Wednesday Assignment

In order to complete Wednesday's assignment you must complete the first two tutorials on shape and motion tween. You must complete this assignment and show the teacher by the end of the period. Work together so everyone gets it done.

Motion Tween:
Move a blue circle from the bottom left corner to the top right.

Shape Tween:
Convert a small blue circle to a large red square. Have the object move from the bottom left corner to the top right corner.

Save each file in WDrive.

If you finish the first two tutorials please try to move through the rest of the tutorials. I would like you to have a very basic idea of the available tools by the end of the week.

Flash

Here is the link to the Flash tutorial that I would like you to start when your quiz is done. These are some simple directions for learning the basics of Flash. You will notice some similarities to the project that we just completed (timeline, layers, etc...). Start with the top tutorial (motion tween) and go through the rest.

I am new to Flash as well. We will learn this together. I think you will pick it up very fast. I got most of the things to work very easily. But some things held me up. I am sure they are obvious things. A few things to note about Flash. First, you can do some cool stuff with it. Second, because you can do some cool stuff designers often load their pages with stuff that adds no value to the page, causing it to take forever to load. Worse in my eyes are those "flash intros" to pages that almost nobody likes to use.

So, as you use the Flash tutorials think about how you could use Flash to add value or increase usability on a page.

Please try to put your Yankees quiz in the UDrive today. Important notes about the quiz....please follow the directions!!! Some of you have turned in a quiz that does not include the correct link or explanation text. Please don't turn in a webpage that is titled "Untitled Document".

I hope to have the final project assignment ready by Thursday or Friday. Keep sending me your ideas.

Technorati Tags: Flash

Cool links

My mom sent me this link. Be sure to include sound. I really hope it plays for you.

Mobile phones in concept link.

June 4 is the SHS Tech Fair. Everyone of you will have your final projects displayed. I have asked several of you to present to the Board of Education. Keep sending my ideas for final projects.

I see eight presentations at the tech fair:

• Video, youtube, teachertube
• Web 2.0 and School 2.0, what can be happening NOW.
• Dreamweaver/HTML/Programming applications
• Wikis
• Blogging/Global Communications
• Educational Gaming
• Future, Web 3.0, School 3.0. What will happen in the FUTURE.
• All of your final projects

All of these topics involve information, the processing of information, and how the nature of communications is shifting (2D writing becomes 3D writing). Also, we should all speak about the importance and value of 1-to-1 computing. Imagine doing this (or any) class with 1 computer.

I'd also would like to have one movie (like the Did you Know movie we watched at the beginning of the semester) that highlights and summarizes everything.

Agree? Ideas? Suggestions?

Final Project

Teaching a class for the first time is not easy. The main issue is pacing. I don't really know how long a unit will take and how many extra items to add for understanding. I do feel that we are finishing the year much stronger than how we started. All of you have improved on our three objectives: synthesize, summarize, solve.

Almost all of you have grades above 95 now. You are doing the work and doing it well. About 10 of you are not getting your work done. This is not acceptable. You know who you are. See me today and we can try to fix this the easy way. Otherwise.....

So what do we have left to do? We need to spend some time on Flash and Fireworks. We need to do our final project (this will be fairly large). We need to review for the final and take the final.

If you have ideas for the final exam and final project please add them to your blog. I would be interested to read them. If you took Web1 with me you probably have an idea where I am heading.

Wednesday

I am in general very happy with the reviews that you did for the Horizon Project and the comments you made on the blogs. I think about 80% of you showed a real depth of understanding about design, writing, and the creative process. Many of the rest of you went through the motions. Always do your best.

Go to teachertube.com and check out the scores for the movies I posted. Kelly's movie is in the lead with over 1700 views! Related to the horizon project this is a social network and an emerging form of publication. You have a global audience! Have something to say.

Project 8 should be in progress at this point. The quiz is posted on the wiki. Have some fun with it.

Technorati Tags: hz07 teachertube

Tuesday

Things to do today:

1. Review and edit your horizon project exams.
2. Complete your Web 3.0 blog entry from before vacation.
3. Check teacherease for missing work. I have not gotten to all the P7 quizzes and some of the videos. You have not been graded if you did not turn in an evaluation.
4. Make 3-5 substantial comments on students blog entries about the horizon project.
5. Project 8 if you are ready.

Horizon Project

I spoke before break that we would be evaluating the Horizon Project. We will do this today (Monday). We will have discussion first and then you will tackle the assignment on the wiki. If you are reading this from home please get a head start on the reading.

This is an important project and many people from many different countries will be reading your work. Do your best!

Technorati Tags: hz07 wiki Seymour sounding_board

Gametime

I get the feeling over the last few weeks that most of you "get it" now. You have been working much more independently, solving your problems yourself, and producing some great work.

Lets remember the three objectives for the class: synthesize, summarize, solve. These are areas that you should focus on in all aspects of your education. I think we have gotten much better in all three over the past month or so.

So we pretty much understand the tools (HTML, Dreamweaver, blogging, etc...) and we pretty much understand the objectives (synthesize, summarize, solve). What will we do with it?

As you can tell by the clustrmap our class and the assignments are looked at by a lot of people. Many of the assignments we do are repeated in classrooms around the globe. Many of the assignments that they do I find and adapt for you. However, we have not really gone to the next level, which is truly creating connections with the global community.

I feel we can be elite. We can be a model school, with a model curriculum, examples of student work that make people go "Wow!". As we move from Web 1.0 (HTML) to Web 2.0 (blogging, collaboration, visual, etc...) we need to start planning for Web 3.0. What will it look like? Will we be ready?

I want you to find examples of schools, people, ideas that are Web 3.0. What is the "next big idea"? How are innovative schools in other countries run? I want you to collect information (synthesize), put it on your blog (summarize), and then we will figure out what to do next (solve). As you know, I believe students should take responsibility for their education. If you had a chance to design the next version of this class/school/district what would it look like?

Check some of these ideas/schools out:
Horizon Project We will be evaluating these project when we return from break. Check them out.
Shangai American School A school involved in the Horizon Project. Where are they on the technology curve?
The New MBA What do you think? Is visual communication taught enough at SHS?
Second Life This will become more and more important in your education.
TED Talks: Watch One!! Click on the technology category.

Edutopia: Lots of good ideas from the George Lucas Foundation. Lucas is the guy behind Star Wars and the Raiders of the Lost Ark (Steven A. put this link on his blog, good job Steve!)

Gates Foundation: The richest man in history is giving most of his money away to try to end many diseases and improve education. Take a moment and see where that money is going.

Technorati Tags: hz07 TED Warlick k12 education Gates Edutopia

Faces

Some of the Faces pages you did for project 7 quiz are amazing. Check them out in the UDrive.

Whose pages should I bring home to practice with Claudia?

OLPC

Great video by Brianna. I think the music really helps the video. Have you noticed on teachertube how many views your videos have gotten?

Some of you have submitted the files incorrectly. You must save the movie file (not the movie project) to the UDrive. If you go to the UDrive and you see a icon that looks like a movie reel you did it wrong.

We have read often about the one laptop per child program (OLPC). Read this post by Will Richardson and observe the photograph. Can you connect this to our readings about Darfur? If the children of Darfur all had a laptop, many would be reading your blogs and vice versa. Would there still have been genocide?

Can you see the hope in their faces?

Now, imagine if we did the same here at Bungay Elementary. Could we change the world here in Seymour as well? A science textbook costs $80. This laptop costs $100.

Technorati Tags: olpc willrichardson

Extra Credit

Want extra credit? To get extra credit you must be finished with all other assignments.

Extra credit will be making short videos. All rules about copyright apply. The movies must be 28 seconds long.

Option 1: Make a video that will make a 1st grader laugh.
Option 2: Make a video that will make Mr. Freund laugh.
Option 3: Do the opposite topic from the video assignment (i.e. if you did Darfur, now do cyberbullying).

Test

This is a test of teachertube embed video. If you see video, it worked.

Quiz, Extras, Etc...

The quiz for Project 6 is posted on the blogmeister.

The quiz for Project 7 is posted on the class wiki. Both quizzes are due by Thursday April 19.

Extra credit is also posted at the class wiki. Same due date.

I posted four videos to teachertube.com. They have over 500 hits total in one day. You have a global audience and a voice. As I said yesterday, spend your time trying to change the world. Don't just float through life talking about yourself, spending time in PAC, not remembering what you did last week.

Technorati Tags: classblogmeister stopcyberbullying k12 education

Videos, Dreamweaver, Darfur

Videos on Darfur and cyberbullying are starting to be deposited in the UDrive. Check them out. Leave comments on the directors blogs. I am posting the best videos to teachertube.com
Many of you are finishing Project 6. Check the notes from a previous blog entry. Be sure that you create TWO files: the template and the Bahia Park file.

Project 7 notes: skip page 7.38. Also, when you are doing the hotspot and behaviors for the three regions of Florida do them one at a time. I couldn't get them to work all at once. This will make sense when you do the project.

Project 6, Project 7 and the movie are due by Thursday April 19.

Check out this use of technology. Learn how to use this technology! This is the expectation of the world we live in, that you can present information using these tools. Old school would have been a chart with the places that have been burned. I think this tool is more effective. I am not sure all of you have Google Earth on your machines. Period One will let me know.

This may sound a bit like a sermon but I hope some of you have been effected by the images from Darfur or the stories of cyberbullying. Making the videos and increasing awareness is a small step in solving the problem. Never waste a day. Students in Darfur would do anything to have your life for even a day. And I know some of your lives are NOT easy. There are students in this community who have incredible challenges, yet you never hear about it. And then there are students who spend the day in PAC because they did something stupid. Don't waste a day and don't let your classmates waste a day. Imagine if those in PAC or the large amount of students who are "ME" people took some energy and pored it into raising awareness about Darfur. If it saved one life or stopped the conflict one day early it would be worth it.

If it was you been chased down by the militia, your sisters killed, your mom raped and beaten could you imagine if you sent a cry for help and nobody answered? Or cared? Or even knew where Darfur was?

Technorati Tags: darfur video stopcyberbullying

Stuff

Many of you are off to a good start on your movie. Please be sure to note your subject in your blog. If you do the work at home you will need to burn the movie file on to a CD. You want the MOVIE FILE, not the project. If you think you are done please save the movie file into the Udrive. Be sure to name your file correctly.

Project 6 involves templates and some work in CSS language. This work is fairly detailed, but pretty simple. Creating templates or style sheets is a time saver. We will not spend much time on this. However, if you decide to go further into programming this would be an excellent area to focus on as it unleashes a lot of the more powerful features of Dreamweaver.

For project six you will do the project, the outline, and the quiz. No extras. Be aware that the "logo" image is actually named "title" in this project.

And check out freeplaymusic. I found this site this morning and like it a lot so far. Very easy to use. (Aargh---someone just let me know its currently blocked for students. I will work on it).

Video

We have talked often about how video is becoming more and more essential for web site design and construction. Almost every website you visit has a video component. In addition, videos are used in business, academics, sports, and other disciplines. It is an essential means of communication in todays society and I feel everyone should understand the basics of creating a video.

This weeks assignment is on the class wiki. The assignment involves creating a public service announcement for students. The assignment has some very specific instructions so I urge you to read it carefully. The most important part of the assignment is to tell a story! Can you get your point across in 28 seconds?

I encourage you to collaborate on this project, however I do require that you use mixed gender teams. You can be in teams of 1-4 people.

I want to make clear that if you are new to this type of software I do not expect anything too technically grand. You will use this assignment to experiment and play around with the software.

Good luck.

3D writing

Writing for the web is a profoundly different skill than writing for other disciplines. Composing an article in MS Word or with pencil and paper is a two-dimensional process. What you write on the paper is all there is.

Writing on the web is in three dimensions. You not only see what is on the screen but there are infinite layers behind it that you link to.

Click here: two dimensions.

Click here: three dimensions.

None of you go home and read MS Word documents. All of you go home and read documents on the web with text, images, links, animations, etc... Writing and reading in three dimensions is an essential skill now for any field you plan to pursue. That is what you must practice on your blog. Many of you have rich, multi-faceted entries with links to important information. This is writing in three dimensions. Some of you have paragraphs with no links, images, or anything that is beyond two dimension writing.

Is there a place for 2 dimensional writing? Of course. If you are writing for yourself (journal, diary, etc..) there is little need for writing in 2D. But if you are writing on the web it is inherently a conversation not a lecture/speech. You should make this as rich a conversation as possible.

Go back and look at your last few entries. Resubmit anything you feel can be improved and become more three dimensional. Don't get left behind as the world switches to 3D writing. Work on this skill!! Your blog is your website. People from around the world read it. Make it the BEST example you can of your writing, coding, and web design skills.

2D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.

3D: I am Brandt Schneider. I have a daughter named Claudia and I teach Web Design at Seymour High School.

Darfur

For the past week we have been discussing cyberbullying and the situation with Kathy Sierra. We have discussed ways to address cyberbullying and how the actions of one can effect many.

When I was in school I studied a lot about historical revolutions. The Nazi revolution and the Holocaust were part of my studies. Often when we think about these historical events we think of them in the large scale; the millions of people dead, the large scale destruction.

However, much of my study was about how in order for the mass genocide to occur there has to be millions of individual situations. One individual making a decision to hurt someone else, and many other individuals who don't do anything to stop it. The Holocaust was built by millions of individual decisions to harm, hurt, and kill people.

I am sure many of you have studied the destruction in Darfur, a region of the Sudan. Please review some information here. This is large scale genocide. Many believe the world does not care.

We have studied how simulations can effect learning. We have played Ayiti which focusses on the plight of the poor in Haiti, and 3rd World Farmer where you try to survive on a farm in a devloping country. These games have shown us that interactive games may have a place in education. Almost all of you play some sort of game online and you need to understand how they work as a web designer.

Today we will review the game Darfur is Dying. This game is developed for children slightly younger than yourselves. However, I believe we can learn important lessons about Darfur and about how learning is occurring online.

Please learn the game, play it, and then reflect on the situation in Darfur. I would like you to then write a blog entry about the game. This blog entry will be written for a specific audience. This is part of continuing effort to summarize.

Boys:
Review the game for "Gaming Developer Magazine", a magazine that caters to the serious game developer. You write for a section "Educational Games". Your article should cater to your reading audience and should be between 200-250 words.

Girls:
Review the game for "Education Week", a magazine that caters to the teachers. You write for a section "Educational Games". Your article should cater to your reading audience and should be between 200-250 words.

Technorati Tags: DarfurisDying stopcyberbullying gaming

Kathy Sierra

We read last week about Kathy Sierra, the teacher who was beng threatened with the online posts. Through that discussion we talked about cyberbullying. It was very interesting to read your blogs.

I was a bit worried that many of you said if that one should just "brush off" bullying on the internet and just ignore it. Kathy Sierra talks about this in a recent post:

Unfortunately, I still do NOT know who made the unclebobism post; nobody has yet been able to tell me that the person who did this is not a real threat. We've become so desensitized to vile comments on the net that many people can't comprehend why I would feel threatened. But if we dismiss every cruel, vile, sexually threatening comment as simply the work of an anonymous troll, we will no longer be able to recognize a real threat. Are we willing to stake our mother/sister/daughter's life on a sexually and physically threatening photo or comment, simply because it appeared on the internet and therefore must be harmless?

What do you think?

Technorati Tags: KathySierra stopcyberbullying

End of Marking Period

OK. This is the end of the marking period. Things will move very fast today and tomorrow.

1. Turn in your exam. Click here for directions. Leave time for this. You could do the writing at home, but I must get the exam evaluation before midnight on Tuesday. No evaluation--no grade.

2. Check teacherease for errors. I make mistakes. I will not accept late work, but I want to fix errors. Your responsibility to check.

3. Amnesty program was posted on March 15. If you are going to participate any work must be submitted by 2pm on Tuesday.

I have 100 of these exams to check so please try hard to get them submitted correctly. Since I extended the deadline because of snow I am in a bit of a time crunch. Help eachother!!!