Friday, April 17, 2015

Captain's Log, Stardate 4/17/15

Today we worked on our Photoshop projects and talked about making movies with iMovie. I'm usually not a very creative person, and that linear thinking ended up inspiring our movie! We're doing a Sara McLaughlin (or however you spell that) style ad for people that learn best with lectures. It's going to be a little tough to fit it all in 30 seconds, but I think we can do it.

Videos can be used in the classroom for behavioral management or as an alternative to book reports. They can be used to demonstrate a technique or improve an athlete's form. It can also be used as a way for students to recognize their own progress over time.

Learning how to use Photoshop has been the best part of this class so far. I really like the versatility of the program. It might be worth trying to get a copy for my own computer at home considering the utility of it. It's definitely fun to play around with.

Last week we worked with Photoshop and learned about the different ways to tell if a picture has been modified. Looking for outlines around edges, different flash positions, or inconsistencies in the eyes or shadows are all good techniques for determining the authenticity of the photo. My eye is usually much better at determining if something was fake than my brain was. Almost every time I would look at the picture and think "Something is off about that..." and then convince myself it was real, but it wasn't.

Photoshop can be used to create graphics for teaching, worksheets, or really anything. If you can envision it, you can create it in Photoshop. It's pretty great. I'm a big fan.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Captain's Log, Stardate: 4/3/2015 (Week 1)

Today I learned about lots of different things; definitions, terms, apps, new websites, and blogs were all fair game. Denvy showed us how to use resources like go2web20.net to find technological tools for learning or teaching. There were a lot of apps on the site that can help with everyday life as well. There were free graphic design tools and countless other apps that offer information and services that do things that I didn't even know I could do. The actual definition of terms like "Web 2.0" and "wiki" were kind of cool too. It's always fun to learn new things.