I'm enjoying learning to use the new online tools. Some thoughts about my experience so far:
Wordle - It's very cute and works well for creating an image such as a self-portrait in words. What it needs though is a reasonable way to turn each word into a hyperlink.
Flickr - Been using it for a couple of years and have some of my pictures uploaded. Flickr only lets me put up 200 images though with the free account, a limitation; I may have to actually pay money to get more online space.
Diigo - Love it! Excellent link keeper and organizer. I was using Delicious but like Diigo better. I haven't figured out all its functions such as the group thing, more research is needed.
Photobucket: Seems pretty good also. It's another item I'm new to and still exploring.
Blogger - I have a little experience with it already and find it has all the functions I want and it's easy to use. I give it high marks.
Again, just my opinion.
Friday, September 30, 2011
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Reading Slide:ology
Reading further in Duarte's Slide:ology. It's a very good source for visual thinkers (like me). The book goes into a lot of detail about the creative process and translating ideas into sketches and diagrams, and then into visuals. Clarity and simplicity are watchwords; Nancy Duarte and her peoples' work is elegantly uncluttered.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Lynell Burmark Chapter 4
As I mentioned I've now finished the textbook and am trying to get in some reading of ancillary sources as time allows. I've bought Nancy Duarte's Slide:ology from Amazon (used, not much) and started it, it's a very beautifully designed book as well it should be, as a sort of a designer's manifesto. It's aimed more at a business audience than at educators but the principles are widely applicable. I'll post more about it, again if I get time.
On to Burmark, Chapter 4, "CHIMES".
CHIMES stands for Connections, Humor, Images, Music, Emotion, and Story. These are the ways the author identifies to create an engaging and memorable presentation - first to get the audience to look and then to sway their minds and emotions.
My take on this is that if all these aspects can be made to work, your presentation is likely to be a masterpiece. Since few of us are renaissance men or women, the approach I would suggest is to strengthen one's presentation by adding whichever of these "hooks" one has the ability to do. Other people's experience will differ from mine.
Humor strikes me as risky. If you have the gift of comic wit and timing, by all means use it, but a stolid presenter attempting to lighten the mood and falling flat is painful to witness. Use with caution.
Music - again this is going to rely on personal ability, background, education, talent, and taste. And again if one can wield it expertly music could add a lot to a presentation. Being sadly tin-eared myself if I were to include music I think I would have to sub out the job of building the sound track.
Images - One of the best points the author makes in the entire book I think is that images are powerful. They can set the scene, convey emotions, and introduce the audience to new places and experiences. The well-known Chinese aphorism about how many words a picture is worth is not far off. More and better images, less and better-chosen text is good advice I think.
Emotion, Stories, Connections - these three could be seen as closely allied. Bringing the audience into emotional accord is as important as giving them the facts (if not more important). Weaving facts and emotions into a narrative which involves the sympathies of the listeners will greatly improve the presenter's chances of drawing the audience together and then leading them forward into new territory.
Just my opinions.
On to Burmark, Chapter 4, "CHIMES".
CHIMES stands for Connections, Humor, Images, Music, Emotion, and Story. These are the ways the author identifies to create an engaging and memorable presentation - first to get the audience to look and then to sway their minds and emotions.
My take on this is that if all these aspects can be made to work, your presentation is likely to be a masterpiece. Since few of us are renaissance men or women, the approach I would suggest is to strengthen one's presentation by adding whichever of these "hooks" one has the ability to do. Other people's experience will differ from mine.
Humor strikes me as risky. If you have the gift of comic wit and timing, by all means use it, but a stolid presenter attempting to lighten the mood and falling flat is painful to witness. Use with caution.
Music - again this is going to rely on personal ability, background, education, talent, and taste. And again if one can wield it expertly music could add a lot to a presentation. Being sadly tin-eared myself if I were to include music I think I would have to sub out the job of building the sound track.
Images - One of the best points the author makes in the entire book I think is that images are powerful. They can set the scene, convey emotions, and introduce the audience to new places and experiences. The well-known Chinese aphorism about how many words a picture is worth is not far off. More and better images, less and better-chosen text is good advice I think.
Emotion, Stories, Connections - these three could be seen as closely allied. Bringing the audience into emotional accord is as important as giving them the facts (if not more important). Weaving facts and emotions into a narrative which involves the sympathies of the listeners will greatly improve the presenter's chances of drawing the audience together and then leading them forward into new territory.
Just my opinions.
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
What if the Secret to Success Is Failure?
Web site:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all
NYT article about whether training in "character" has a place alongside traditional subjects in molding students into responsible, fulfilled, successful adults. Onto something? A total crock? Intriguing in any case.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/magazine/what-if-the-secret-to-success-is-failure.html?pagewanted=all
NYT article about whether training in "character" has a place alongside traditional subjects in molding students into responsible, fulfilled, successful adults. Onto something? A total crock? Intriguing in any case.
Monday, September 19, 2011
Chapter 1 Lynell Burmark
Behind the surface appearance of annoyingly upbeat chirpiness and corny humor, the author has some very good ideas which should be more widely heeded. Microsoft PowerPoint is too universally derided to need much more explication of its downside. Here are some links:
Julia Keller: Is PowerPoint the devil?
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/WRIT465/management/juliakeller1.htm
Edward Tufte: PowerPoint is evil. Power corrupts but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
Power Corrupts, PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely
http://www.usnwc.edu/Research---Gaming/War-Gaming/Faculty-Blog/February-2011-(1)/Power-Corrupts,-PowerPoint-Corrupts-Absolutely.aspx
This is an article on the US Naval War College site, no less, which takes its title from the Tufte article but makes points about improving .ppt presentations. Notable quote: "While death and taxes may be inevitable, death by PowerPoint is not."
If Abraham Lincoln had delivered the Gettysburg Address with PowerPoint:
http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm
And of course Dilbert:
http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=project+emu&x=0&y=0
What Lynell Burmark does is to show how a presentation can be given in a way that the medium enhances rather than overwhelms the message: colors are attractive, and are used to draw the eye to the most important points; text is squeezed out, condensed, minimized, reduced to a few essential words; image dominates the slide and any references are already included in the handout - built painstakingly and separately from the slide show.
A few of her major, um, points:
Color significantly increases the viewer's interest in looking at the slide and improves retention of its contents in memory.
Attractive and legible color combinations work best, this is worth some study. Yellow (about 570 nanometer wavelength) is the brightest and most noticeable, lying near the center of the human eye's spectrum of sensitivity to visible light and also lying near the center of the solar spectrum, not a coincidence.
Pay attention to contrast. Good contrast improves legibility.
Concerning type: use less of it. Emphasize what is more important with bolding and size. Avoid all caps. Use legible fonts. Divisions between sections of text are as important as the text itself.
Include images, more to come on that topic.
Julia Keller: Is PowerPoint the devil?
http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/WRIT465/management/juliakeller1.htm
Edward Tufte: PowerPoint is evil. Power corrupts but PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.09/ppt2.html
Power Corrupts, PowerPoint Corrupts Absolutely
http://www.usnwc.edu/Research---Gaming/War-Gaming/Faculty-Blog/February-2011-(1)/Power-Corrupts,-PowerPoint-Corrupts-Absolutely.aspx
This is an article on the US Naval War College site, no less, which takes its title from the Tufte article but makes points about improving .ppt presentations. Notable quote: "While death and taxes may be inevitable, death by PowerPoint is not."
If Abraham Lincoln had delivered the Gettysburg Address with PowerPoint:
http://www.norvig.com/Gettysburg/sld001.htm
And of course Dilbert:
http://search.dilbert.com/search?w=project+emu&x=0&y=0
What Lynell Burmark does is to show how a presentation can be given in a way that the medium enhances rather than overwhelms the message: colors are attractive, and are used to draw the eye to the most important points; text is squeezed out, condensed, minimized, reduced to a few essential words; image dominates the slide and any references are already included in the handout - built painstakingly and separately from the slide show.
A few of her major, um, points:
Color significantly increases the viewer's interest in looking at the slide and improves retention of its contents in memory.
Attractive and legible color combinations work best, this is worth some study. Yellow (about 570 nanometer wavelength) is the brightest and most noticeable, lying near the center of the human eye's spectrum of sensitivity to visible light and also lying near the center of the solar spectrum, not a coincidence.
Pay attention to contrast. Good contrast improves legibility.
Concerning type: use less of it. Emphasize what is more important with bolding and size. Avoid all caps. Use legible fonts. Divisions between sections of text are as important as the text itself.
Include images, more to come on that topic.
Sunday, September 18, 2011
San Antonio Writing Project workshop, excellent event.
Written Saturday, posted Sunday 09-18-2011.
I got a chance today to attend a workshop on technology in the classroom, hosted by the San Antonio Writing Project. It was very good. The keynote speaker, Chris Navarro, seems to be a bit of a local Renaissance man and is co-running Open Art, an outfit which brings arts education to K-12 schools which can't afford to hire a full time art, music, or drama teacher (which is a lot of schools now given the way the tide is running). Link:
http://www.open2art.com/
He and the other presenters discussed using various programs to combine visuals, music, text, and voice-over to engage the students. A partial list of the programs they demonstrated or described:
Wikis -available thru various websites
Voicethread - upload any media type to the same account
Prezi - like ppt but cooler
Gimp - one I know pretty well already
Moviemaker - described as bearing the same relationship to real video editing programs that crayons have to other art supplies. Still, it's a place to start.
Glogster - ???
Comixpress and
Issuu - both involved in self-publishing, which isn't a bad thing any more
Audacity
Animoto
Evernote
Weebly
Various Google apps
Some of these are familiar to me, some not so much & some entirely new.
Other stuff. I found out about Joe Lambert's "Digital Storytelling" which I've ordered from Amazon. Andrew Eichstead, one of the presenters, spoke of the need to tell stories, using the online media - this keys in closely to points made in the textbook. Lambert has this site:
http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf which I have not more than started but looks like a short version.
Also, I learned about Ian Jukes' blog, "The Committed Sardine" (don't ask me) at:
http://www.committedsardine.com/blog.cfm
Looks like a good source for ideas about education, technology, and their evolving and not always pretty relationship.
Written Saturday, posted Sunday 09-18-2011.
I got a chance today to attend a workshop on technology in the classroom, hosted by the San Antonio Writing Project. It was very good. The keynote speaker, Chris Navarro, seems to be a bit of a local Renaissance man and is co-running Open Art, an outfit which brings arts education to K-12 schools which can't afford to hire a full time art, music, or drama teacher (which is a lot of schools now given the way the tide is running). Link:
http://www.open2art.com/
He and the other presenters discussed using various programs to combine visuals, music, text, and voice-over to engage the students. A partial list of the programs they demonstrated or described:
Wikis -available thru various websites
Voicethread - upload any media type to the same account
Prezi - like ppt but cooler
Gimp - one I know pretty well already
Moviemaker - described as bearing the same relationship to real video editing programs that crayons have to other art supplies. Still, it's a place to start.
Glogster - ???
Comixpress and
Issuu - both involved in self-publishing, which isn't a bad thing any more
Audacity
Animoto
Evernote
Weebly
Various Google apps
Some of these are familiar to me, some not so much & some entirely new.
Other stuff. I found out about Joe Lambert's "Digital Storytelling" which I've ordered from Amazon. Andrew Eichstead, one of the presenters, spoke of the need to tell stories, using the online media - this keys in closely to points made in the textbook. Lambert has this site:
http://www.storycenter.org/cookbook.pdf which I have not more than started but looks like a short version.
Also, I learned about Ian Jukes' blog, "The Committed Sardine" (don't ask me) at:
http://www.committedsardine.com/blog.cfm
Looks like a good source for ideas about education, technology, and their evolving and not always pretty relationship.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Some Thoughts About Copyright and Where It's Going
I've come to realize that an entire semester could easily be spent studying copyright laws and practices and still not cover it all. This is clearly an important topic to educators as they and their students re-use content of all types.
One subject that interests me as US copyright law gets ever more lobbyist driven, with the influence of money increasingly outweighing the need to disseminate knowledge, is the growth of alternatives like the Creative Commons license and copyleft. I'm curious to see as this drama unfolds, how big are these non-commercial alternatives are going to get and how useful they are going to be for the people who need them the most.
Open source software is already a force to be reckoned with in the programming world. Questions for which answers may not yet exist: can the model of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and related systems in the software world be adapted to broader areas of creative expression? To educational content? Are there signs they are already doing so?
I've come to realize that an entire semester could easily be spent studying copyright laws and practices and still not cover it all. This is clearly an important topic to educators as they and their students re-use content of all types.
One subject that interests me as US copyright law gets ever more lobbyist driven, with the influence of money increasingly outweighing the need to disseminate knowledge, is the growth of alternatives like the Creative Commons license and copyleft. I'm curious to see as this drama unfolds, how big are these non-commercial alternatives are going to get and how useful they are going to be for the people who need them the most.
Open source software is already a force to be reckoned with in the programming world. Questions for which answers may not yet exist: can the model of the Open Source Initiative (OSI) and related systems in the software world be adapted to broader areas of creative expression? To educational content? Are there signs they are already doing so?
Friday, September 9, 2011
My First Post
If the cat will stop walking on the keyboard, I can upload the first post on my unimaginatively, but accurately, named blog for my EDTC 6340-60 class. I have another intermittent blog going, also in Blogger, called "Of Graves, Of Worms, and Epitaphs" (Shakespeare fans will recognize the quote) which I created for sharing articles of interest with the students in Mortuary Science at SAC where I used to work.
This seems to be going OK so here goes my first test post.
This seems to be going OK so here goes my first test post.
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