Crowded Wisdom

Your exam will be held tomorrow, in class.  Try to be there for it.  If you are unable to make it to school, could you email me or leave a comment here and I’ll give you the password so you can do it at home.

http://www.quia.com/quiz/902320.html

Pretty ugly weather today, (not as bad as the photo thankfully!) and a few of you were unable to get to school which is totally understandable. Now I know what freezing rain is!

If you could however still get your culminating tasks submitted by the end of the day. They are web based, so I’m assuming that you can still do them from home just as easily as you can do them from school. Just post them to your blog site, and please remember to post them as two separate articles. Give each one a title, and don’t forget to address the main points in the original task description.

I look forward to reading them!

The World Wide Web was created in the early 1990s and was primarily designed as a way for people to get information. Content creators made the content and the average web user simply consumed that content. Unless you were the geeky type who could work out how to publish your own webpage, you really had no easy way of creating your own content.

Web 2.0 changed all that. The term “Web 2.0″ is different to the original web of the 1990s, and refers to those websites that provide an opportunity for average users to contribute content, connect to others and collaborate together using nothing more than a web browser. It’s about social networking, uploading as well as downloading, making friends and connecting to others. It’s sometimes known as the read/write web, the collaborative web, or the browser-based web. It has turned the web into a two way medium where people participate actively in the creation of content. It’s about not just being a consumer, but becoming a contributor.

Some of the more well known Web 2.0 applications include MySpace, Blogger, YouTube, Wikipedia, Facebook, Wordpress, Del.icio.us, Flickr and many more… the thing that all these sites have in common is the way they invite people to easily contribute and share content on the Web.

For your culminating task, you need to investigate and report on two different Web 2.0 applications.

You will find a fairly comprehensive listing of W2 websites at http://www.go2web20.net/

Pick two and spend time playing with them, reading their websites and learning what they try to do. Experiment. Play. Explore. Discover. Share.

Once you have spent time finding your two favourite Web 2.0 apps, write a report which highlights at least the following points.

• Name of the site?
• What does it do?
• How does it work?
• Who would use it?
• How does it promote the ideas of communication, collaboration, sharing and social networking?
• What problems do you image it will solve?
• What problems do you imagine it will create?
• Why do you like it?
• Any other information that you think may be relevant.

This is not an exhaustive list, but should be a reasonable starting point. Feel free to add other points that you think might be important to include.

Publish your reviews as two separate posts on your school blog. I’d like you to really make an effort to write a logical, well constructed post, using examples and your own observations. The post can be as long as you like, in fact I wouldn’t expect you to be able to do justice to this task in a couple of paragraphs. I want to see your writing, and to see how well you can use words to communicate an idea and clarify your thoughts. And remember, you are publishing to the web, where anyone can see your work, so make it count.  Spelling, grammar, structure…  it all makes a difference to the way you communicate.

Due by Monday January 15th (no extensions possible sorry!)

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below.

Yes, your final exam is here soon. In fact, here is the link to it. You will need a special “secret word” to get into it, and I’ll tell you what it is when the time is right.

Till then, I’m leaving a link here so I don’t forget where I put it!

http://www.quia.com/quiz/902320.html

As I mentioned in class, there are only about 16 work days left this semester before I have to head back to Australia.  Here are the dates to remember…

• December 22 - Your video project is due.  Please make sure it is fully edited and burnt to DVD.  If you can’t have the finished product by this date, you need to submit whatever you do have.
• December 22 (again) - the last day of school before Christmas.
• December 25 - Merry Christmas!!
• January 1 - Happy New Year!!
• January 8 - School returns
• January 19 - Mr B’s last day
• January 25 - Exam week starts

Between the 8th and the 16th, we will be doing some sort of culminating task, as well as an in-class exam.  I’ll need a few days to get all this stuff marked before I finish on the 19th.

Now… if you have any ideas about what you’d like to do for a culminating task, please leave your thoughts in the comments.   I’m open to your suggestions.

[youtube]_b1cyNigny8[/youtube]

Someone showed me this clip, and I’d be really interested in your thoughts. Leave a comment…

Thought this was pretty cool.  Spell a word and then this site will scan the images on Flickr to spell out your word.

http://metaatem.net/words/ 

Since you have all just worked on a Flash cartoon, I thought you might appreciate this rather bizarre little cartoon I stumbled across…

http://www.bozzetto.com/neuro.htm 

At some stage later this semester, when it comes time to write your reports, I need to think about giving you an assessment for your groupwork and teamwork skills.

One thing that I look at is how much and how often (and how well) you contribute to these electronic forums we use in class - the blogs, the comments, the wikis.  I do regularly read all of the stuff that happens in our virtual workspaces, and it’s given me a fairly good picture of who contributes and who doesn’t.

I thought I better remind you of this so that you all ensure you are regularly working as a member of the team.  Post stuff on your blog (sure, we do some school stuff there, but I encourage you to use it just to write about anything you like too), leave comments for your classmates, and make sure you actively add to the wiki.

As we launch in this next unit of work on making movies, here are a couple of things you need to be aware of…

• The Class Wiki - I’ve set up a wiki for every class member to document the video making process. The address is http://commtech.wikispaces.com/. Please use this site to gather together the various resources, collect ideas, write your scripts, etc. If you need help with using it, please ask!
• The due date for the finished videohas not been set yet, but it has to be completed before the Christmas break on Dec 22.
• If you plan to shoot footage off-site (ie, away from the school) you’ll need to have a plan regarding cameras. Unfortunately I cannot loan cameras out overnight to use away from the school. If you have (or can borrow) your own camera, that’s wonderful. If you’re really stuck, please come see me and we’ll try to work something out.
• If you need help with anything, just ask!

And remember, when it comes to making movies, it’s all about teamwork.

A few days ago, I published a list of who’s completed the Flash cartoon task. Despite the fact that it was due on a certain date (and I allowed a bit of flexibility for people who had been having some problems getting it completed on time) the fact remains that it is due and should have been submitted by now.

The current status of these projects is listed here… please check to see that I have yours listed as completed. (Whether you think it is or not…) This list is independent of whether you have emailed it to me or not!

Those that still owe me the Communications blog entry, please post that as soon as possible to your learnerblog space.

Those that still have not submitted the Flash cartoon, please post the SWF file only to Imageshack (www.imageshack.us - no registration required) and insert the URL to the Flash file in a new blog post. I will get it from there.

Those that have not done both, please see to them ASAP! See me if you are having difficulties. I want to get these marked and returned to you but do not want to start marking until everything is submitted from everyone.

Thanks!

The use of blogs as a way for me to communicate with you and for you to keep a portfolio of your work and to comment on each other’s stuff, etc, is not something I’ve done before. I can see advantages and disadvantages to doing it this way, but what do you think?

Can you please drop me a quick note in the comments below with your thoughts on the use of a blog as a tool for learning in this course. Is it good? Is it bad? What do you like? What would you change? You don’t have to be shy… tell me what you really think.

You might have noticed (or maybe not) that Learnerblogs has been upgraded. It now includes a few extra buttons when you write a post, and give you the tools to embed Flash and Director files, as well embed video feeds from YouTube, Google Videos and iFilm. This is great news!

The previous version of the Learnerblogs interface did not include these tools, nor did Learnerblogs even support the code to make it happen manually. Now it does, so make the most of it!

Here’s a quick sample…

[googlevideo]-7233445036972827652[/googlevideo]

Telling a story using pictures - or video - requires an understanding of the basic rules of visual language. Different shots, angles and approaches can be used to help tell the story, engage your audience and communicate your message.

Spend some time today looking through this introduction to video storytelling. Take some time to look through the sample movies and read the information that accompanies them. We will come together as a group later and discuss what we find.

http://www.atomiclearning.com/storytellingindex.shtml

Work through the different sections - Intro, Grammar, Shots, Rules and Examples.

Leave any thoughts you might have about these ideas in the comments section below.

Thanks to everyone who sent me their Flash files by the deadline I asked for. There is some wonderful work there…

I saw that some of them were not finished and I think that after all the work you’ve put into them so far you should finish them off. So, if yours is not complete, please take the extra time to complete it, add the music, and sound effects, etc, and resend it to me when it’s done.

Also, I’d like you to publish the finished product to Imageshack so we can link to it. You can upload the file as a Flash .swf file and it works great! No need to even create an account! Thanks Mac for this tip.

Once you’ve finished it and imported it into Imageshack, can you please post a link to the file both on your own blog and also in the comments below…

Here’s a sample… http://img259.imageshack.us/my.php?image=alexjfb3.swf

We talked before about the implications that posting personal information online can have. I thought you might find the following news article of interest.

http://www.twincities.com/mld/twincities/15906184.htm

I’d be interested to hear your thoughts in the comments section..

A Mac pumpkin…  I couldn’t resist! 

Flash is an amazing authoring environment, able to combine both artistic creativity and sophisticated mathematical programming skills. At it simplest, Flash lets you draw stuff using a rather clever use of vector graphics that can scale gracefully to any resolution, and it also has incredible depth that lets those who want to challenge their skills to explore the world of Actionscripting to bring high levels of interactivity to the objects it creates.

One great example of this dual personality that Flash has is shown in this amazing animated page. Check it out… sure, it’s purely entertainment value but it’s very cool.

Of course, for a more corporate use of Flash, you can’t go past Inside the House, a wonderful virtual tour of the Sydney Opera House. Although this site has been around for a few years now, I think it’s a good use of Flash that goes beyond just using Flash for entertainment value and makes good use of interactivity to meet a corporate purpose.

What other cool, but useful, sites have you found that use Flash? Tell me about them in the comments…

Thought you guys might enjoy this short video of our pumpkin carving…

(Has anyone figured out how to embed the YouTube videos into these blog pages?  The normal way doesn’t seem to work?  Is there some trick that works?)

This is the marking rubric for the Flash cartoon. Take a look at it and make sure you’ve demonstrated your ability in each of the four basic areas, according to the criteria I’ve given you.

Just a note about how I’d like you to submit your finished Flash cartoon.

Once you’re finished the whole thing, you need to make sure it’s saved as a FLA file and safely saved to your personal drive on the school network.  This is your own copy of your work.

What I want you to give me is a finished SWF file that has been exported out of Flash.  Save the file using your own name as the filename, in the format firstnamelastname.swf, using all lowercase characters.

Submit the file to me as an email attachment and send it to betcherc@hcdsb.org with “Flash Cartoon” in the subject line.

Add a copy of the finished cartoon to your blogpage.

Don’t forget the original blog about your thoughts on communication.  It counts!

Remember the KISS Principle?  Keep It Simple, Stupid!  That’s not bad advice as you start to really get into your Flash cartoons…   Try to simplify your cartoon down to the essentials… keep the characters simple, the backgrounds simple, minimise the movements your characters have to make, etc.

You only need enough to communicate the story - don’t overcomplicate things too much.  Think Southpark, not The Incredibles.

Ok, here it is, your next assessment task… I’ve tried to keep it simple.

1. Do some browsing around the web (some teachers might call it research, but I like to call it browsing) and check out as many ideas as you can about the concept of “Communication“.

2. Write a substantial blog post that explores some of these ideas, especially your response to what you’ve found. I don’t want you to tell me what you found… I want you to tell me what you think about what you found. Give me some viewpoints on what it means to you and how you relate to the idea of Communication.

(If it helps, just imagine I’ve asked you to write a short essay titled “What Communication means to me”, and back up your opinions with a bit of research) 

3. Create a Flash animated cartoon based on the theme of Communication as you interpret it.

4. The Flash cartoon can be anything you like, but it needs to be between 30-90 seconds long, to be original and engaging, and to include some sound (either music or sound effects). It can be funny or serious, but it should definitely be engaging.

Due by midnight, Friday November 3, 2006.

Since your next task will be to create a short Flash based cartoon (details coming soon), I thought you might like to have a look at a few samples…

• http://flash.artie.com/
• http://www.flashcartoons.org/original.php
• http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/
• http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html

I particularly like the last one - the StrongBad emails… hilarious! 
If you find any other good samples, please leave a link in the comments section.

Thought some of you might be interested in this post from one of the Australian news services about Google’s acquisition of YouTube. What a fairytale story for these two guys!

Story is here.

We will be spending a couple of lessons learning the basics of Flash.  It is a pretty amazing program and the more you learn about it, the more you realise there is to learn…  it’s a bit of a bottomless pit with what it can actually do.

You might like to speed up the process by checking out some of these tutorials.

•  http://www.flashkit.com/tutorials/
• http://www.learnflash.com/flashtutorials2.htm
• http://www.entheosweb.com/Flash/default.asp 
• http://www.learnthat.com/computers/learn-1774-free_flash_mx_2004_training_tutorial.htm 
• http://www.atomiclearning.com/flash_mx_2004pc 

And if find any more, or you do any interesting animations, please add them to your blog so the rest of us can have a look.

Michelle asked if I could post up some links to the software mentioned in class today, so here goes…

• Google Sketchup (free)
• Stop Motion Animator (free)
• Macromedia Flash (30 day trial)
• Blender (free)

I added Blender… It’s a very sophisticated 3D animation software that’s way beyond what we will be doing in class, but I thought I’d mention it anyway just in case you want to check it out.

That’s about all I can remember. Leave a comment below if I’ve forgotten something you want more info on.

Oh, and the Family Guy episodes?  I’m thinkin’ Limewire.

Our next task will be to look at the different forms of animation, and how animation can be used to communicate your ideas.

Our main task for this unit will be to use Macromedia Flash to create a 2D cartoon. Flash has lots of useful tools for creating animations, and can do a lot of the hard tweening work for you. Our next few lessons will be developing basic skills in Flash… it can be quite challenging! After that you will beworking on an animated cartoon of your own.

If you’d like to have a play with some stop-frame animation at home, grab yourself a copy of Anasazi Stop Motion Animator and see what you can do with it. You will need a camera of some sort (just a cheap webcam should do the trick, or you could try plugging your DV Camera into your computer). If you do end up making any short animations, please share them on your blog. (maybe upload to YouTube and then link to it)

For an overview of animation and different techniques, this site has some good basic information. It’s fairly basic, and admittedly it’s aimed at younger kids, but it’s still a useful place to get an overview of the basics of animation.

You can also get a free 30 day trial copy of Flash (for your home computer) at www.adobe.com/go/tryflash

The world has changed a lot in the last few years, but some teachers seem not to have noticed. A guy I know (another teacher) made this video to show his teaching colleagues, who he thinks are not really “getting it”.

video
Take a look at the video and leave me a comment on your reaction to it. Do you think he has a valid point? Do you agree or disagree with his point of view? What do you think about his video?

Well your Internet advertisements for Prince Edward Island’s hypothetical tourism campaign are coming along nicely!  Plenty of good original ideas there, and considering you had some fairly tight restrictions, you’ve all been quite clever about developing these graphics.

BUT…

The hypothetical tourism office just rang and said they’ve been so impressed with your work that they’d like you to develop an extra piece for them.  Here’s the brief…

Tourism PEI want you to also create a fullpage magazine advertisement for the next issue of Maritimes Monthly.  The purpose of the ad will again be to promote tourism on the island.  Like the banner ads, the magazine advert also needs to include the text “Prince Edward Island” and your slogan in readable text somewhere in the ad.  This time, because you have more space to work with, you can add extra text of your own if you think it will help deliver your message.

You can resuse the photos provided to you in the original web banner brief, or acquire more images if you wish.  They must however be of high quality.

The size of the print advert will be 210mm x 297mm (A4).  Because you are creating a design prototype for print you must work at 150dpi resolution.  Please check you use the correct settings for these files!

It is suggested that you use a combination of photographs, imagery, text and also “whitespace” to design an eyecatching and creative advertisement.

Save the finished image as a full size TIFF file in your H: drive.  Also, save a reduced size JPG copy of the file at 450 pixels high, 75dpi and upload it to your blog in a new post, along with a personal evaluation of the image outlining it’s main design features.