Analyzing Design Principles Using Ancient Texts

For this assignment, I examined The Book of Kells to evaluate how the authors incorporated principles of graphic design. I examined a page of text (Fol. 104R) and a picture (Fol. 27V) to complete this task. My first impression of the picture was that everthing is aligned vertically and horizontally and that the color choices utilize contrast to draw the eye to certain areas. Upon closer examiniation, I notice that border sections show repetitive patterns but that their placement is in opposition from top to bottom and left to right. This subtle element adds interest by breaking up the overall symmetry of the piece. The four focal pieces of the design are positioned in the four central quadrants showing that they are related by their proximity to each other. The text page shows vertical alignment of the text along the left margin. Each segment of the text is preceded by a picture demonstrating proximity and helping the reader easily locate related text. The black lettering sharply contrasts with the white pages and the same font is used throughout.
Principles of graphic design may be a new concept for some of us but they have been in use for centuries. Human brains percieve and process information in expected ways making it possible to create documents that evoke specific thoughts or emotions. In today's materialistic world, these principles are used everywhere to promote products and drive our economy.

To veiew the documents I evaluated for this assignment go to:
http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/celt/bok/index.htm

Producing A PSA: A Collaborative Effort

For the past three weeks, I have been working collaboratively with three other individuals living in other parts of the state and country to produce a Public Service Announcement for Academic Honesty. Our group included two elementary teachers, a technology specialist in an elementary school, and a high school science teacher. In order to accomplish our goal, we used Google Docs to facilitate real-time communication and email to plan online meetings and send documents back and forth. In spite of time differences and hectic schedules, we were able to find the necessary time to plan, carry out tasks, offer feedback, troubleshoot problems, and complete our assignment on schedule.
Academic honesty is an important topic to all of us and we initially saw a lot of potential for showing how a child's concept of honesty and cheating changed as they progressed through their education from pre-K to high school graduation. We developed a core group of questions related to academic honesty and cheating and designed a plan to mix narration, student comments, and video to get our point across. As we shot video clips, located relevent video clips/images with creative commons license, recorded audio comments, and researched copyright/fair use rules everything seemed great. Our first difficulties arose as we tried to send files using a variety of formats. We encountered difficulties accessing video clips uploaded to teachertube, ran into troubles with audio quality, and struggled with hardware and software issues. By group concensus, we decided to revise our plan based on what we had to work with and ended up with a rough draft that focused on cheating in high school and its consequences. Feedback was collected, a new list of needs was developed, and we all worked to obtain missing video segments,research obtaining our creative commons license, and acknowledging credit for assets we used courtesy of creative commons licenses. In the end, I feel like we produced a PSA that clearly defines what cheating is, the consequences of cheating, and the importance of demonstrating character regarding academic honesty. Two things that we really wanted to incorporate into our video were the student perceptions of cheating at different ages and background music. Given a longer time limit on our product, more time to complete our PSA, and more time to search for appropriate music, I think we could have sent an even more powerful message to students and parents. In any event, I am very proud of the video we produced and really enjoyed this collaborative experience. I couldn't have asked for a better group. Click on the video below or check us out on youtube at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/SKFleischer#p/a/u/0/0Igiy20rtwo

Web Conference Reflection

I have attended two web conferences since the start of Multimedia and Video Technology. The first conference was on 8/27/10 and the second conference was today at 5:00 p.m. These were not my first experiences with web conferences but my experience with both was similar to previous experiences.
I believe that web conferences are becoming more and more common for three main reasons. First, they offer a way for people at different geographic locations a way to meet and discuss issues that need to be resolved. Second, costs associated with travel are eliminated. Finally, the loss of time due to travel is eliminated allowing people more leisure time. My husband worked from home for two years and carried out 90% of his meetings via web conferences. He had about eight people in his work group from all parts of the world and the only issue that made things difficult was coordinating time zone issues. Based on his positive experiences, I thought that web conferences for this program would be a valuable asset. Unfortunately, my experiences with web conferences have not lived up to my expectations. I think most of the issues I have are based on my learning style and personal preference but other issues are related to technology.
Based on my personal experience, the nuggets of information I glean from each web conference are not worth the frustration. The first issue is getting into the conference. We are told that the room will be available 15 minutes prior to the posted time but that isn't usually the case. At first, I didn't realize that it would be best to log out and try again in a few minutes and as a result, I didn't get in because I was too early for the meeting and by the time I logged out and back in the meeting was full. I have mastered getting into meetings but it is not always a smooth process.
Once the meetings are underway, I often find it difficult to focus. There are so many people and everyone has questions that are often unrelated. As a result, the conversation tends to bounce around so much that I lose my train of thought. In addition, audio is lost frequently; usually right when something important is being said. These drops in audio really frustrate me because it doesn't seem like an effort is made to go back and clarify the audio we missed. I find that reading the typed messages is usually the most helpful to me and where I get the majority of information that I can use.
Compulsory attendance at web conferences is something I'm enduring; not enjoying. I am a strong visual learner with ADHD. I can focus on one thing at a time very well but do not handle input from many directions at once. I also find it difficult to sit still and stare at peoples faces for an extended period of time. The technical issues are annoying but manageable and to be expected. Although I see the value in web conferences as a tool for collaboration, I have difficulty getting much out of them. I think that if I participated in a web conference with a small number of people to discuss a common issue that I might have a better experience.

Video Editing Software Review

Words, pictures, and sounds allow us to communicate with others around us. In schools, we traditionally rely on using one, or maybe two, of these communication tools at a time to convey our knowledge and understanding to others. The audience we share our knowledge with is usually limited to the teacher grading the assignment. Occasionally, students in the class contribute to the evaluation process or the product is shared school-wide. In the year 2010, a new and more powerful way of evaluating knowledge and understanding is available to us if we only take the time to learn how it can be used to make a powerful impact on learning.
Media production allows words, pictures, and sounds to be integrated into one product. It provides more opportunities for students and teachers to convey information in a meaningful and engaging way. Today there are many video editing software programs that can be used for free. Getting started is easy! Once you know what format your videos will be shot in you need to find a software program that is compatible or you will need to find a converter that will convert the format of your video into a format accepted by the software program. A good software program for beginners should be easy to use, allow you a number of editing options, and produce products that look professional.
Once the product has been completed, your next step is to share it with the world. Sites like Utube and teachertube allow you to post videos to the web for review and feedback by others. This ability increases the opportunities for both sharing knowledge and learning by collecting feedback.
This week, I explored two pieces of video editing software. Although I have heard wonderful things about Microsoft Movie Maker, I don't have Windows XP so I had to look for other programs that would suit my needs (made for the technologically challenged). I selected Wax and Video Spirit Pro because they were both compatible with Windows 7. Wax was a complete disaster for me and I couldn't figure anything out beyond importing a video clip. The user manual is a PDF that is too long, too wordy, and confusing. I tried to figure this program out for about two hours before I gave up in frustration! Plagued by anxiety at my ineptitude I moved on to Video Spirit Pro. This program worked great for me! I easily imported my video clip and received simple instruction to select the segment I wanted to edit. The user manual contains drop down menus for assistance with editing the video. Once I selected an item from the drop down menu, imagine my surprise upon finding simple step-by-step instructions that used a minimal number of words and screen shots that showed me exactly what I needed to do. After playing with this program for an hour, I was successful in adding voice, effects, transitions, titles, and music to my video clip. Once I was finished editing my video, I had a huge selection of options that I could take advantage of for sharing my work including but not limited to portable devices, DVD, .mov, .mp4, .avi, .mpg, and .wmv.
My experiences this week have allowed me to glimpse the powerful impact video editing could have on instruction and learning. I learned that I have to know exactly what I want to convey and then I have to select tools that will allow me to communicate effectively. I learned that it is easy to fix errors and that it's okay to try things that seem odd because sometimes they work perfectly. Most of all, I learned to accept that collaboration beats individual efforts in creating a multimedia presentation. There are so many issues to be dealt with that require a number of different intelligences that it would be extremely difficult for one person to portray all elements in the best way.

My First Photostory

Goodbye polaroids; goodbye instamatic camera. Digital cameras have taken over and photos are now stored electronically instead of in photo albums and boxes. Unlike the rest of you, I had to race to the store last Thursday to purchase a digital camera. Of course, I had no idea how to use it so the digital natives at Tae-Kwon-Do were more than happy to give me a quick lesson and I was off and running. Armed with pictures, I headed home to create my first photostory. With relative ease, I transferred the pictures to my computer. My biggest obstacle was in downloading Photostory 3. I'm still not sure what the problem was, but after trying several different things, I was successful. As I started my project, I realized how user friendly the Photostory program is. The steps were easy to follow, it was easy to go back and correct mistakes, and a variety of options were available to express your creativity. I hope you enjoy watching my first photostory as much as I enjoyed making it. Feel free to let me know what you think!

Working Together; Building Tomorrows

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Teachers and Technology Goals

In the Long Range Plan, educator preparation and development describes how educators provide a key link between availability of technology applications and access by learners. Educators must be knowledgeable of the technology TEKS and ensure that their students are mastering these expectations. Students must be prepared with the knowledge and skill that will allow them to make a positive contribution to the global economy. In order to accomplish this goal, teachers must be technology literate and be capable of selecting the appropriate use of technology for the curriculum being taught. Professional development for technology use must be updated on a continual basis and educators must ensure that instructional strategies being employed lead to improved student achievement. Student directed learning and cross-curricular projects that make use of technology offer teachers an excellent opportunity for students to improve critical thinking skill by interacting with peers or collaborating to produce a product. The teacher’s role as a facilitator to instruction carries with it the responsibility to ensure that students actively participate in activities and model appropriate uses of technology.
On our campus, our teachers seem to be divided into three groups. The first group includes teachers that are embracing the use of technology in the classroom and finding ways to use technology to enhance student achievement through activities that are open-ended, promote critical thinking, or allow students to research and communicate findings in a meaningful format. The second, and largest of the three groups, includes teachers that routinely use technology themselves to create lessons for their students that integrate technology at some level. The third group includes teachers that are technophobes with a low level of personal technology skills and resistance to letting students use technology they are unfamiliar with.
As teachers have been working together in PLC’s, there has been more willingness to try new things and positive changes are occurring on our campus. Professional development opportunities are becoming more abundant, and more teachers are taking advantage of these opportunities. The use of technology and integration of technology into classroom instruction is somewhat limited by both the constraints of classrooms that are outdated and a shortage of computers for students to use in collaborative projects.
Our district has instituted a plan to provide one-to-one computing for all students. Currently, two of the schools have adopted the practice and the third school will be on board next year. Unfortunately, our campus does not support wireless technology and until the campus is renovated, we will be unable to take advantage of this opportunity. Our teachers are making an effort to move forward in the area of technology integration and are keeping pace with the state and nation.