeg files I don't need to adjust the entire exposure, just the part I want. The first two videos with that presenter were a bit confusing to me, because they were fast and when keys for tools are used for macs/pc's such as "options" they are mentioned quicly I always forget about them. However I found the presenter who discussed adjusting a photo to black and white very helpful, especially because I think this is something that I will work with often on images, and have done so in the past. This is great for using references for a graphite drawing to create great contrast, so I found this video helpful. I also liked the presenter who talked about the camera raw option, I did not know about this tool in the past and by explaining it slow enough and basic for me I was able to understand how to use it, and it's purpose. Overall these videos I feel were helpful for me to start using the basics to adjust images and create more. I think I will need to reference back to some for assistance, especially the layers option because I found it important, but had trouble keeping up with the purpose of the "transparent" back ground was, etc.

in design review

I learned a lot of resourceful information watching the videos on in design, since I have never worked with in design I was surprised to see how similar it was to illustrator. I learned how to apply bulleting to just certain paragraphs, and how to make more general selections using the different tools, such as making entire word caps, that was previously lower case, as well as choosing a certain font for an entire paragraph. Since I learn best visual I was able to grasp most of the videos, although some I had to watch twice, such as the working with text option, I think it was the presenter I couldn't follow well it just seemed to go very fast, more than I could understand or grasp. I liked the first woman presenter, she explained everything to the fullest, and went slow enough that I could keep following each action she took on accomplishing the tasks using the tools. The working with text files video seemed most helpful to me, as well as the basic one selecting tool because without this, I wouldn't know how to perform the other tools correctly. I think that I will definitely have to go back& revisit the videos once again if I begin to make something in in-design, I really thought it was interesting how by using certain tools an action can be performed faster than manually editing it.