Tuesday, November 18, 2008
How close is my school to 1:1 computing?
Hmmm...this is a good question. As it is not MY school, I may have to defer on this one for a bit and ask Ms. Buxton, the teacher I'm working with, about this question. I'll be back!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Got an idea what we're going to be doing!
Yep. Ms. Buxton is going to be teaching a lesson on Fahrenheit 451 (she's a Language Arts teacher), so we will be conducting a WebQuest/presentation lesson on censorship issues. I worry about the lesson not being too creative, but we are just at the beginning stages of planning right now. I'd like to use the Smartboard, mainly because I've never used one before! I don't know what technologies are going to be available to me at the school, but I get the feeling that they are pretty up to speed on stuff. We shall see. I have to work within the constraints that Ms. Buxton puts on the project, but I hope to allow the students to be creative and come up with something on their own, whether it be a video or poster or what have you based on what they research with censorship. We have to tie it all back to Fahrenheit 451 ultimately, which I don't think should be too much of a problem.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
LoTI, My Project, and Me
These LoTI standards seem pretty hard to meet, to be honest. I'm not sure that I completely understand them. They are fairly complex and don't seem that toned down for laypeople. Maybe they just hit me on a bad day! Anyway, I am very concerned about my project going up high on the LoTI scale. I'd love to reach a four or a five, but it seems like it might be hard to integrate that because I'm going to be teaching this in a classroom that's not my own. I will be working in my friend Dana Buxton's classroom at Morgan County High School, and there is a Smartboard in her room as well as a number of computers. I haven't seen the technology yet, but I am kind of at the whim of her classroom and her methods of teaching. I have a feeling that I might have to tone down my level of technology integration because it's not my classroom, but I'm wondering if that's just me being gunshy!
We haven't really discussed the topic yet, so it's going to be hard to judge LoTI, but I know that I talk a pretty good game about creativity and stuff, but, in my limited teaching experience, I've mainly supplanted traditional methods of instruction with technology, rather than using technology for more interesting pedagogy. It's a problem that all educators struggle with, I imagine, and though I consider myself pretty creative, it's hard for me to break out of the rut of my previous educational experience. One thing that messes me up is that I like teacher-centered education. I never really had a problem with lecture, chalk, and talk, even though I know it does a disservice to tons of other students. I guess to achieve a higher LoTI level, I have to really push myself and think about the project in terms of how technology can serve it. Is technology really helping?
We haven't really discussed the topic yet, so it's going to be hard to judge LoTI, but I know that I talk a pretty good game about creativity and stuff, but, in my limited teaching experience, I've mainly supplanted traditional methods of instruction with technology, rather than using technology for more interesting pedagogy. It's a problem that all educators struggle with, I imagine, and though I consider myself pretty creative, it's hard for me to break out of the rut of my previous educational experience. One thing that messes me up is that I like teacher-centered education. I never really had a problem with lecture, chalk, and talk, even though I know it does a disservice to tons of other students. I guess to achieve a higher LoTI level, I have to really push myself and think about the project in terms of how technology can serve it. Is technology really helping?
EDIT 7500
So, this blog used to just be for EDIT 6190, but I'm just expanding it into my professional blog, period, starting with blog posts about the class I am taking right now, EDIT 7500. Look for more soon!
Monday, April 28, 2008
Desk crits received
From: Amy Wright
Date: April 17
Lucas, I thought your project was a cool way to showcase your musical talents. It was really neat to hear all the different instruments you can play and to hear you sing. It would be helpful to include some directions and an introduction to the music house on your homepage. I know that was one of the things you were going to add toward the end after all the other stuff was done. It would be great to have the music sheets and the notes playing as the music played but I know that is a lot of programming. I am excited to see the rest of the instruments and how everything will look at showcase.
--------------
From: Sunny Lim
Date: April 12
Hi! Lucas
First of all, I have to say that your project idea is awesome! Making your own mix song is really fun and interactive activity for users. I am also impressed with your graphic design. It is very cute and clean. I like the way that it changes its colors when it goes on stage as well. If you have different changing colors for each instrument, then it would be more distinguishable.
I only saw the basic element of your project, so I do not have whole lot to suggest changes for your project. Only thing that I would suggest, it will be fun to have some kind of features that allow users to change the beat or tone of the each instrument. But, I know that it is not a simple thing to make happen.
Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing your final project on Showcase!
--------------
From: Erin Noh
Date: March 5
Hi Lucas,
I really liked your studio project idea from the class discussion. The Flash project sounds refreshing and interesting. Your idea is full of enthusiasm, and although I have not seen your project design, I am sure it will demonstrate your love for music and technology very well.
The only suggestion I would like to make is you might want to narrow it down to one or two ideas and focus on those for this project. If you haven’t visited the New York Philharmonic Kidzone website, please take a look. It is a fun site and they offer a huge selection of helpful resources for music. This website has composer’s gallery, instrument storage room, composition workshop, musician’s lounge, game room, and many more. http://www.nyphilkids.org/main.phtml
Good luck! I can’t wait to see how your project turns out.
Date: April 17
Lucas, I thought your project was a cool way to showcase your musical talents. It was really neat to hear all the different instruments you can play and to hear you sing. It would be helpful to include some directions and an introduction to the music house on your homepage. I know that was one of the things you were going to add toward the end after all the other stuff was done. It would be great to have the music sheets and the notes playing as the music played but I know that is a lot of programming. I am excited to see the rest of the instruments and how everything will look at showcase.
--------------
From: Sunny Lim
Date: April 12
Hi! Lucas
First of all, I have to say that your project idea is awesome! Making your own mix song is really fun and interactive activity for users. I am also impressed with your graphic design. It is very cute and clean. I like the way that it changes its colors when it goes on stage as well. If you have different changing colors for each instrument, then it would be more distinguishable.
I only saw the basic element of your project, so I do not have whole lot to suggest changes for your project. Only thing that I would suggest, it will be fun to have some kind of features that allow users to change the beat or tone of the each instrument. But, I know that it is not a simple thing to make happen.
Anyway, I am looking forward to seeing your final project on Showcase!
--------------
From: Erin Noh
Date: March 5
Hi Lucas,
I really liked your studio project idea from the class discussion. The Flash project sounds refreshing and interesting. Your idea is full of enthusiasm, and although I have not seen your project design, I am sure it will demonstrate your love for music and technology very well.
The only suggestion I would like to make is you might want to narrow it down to one or two ideas and focus on those for this project. If you haven’t visited the New York Philharmonic Kidzone website, please take a look. It is a fun site and they offer a huge selection of helpful resources for music. This website has composer’s gallery, instrument storage room, composition workshop, musician’s lounge, game room, and many more. http://www.nyphilkids.org/main.phtml
Good luck! I can’t wait to see how your project turns out.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Showcase time.
Here is a link to my project.
It started as "The Musical House" (which is still a great idea that I hope to use one day) and now it is called "Let's Mix A Big Gray Song", which definitely doesn't roll off the tongue but did not do permanent damage to my sanity like the Musical House would have. It's an ambitious project that I hope to resurrect someday.
Ultimately, I think that my project is something of a semi-success. It works if you let it load all of the way and hit refresh, which isn't exactly very elegant. It also has problems with looping. Well, it has ONE problem with looping, namely that it doesn't loop at the end of the song. I have got to figure this aspect of the project out, but I really don't have time. Certainly not before the showcase.
Things I do like? Well, I like the graphic design I did. I used Adobe Illustrator's live trace function to mutate various clipart I found into more artsy and contrasted black and white images. I remember Dr. Branch saying a long time ago that it was recommended to never go above four colors on any website, and I took that to heart because it worked with the clean design ideas I had.
Most of all, I think my project is fun to play with, and I hope people enjoy using it!
It started as "The Musical House" (which is still a great idea that I hope to use one day) and now it is called "Let's Mix A Big Gray Song", which definitely doesn't roll off the tongue but did not do permanent damage to my sanity like the Musical House would have. It's an ambitious project that I hope to resurrect someday.
Ultimately, I think that my project is something of a semi-success. It works if you let it load all of the way and hit refresh, which isn't exactly very elegant. It also has problems with looping. Well, it has ONE problem with looping, namely that it doesn't loop at the end of the song. I have got to figure this aspect of the project out, but I really don't have time. Certainly not before the showcase.
Things I do like? Well, I like the graphic design I did. I used Adobe Illustrator's live trace function to mutate various clipart I found into more artsy and contrasted black and white images. I remember Dr. Branch saying a long time ago that it was recommended to never go above four colors on any website, and I took that to heart because it worked with the clean design ideas I had.
Most of all, I think my project is fun to play with, and I hope people enjoy using it!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)