As I look back on the stages of learning in this course, it seems that the course was longer than what it has been. The learning that has taken place has been quite comprehensive complex. Design principles in relation to a variety of media, ancient and modern. Along with design in relation to self branding, animation, and web design.
As an artist and arts educator, none of this was completely new to me. However, in these capacities it was necessary for me to take my own understanding of these concepts to a different level. The way that I will use what I am learning will vary from the way others in the course might use the information. If I did not take things to a different level, then I would not be doing myself or my students any good.
For instance, the four principles being used in this course, and outlined in The Non-Designers Design Book (Williams, n.d.) are very different from the principles I was taught as an undergraduate fine arts student. In turn both are different from the less complex principles that I teach as a fine arts teacher of a very young and inexperienced group of students. Even so, I teach 7 principles of design. Using four principles must be something that web designers and graphics designers must have come up with. I had never heard of such a thing until this course. I do know that the principles of design vary depending upon who you ask.
In this case, I have learned vital information for teaching graphics and web design with a more streamlined approach that I believe will be easier for my students to understand. I have found these four concepts extremely effective in designing posters and other graphics. The same cannot be said for fine arts, in my opinion.
While I can't use the same approach when I am teaching fine arts, I believe that if I begin with these more streamlined concepts at the beginning of all of my courses, they will pave the way for greater understanding of the seven principles I teach for fine arts. A solid understanding of the four principles will make learning seven less overwhelming, because the four actually encompass the seven. However, no painter or sculptor really cares if things are aligned or in proximity to each other. It becomes necessary to use different vocabulary and learn about other details in the construction of these works.
The idea of branding is nothing new. Ranchers brand cattle,and the Chinese stamp their work. I just never thought about it this way. I've always just called them logos and thought about them mostly in the context of business.
The Chinese and Japanese artists inspired me to design my own stamp, although I never did until now. I might alter it more before I actually put it to use on my own art. I also have wanted to have my students created their own logo/stamps to use as a signature. Something I have been trying to incorporate into my classes since I took a seminar on East Asia in 2008.
Until now I wasn't able to come up with a good way to help my students understand. I plan to teach them the same way that this course taught me. I think it will help them to understand the concept more easily. Using LeaLea's chart (Alcantra, 2009) will be extremely helpful, and my colleagues and I in this course have come up with good ideas for how to use it.
The same is true for animation. it is nothing new but I had only dabbled with the software on a superficial level and was in no way capable of creating or teaching animation before this course. As I reviewed Stykz and Scratch, I realized that they will be really good tools for teaching my students the basic concepts of animation and making characters move. However, I knew right away that they are not the tools I need for things I want to accomplish in film making. it was and continues to be necessary for me to learn how to do this and other tasks and techniques with the Adobe software.
In order for me to create more sophisticated films in the long run, I needed to continue learning how to manipulate the Adobe software. I have come a long way in this course and 5363, but I know I still have a long way to go.
Having said that, creating the animation tutorial for the group website took me through a very complex thought and creation process that in the end took me a couple of weeks. It is a really good thing that I was running ahead of schedule. The kind of animation that I wanted to explore for my animation assignment just wasn't going to translate well into a tutorial so I made two animations, but that was via another animation as well.
I made my first animation and encountered some problems with the sizes and cropping of the images that I could not see in the software. They did not become evident until I posted them on YouTube. So I had to figure out the problem working blindly in the software. It took me about 8 times to get it right.
Unfortunately, the problems I encountered in my first animation did not prepare me or even come into play for the second animation. I should not say unfortunately, because the two processes enabled me to encounter entirely different problems and develop different and unique solutions for them.
Initially I thought I needed to begin the animation with the traditional approach of drawing and tracing. Making changes to each layer by hand and photographing each drawing in order to put it into the software. I knew it didn't feel right but I kept drawing by hand as I contemplated my next move.
Finally I realized that this course is about technology and I had to do the whole thing by computer. I ended up using my drawing tablet, Adobe Illustrator, and Premiere Elements. Since I wasn't trying for a great animation I thought I would be able to move through the steps with ease and create the tutorial with no problems. I don't even remember how many tries it took for me to figure out all of the steps that you see in the tutorial. Things like the fact that I had to put the background color in and convert the layer to a PDF in Illustrator and not Photoshop, because converting it to a PDF in Photoshop meant that it would not be compatible with Premiere Elements. There were so many seemingly insignificant details that caused problems for getting the drawings transferred into Pre 10.
Overall, I am very pleased with what I have learned about the software. I wish that I would have had time to learn more. Now I have learned the basics as well as documented them for other teachers to learn. Therefore, having been through this process I am now ready to move on to more complex tasks.
As for other aspects of the web design, up to and including this course, I have been limited to using sites with restrictive templates in terms of design. My school website is a template that is really restrictive. I have absolutely no control over the design. Working with Google for my wiki, our group site, and I have made site for myself as well, offers a bit more in regard to design freedom. But on the other side of that, I have never really considered creating a site from scratch until now. Therefore, Google sites are a good way to get your feet wet before moving on to creating a site on your own.
I plan to use Google sites with my students in putting the research of Helen Barrett (2005) into action. I have had a portfolio of one type or another since high school. I mean ones that I have created as an artist. The readings on e-portfolios shed some new light on an old topic. As has participation in this master's program. I have never had so many different kinds of portfolios at the same time. I have learned about the impact of portfolios in greater depth.
In White paper: Researching electronic portfolios and learner engagement, Barrett (2005) discusses two different kinds of e-portfolios, Positivist and Constructivist, and the tension between the two approaches. (Barrett, 2005, pp 7-8) Since I infuse student directed and teacher directed learning in all of my units, I plan to have my students create hybrid e-portfolios. Their portfolios will consist of the information that I need for documentation of my teaching and student success including all of their preliminary work, their art and their reflections on their art. The art my students create is based upon self directed research of current events. While the research is hybrid the art imagery is all student centered and directed. I suppose it becomes hybrid again when I expect them to use the elements and principles in a purposeful way. Beyond the essential pieces of art their e-portfolios will also consist of other student choice items such as the overall design, other art images, links, and other writings that they would like to include. I want to do this with all of my students but I think I will start with one grade level first and work up to scheduling computer lab time for all of my classes.
Finally, the readings, while not always necessary to complete the tasks were necessary for the discussions and added dimension to the course. I think we would have lost out on important information without them, and the course would have lost some of its power. The readings offered some new information or a new twist on some old information. As I have always known and understood, it is best to get your information from as many different sources as possible. This course exemplifies that for me because I got to see and read about things I do on a daily basis, from a completely different perspective.
Williams, R., (n.d.), The non-designers design book: Typographic principles for the visual novice, 3rd ed.
Alcantra, L., (2009), The art of self branding, retrieved from http://www.lealea.net/blog/ comments/the-art-of- self-branding-part-one/
Barrett, H.C., (2005), White paper: Researching electronic portfolios and learner engagement, The reflect initiative
STYKZ Tutorials, retrieved from http://www.stykz.net/support/tutorials/
Scratch Tutorials, retrieved from http://info.scratch.mit.edu/Video_Tutorials
No comments:
Post a Comment