PE6_PhotoPeach: A Few Notes

So here's what I've learned in my PhotoPeach explorations; it does give one an iMovie-like experience on a PC. The click-and-drag style of adding images, the manner in which the creator can access music files, the transition effects - all are simple forms of iMovie protocol. However, because of the simplicity and ease with which one can access images and sound, PhotoPeach also allows for opportunities to introduce the idea of ownership and citing sources. I've already talked to my classes about how and where to go for images that aren't copyright-protected, and warned them that finding pictures using Google image search does not give them rights to use the image as their own. For younger children using PhotoPeach, I'd set up a bank of images and sound ahead of time, so that they have a direct source to draw from.


Another way to gather images is to scan children's drawings! One child or a group can create any kind of image or artwork that can be scanned and used for the PhotoPeach slideshow images. I can see a media report on the artwork and culture of a Native American region, or a multimedia Explorer Scrapbook, using artwork, maps and collages created by my fifth graders.


The feature that is not as apparent on the PhotoPeach website is its ability to be used to create a quiz. The video of children at a SmartBoard in PE5 shows the students using a timed quiz following a lesson on painters. This feature offers so many ways to assess knowledge; each child could create their own quiz, which encourages them to review and perhaps do further research, and then take someone else's quiz. You could even put together a quiz that could be used to assess prior knowledge during the "preview" phase of a new unit of study.


PhotoPeach is a deceptively simple Web 2.0 tool that produces polished and diverse results for young children, and even for those tech-resistant teachers who we're hoping to encourage!


Love this one by obregon; one of my favorite Norah Jones songs, and many of my "20 things about me" are on this list, too! 





20 things about me on PhotoPeach

PE5_PhotoPeach: How-To

Here's a wonderful example of how simple PhotoPeach is for children to use to "show what they know" and to tell their own story...and another clip of children using the "quiz" feature on a SmartBoard! I can hardly wait to set this up on my SB.

 

FV_Persuasive Message

My experience in recent curriculum research has been that we, as a collective educational system, continue to ignore the ways in which boys learn best. We expect "good students" to sit and listen, and to collaborate and plan, rather than to do what boys do; take action and compete. 

The school where I'm teaching has never offered coed education for the middle school years; even when the upper schools, originally separate boys' and girls' prep schools on the same campus, were made one coed school, the middle schools remained single-sex. Research indicated that high school girls were more confident and willing to speak their mind in class when they'd had a chance to have a single-sex experience in middle school. However, it has become clear that these years are equally valuable for the boys, who are not ready for the social interaction that the girls introduce. Both genders are far more focused apart from each other, and more empowered both academically and socially. Still, we must continue to consider both genders' learning styles as we develop a media-rich curriculum as well as the assessment and reporting tools to accompany it.

PE4_PhotoPeach

While I continue to work in Flash on my own, I decided to focus this week on the practical applications of PhotoPeach, an online application that offers a streamlined, intuitive process for children to put together slideshows of images, especially their own photos, along with text and music. I'd briefly reviewed PhotoPeach in another class awhile back and intended to go back and explore in greater depth. It seemed to offer an iMovie experience and result to kids in a PC school, and with the laptop cart I have available to me I can have all 19 students working on their own presentation. For digital storytelling the possibilities are endless. I'm posting a wonderful vision of its use with younger children below; this video by Deguchi is posted on the public-viewing page of PhotoPeach, and it is an example of a class project involving a concept (alphabet) a community pursuit (found objects resembling all 26 letters) and the features of PhotoPeach such as transitions and music.

Alphabets on the Beach

PE_3

Well, I'd hoped to be able to embed my own work here. Honestly, I didn't (this past week or so, it's been more of a "couldn't" than "didn't" situation) allow enough time to develop a skill in Flash to the extent that I could animate something that I wanted to put out on my blog. As I said, I found the Lynda.com tutorials so "noisy" that I couldn't focus on the process. And then...I found Andrew Way on Vimeo. Silent, clear and practical tutorials. I get it. I think I may just continue with this pursuit after all. Thank you, Josh Tolar and Andrew Way! (An update: I run the tutorial on my netbook and, with the manner in which the Andrew Way tutorial is set up, I most often am able to follow right along in real time on my Mac. Works beautifully.)


Adobe Flash Tutorial 1 from Andrew Way on Vimeo.

PE2_Flash Frustration

Bitmap vs. Vector

“Flash is made for creating vector artwork.” Mr. Certified described the purpose of Flash in this manner, once he illustrated the difference between bitmap and vector graphics with the example pictured above. Bitmap graphics are familiar to all of us from any experiences we have in working with a low-resolution photo or graphic file. Because the picture is rather like a cubist version of a Seurat painting, made from squares of single colors rather than dots, the closer you zoom in the more the square edges of the "bones" of the graphic become visible. Vector objects are created mathematically so that no matter how much you zoom in, the formula adjusts and the edges remain clear and crisp. Although I know what a bitmap graphic is, the idea that vector graphics have a mathematical formula is intriguing. I've always been drawn to the way mathematical patterns occur endlessly in nature, from nautilus shells to patterns on reptile skin. When I taught weaving, I introduced the Fibonacci Sequence of striping because the human brain is naturally drawn to it, creating a preference for striping done in that mathematical pattern. Amazing.

But I digress. And the instructor is moving on, like a runaway train.The next topic is merge drawing vs. object drawing: merge drawing is overlapping shapes on the same layer. Object drawing mode means that shapes appear in rectangles as you select them. Object drawing is like Adobe illustrator. One shape doesn’t affect another. All are whole. Merge drawing means that the shapes are informed by each other and, in neighbor shapes, being of the same color causes them to automatically merge into one. Once the shapes are created in one format you can no longer convert from one to another in toolbar; you then must use menu commands at top.

I could go on. Honestly, I don't mean to make my entire blog post a summary of my notes. I found the graphics tutorials fascinating. But after watching many lynda.com tutorials, I felt saturated with LANGUAGE. And I realized, with some horror, how my fifth graders must feel when I go too far in my (earnest, really) explanation of a concept or an historical event in class. The lynda.com Flash tutorials, for me so far, have created a feeling of helplessness. I still have no idea what to expect when I finally get around to using these many tools and shortcuts. The rapidity and intensity of speech in the tutorial is not creating a depth of understanding; there are no "aha" moments. I don't mean, either, to make light of this too much. I know I'm perfectly capable of using Flash in some rudimentary way to begin with, but I'd like a tutorial that would simply walk me through the basics of using it once, not describing every bell and whistle. I have no frame of reference for any of these tools yet.

I've had great experiences with Lynda in the past, but I'm going on a hunt for a more demonstrative introduction to Flash elsewhere, and then decide if I'm going to go ahead with Flash for my practical experience in week 4, too, or wait until I have more time to devote to this. Which will be July 2, 2011.

PE1_Getting to Know Flash

...what you can't see in this screen shot? The dawning reality that I have NO IDEA where 

Mr. Certified-in-Flash is going with his 1 billion instructions.

OK. I'm going to blame this whole experience thus far on Josh Tolar. If I continue with it in Week 4, then it's all on me. Josh has extolled the virtues, the capabilities, the FUN of Flash to me on several occasions. And I've seen what he can do with it. Awesome. So naturally, this is something I want to learn and master. It's such a major web tool that I might just need a bigger metaphorical Web 2.0 toolbox.

So, here are my notes from my first Lynda.com experience with a far-too-perky instructor who tells me he's Flash-certified. Well, I'd hope so...

First, we cover what Flash can do, and what it's used for in its most common applications. Clear and helpful. I'm excited by the possibilities and by the opportunity it'll give me to apply some of my art interests and skills. I understand the differences between .fla (working) and .swf (final form) files. The reference to working vs. final format causes me to once again re-live my first experience with iMovie, when I sent a project file to Tom Lucas for my first film. I get past the residual embarrassment and  focus on Mr. Certified as he describes and defines the Flash environment, its stage, pasteboard, layers, frames, properties panel...I begin to furiously take notes. What I immediately appreciate about the way the workspace is set up is that it's intuitive in many ways to Mac apps. Then he begins to describe what to do with the align tool. What I get from this is that “align” = 4 billion possible choices. I’d rather learn this AFTER I go through a try-it-out simple tutorial, so I can better understand why I'd need to use align in the manner he's suggesting. Next up is a whole tutorial on panels: you can move, select, drag-and-drop; some are hidden, some have icons instead, lined up along the side of other panels. I feel my IQ score decreasing. Meanwhile, he continues to tell me how to to separate panels. I'm still not sure why I'd want to, but he's giving me both drop-down boxes and keyboard shortcuts. By now I'm taking notes on my arm with Sharpie. 

Needless to say, I'm a little baffled, but up for the challenge. I especially appreciated the tutorial regarding the workspace. The default work space is called “essential” (others include animator, classic, debug, designer, developer), and Mr. Cheerful demonstrates how to customize a workspace to suit how you work, and save that workspace to use as your default. The control freak in me likes this. I've made a lot of jokes, simply because it was like going flying in a fighter jet instead of a commuter puddle jumper. It kind of takes your breath away, but makes you want to do it again, too. I WILL design in Flash one day soon! Up next: bitmap and vector graphics. Wish me luck!