EDLD 5366: Reflection

       In the midst of the stressful holidays, this course was the perfect one to take.  It was fun, motivating, and engaging throughout the entire five weeks.  The content was less intense and stressful than other courses. First, I created a birth announcement using the four principles of design.  I never considered myself a creative person, but was able to gain positive feedback from colleagues on their evaluation of my product.  Most of my learning came from the discussion board where we had to comment on others’ designs and see the different teaching tools.  I collected ideas and was able to apply my new knowledge in the evaluation of my colleagues’ products.  In the second week, I created a logo on an open source site called logomaker.com.  The most difficult part of that assignment was learning how to save and copy it to my wiki and blog.  I plan to experiment on other sites that were provided when I have time.  I always wanted to learn how to work with photos and graphics, and realized how much skill is involved in using such programs.  I watched videos on YouTube that took you through a transformation from start to finish on photo editing.  I think the course was well planned my new skills will give me a boost to branch out and try other products.  I did not care for my animation to be placed in my newsletter.  I created my newsletter for teachers on different applications that are provided in my district and included some technology tips.  The animation did not integrate easily into the newsletter.  I did go back and change the color scheme on my logo, so that it matched my color theme on the newsletter.  Overall the course was engaging and fun during the most hectic season of the year, Christmas!

Animation: Week 3 EDLD 5366

Learn more about this project     CLICK THE BEAR

We were able to choose a program to use for creating an animation  for our assignment in Week 3.  I used the program called Scratch. It was fairly easy, but took quite a bit of time for me to view the tutorials, and then play around on it. I can see where students can get carried away with the different options.  It is fun and addicting. To view my animation you have to CLICK THE BEAR!

Principles of Design in Ancient Manuscripts

EDLD 5366 Digital Graphics

I was amazed at the intricate details that artists used many centuries ago.  I was drawn to cover of the Lindisfarne Gospels from the Middle Ages.  The cover design alone depicts the four principles of design. It has metal and jewels in a repetitive design contrasted on a bright burgundy background. The metal design forms a mirror image both vertical and horizontal. Within parts of the book, you can find decorative capitals that show the importance of certain portions of the text. Color contrast, as well as the use of different fonts is the most used principles of design in this book.  This book has images of cross-carpets that are copied today and show the use of contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity in each one.

You can view the Lindisfarne Gospels from the British Library website.
Look at the bottom left, click menu and scroll until you find Lindisfarne Gospels.

School Law

Copyright Cops

Please enjoy this comical video that shares an important message to educators about ignoring copyright laws. Teachers have the responsibility to model proper and ethical use of materials. How can we expect students to if they see their teachers bend the rules?

Multimedia Video Technology

The Multimedia Video Technology course for Lamar was a great experience for me. I collaborated in the past with co-workers on Skype and Google Docs, but never had to create anything. The experience from this assignment was valuable in many ways. Not only was it nice to rely on the experience of others in your group, but the finished product was better than I had ever dreamed. We used Google docs and relied on the chat window to post our ideas, plan and create our video. We had a wonderful director (Deann) for the project who kept us informed, on task, and up-to-date on the activities and deadlines. I will be able to take this experience and share it with others in my district. Thanks!

PSA-Safe a Life: Adopt a Pet

Week 3: Group Collaboration

This week we met with our group members and decided on the best method for collaborating. We have four in our group: Deann Thompson, Debbie Anderson, Lacy Hobbs, and me. We named our group, DDLP and Deann created a wiki to keep track of our collaborations. http://groupddlp-5363.wikispaces.com/ At first we had been emailing back and forth. Deann and I communicated on Skype together for practice and was able to chat as well as connect and hear each other's voice. It kept disconnecting, but we were laughing through it all.  The next night all of us tried using the wiki, and discovered that it was not letting us type and edit at the same time. Once, Deann thought that we lost all of our work, so we quickly reverted to Google Docs. It was much easier working on the same page and having the chat box nearby. We spent 2 or more hours collaborating on our assignment for this week and was able to create our outline, script, and shot list. We all agreed to help in the different roles so that we can learn from each other. Lacy agreed to do most of the editing with our help. Our topic for the PSA is: Save a Life: Adopt a Pet.

Script Outline:

Save a Life: Adopt a Pet

I. Reasons to adopt a pet
      A. Companion
      B. Security
      C. Playmate
      D. Unconditional Love

II. Where to Adopt

III. Why Adopt
      A. New family member
      B. Health Benefits
      C. Save a life