Thursday

Web 2/3:

Some news as of 6:30am:

• Texas cancelling or postponing spring sport season. (Alabama joins them as of 10:42am)
• WHO raises to Level Five.
• A couple more CT schools have closed.
• East Haddam students test negative for Swine Flu.  Schools will re-open tomorrow.

Today you will work in teams to create a short video.   This video is designed as a Public Service Announcement (PSA) to reduce the threat of a pandemic.  Your video must:

• Be 28 seconds long.  
• Include a voice-over.
• Outline steps to reduce the threat of disease (wash hands, etc..).
• Audience is high school students.
• Be completed using Moviemaker.
• Save to Udrive-WebSchneider-PSA Projects-PSAMovies when done with names (CassBobJaneflumovie).  Be sure to Export movie for the Udrive.
• Due end of class on Friday.  Work fast.

I put some old examples of PSA movies in the "Sample Movies" folder.

Web 4:

You will use the next 2-3 days to complete three sample designs for an opening page.  This should include all the basics from your concept map, but it will be only a sketch of the final site. Your client (me? Chuck?) will then choose the design that you will use.  You should:

• Create a SHS School site (can this be shared from Udrive??).
• Include image boxes where movies might go.
• Be as accurate as possible with basic design, color, font, but don't fret with the details (emails, links, etc...).
• You only need to create the initial page (index1, index2, index3).
• Be prepared to outline the strengths of each design.  You want to highlight your team so all designs should strong.
• It might be smart to mirror some of the "awesome sites" we have looked at.....

Mr. Skiparis gave us all of the yearbook pictures.  We will spend some time today culling out the pictures we want.

Project growth

Web 2/3:

There was some great writing yesterday.  I was very impressed!  Some good examples include: Amanda, Patrick, and Christina.

Today all will work on a flyer that would could be sent home with students TODAY.  Use Fireworks to complete this page.  You should be sure to design the page so it looks official and is the correct size to be printed (you figure it out!!).  It should include:

• Current information from trusted sources.  List the source.  Remember, information may have changed since yesterday (or this morning).  
• Steps to prevent the spread of the disease.
• Places to access information (phone and web) at the state and national level.
• School contact information.

Here is an example from the State of CT.

Save to Udrive-WebSchneider-PSA Project-Flyers (bschneiderflyer)

Web 4:

Use Fireworks (or other software) to create a "concept map" of your site.  The concept map should include all major information and how it links together.  You will submit one map per team.  We will review this in class.  Save to Udrive-Web4-School Site.

A few thing to read for information about school websites: Example #1,  Awesome Sites.

Evaluating Sources

Having computer issues?  Fill out this survey.

Web 2/3:

You will continue your research today.  You must complete this blog post today.

• List three sources that you trust in separate paragraphs.  Include link.  Why do you trust them?  Include at least one valuable fact from each source.
• Has the story grown or diminished in the past 24 hours?  How can you tell?  Try using google trends.
• What is something we as a school should be doing RIGHT NOW to prepare for the possibility of the flu spreading to Connecticut?  Think hard.

Web 4:

Blog post questions:

• List each stakeholder (student, family/parent, staff, community, random search) in a separate paragraph.  What information is each stakeholder looking for if they visit a school website?
• Colleges and private schools use websites to attract students.  How does the issue of recruitment change a website?  How does the website balance this while still serving their current population's information needs?
• Could some of the same recruitment strategies help a website for a standard public school like ours?

Semester Project

Internet was down until 8:07am, so this is a work in progress.....

Web 2 and Web 3:

Here is your project (I haven't finished writing it, but you can start!!). Put it in your bookmarks.

Check out the latest news at Newsmap.  Any doubt what the big news is?  

Everyone should be using and sharing information using Google Notebook.  

Web 4:

Create the Seymour High School website. We will discuss more in class. You will work in teams of two.

You must include:

• Video with voice over.
• Directed towards audience of students/parents/staff AND community.
• Easy to use navigation.
• All necessary information.
  

Yom Hashoah

My winners so far: KGargano's poster, AGrose website, PCorkery's podcast, and AGriffing's Flash.

A few thoughts:

1. Some of you coasted through this.  Don't do that.  Your work should reflect the time we have spent in class.

2. I think the fade in/out slideshow in Flash is becoming a bit of a cliche since so many of you are using it.

3. Do not neglect your blog posts.  This is what the world reads about you.  Be sure to link to the assignment and describe it accurately.  If a job interviewer googled your name what would you want them to read? 

Today and Friday we will work on Flash or Fireworks tutorials.  You need to complete at least four tutorials including at least one of each.  Remember that the tutorials might not match your version of the software.  I encourage you to find your own tutorials if you so choose and I hope you work with a partner.  I will grade that you completed the tutorials first thing Monday.

Flash

1. Transparent Buttons

2. Shape Tween Fix

3. List of tutorials (choose one or all)

Fireworks:

1. List of tutorials (choose one or all)

2. Another list (choose one or all)

Project evaluation

Please submit your projects today.  Answer the following questions in your blog:

1. What did you learn?

2. What method did you use to report the results (poster, writing, movie, etc..)?  Why was this the best choice?

3. Who did the best project?  Why?  Remember that some people did blog posts, but most posted work to the UDrive.

I am working on our next project and I am opening it up for suggestions.  Really, I am looking for you to help design it.  You can join the wiki and edit it, add discussion, or write blog posts.  Keep checking back as it is worked on.

Yom HaShoah

We have six standards that we teach in this class.  Today we will focus on the third standard: Research and Information Fluency:

According to the standard you must be able to:

a. plan strategies to guide inquiry. b. locate, organize, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and ethically use information from a variety of sources and media. c. evaluate and select information sources and digital tools based on the appropriateness to specific tasks. d. process data and report results.

Yom HaShoah, a day of Remembrence, starts this evening.  Your task is to create a digital work (Fireworks poster, Flash animation, Website, Movie maker file, Audacity podcast, etc...) that describes and teaches about this day.  Keep it simple and on message.

Your assignment is as follows:

a. Decide how you will learn more about Yom HaShoah.  What strategies will you employ ("just google it" is not a mature strategy)

b. How will you use your network and the internet to locate information?  How will you store and gather this information?  How do you know your source is a trusted and valuable one?

c.  There is a lot of information on this subject.  How do you filter the information so you accomplish your task?

d. What is the best tool to report this?  A poster, an audio podcast, a flash animation, a blog post, a webpage with links,?  

Rubric

Good luck.  Save to UDrive when done or submit on blog.

Breaking news: This is why its so important to understand.  Read the quotes about Yom Hashoah.

Thursday reading

Today will be an odd day as so many of you will be out at various functions.  Here is a list of things to do (choose one or all):

• Answer the question from the Blogmeister David Warlick: “In maintaining a Facebook (Myspace, Beebo, etc.) presence, what do you strive to accomplish? What is your measure of success?”  I encourage you to write a blog post and possibly comment directly on his blog with a few sentences.  He has asked for feedback--lets provide it!
• I think this is kind of weird.  What do you think?
• Should cellphones be used as an educational tool in schools?  Check this blog out.  Its a long post--but worth it.  Check out the comments where the conversation is continued.  What do you think?
• This guy would be fun to have at a dinner party.  What do you think about his house?  Watch the slide show too.
• Or find a story that you find interesting and blog about it.
• Any of you twittering?  My twitter ID is brandtschneider.  Who do you follow?  Twitter is in the news.

Evaluation

Complete your Flash replication today.  Don't worry if it is not done or perfect.  Be sure to save both the Flash document and export the movie to your folder.  Then copy the folder to the Udrive as normal.

Please complete this blog post today, either in class or at home.  Your grade for the project will be a combination of me looking at the Flash movie, evaluating your blog post analysis, and classroom observations.

1. What are three skills or techniques you developed or improved during this project (tweening, movie clips, buttons, collaborating with classmates, etc...)?

2. Did you do a good job?  What went right? What went wrong?  

3. If you started over would you tackle the problem differently?

4. Did any student, tutorial, or other part of your network assist you? How? Or....did you show assistance to others?  How?

Overall, I am really impressed by your work.  This wasn't easy.

This just in from the BlogMeister David Warlick:

“In maintaining a Facebook (Myspace, Beebo, etc.) presence, what do you strive to accomplish? What is your measure of success?”

Can we answer in our blogs?

Replicate Project

I got the impression that yesterday many of you unlocked the key to your Flash puzzles.  I saw many leaders stepping forward to help classmates which was great.  Notice there are many project-drafts in the UDrive.  

Please recognize that I really don't care what you learn.  I care how you learn.  Develop your personal learning network so when puzzles pop up you have a method to solve them.  Keep your learning transparent by posting to your network (blog, twitter, Udrive) what you learned.  If we share our knowledge we will be much stronger.  As evidence of this you should check some people's clustrmaps.  How can you use your readers to help you learn??  If you have readers in Lebanon or Kenya, or Denmark does this change how you learn and share?

So a few keys to the puzzles?  If you have more to add do so on your blog.

• Flower: I can't see a way around doing frame to frame animation.  Any other solutions?
  
• Body: A whole bunch of movie clips for each body part.
• Birthday card: Stop action with movie clips.  Then a tween to the next scene.
• Bouncing balls: A whole bunch of motion tweens.

Flash Animation

First watch this movie about Color. I think its brilliant.  Check out the movies and the lab.  Think about  all of the design choices, both with layout and the metrics of "what should we click on".  These are some of the lessons we need to be applying in our websites and animations.

Then we will practice some Flash skills.  Web 3 did a version of this assignment last semester.  Recreate one of the following Flash animations.  Be as exact as possible. You don't need to include the loading prompt at the start of each movie.

• Birthday Card
• Make a wish
• Anatomy
• Bouncing Balls

When done please save movie to Udrive-WebSchneider-Replicate.  Save movie correctly with name of movie (bschneideranatomy).  I expect this to take about three days.  

Exam Review

We will talk more about your exam tomorrow.  Several of your classmates may be making up the exam today--keep the room quiet for them please.

The rubric for the exam pretty much worked.  Class averages were all around 3.0 out of 4.  So overall we did pretty well on the exam.  There were five 4's that I graded.  In general you demonstrated an improved use of images and a much improved layout design.  Check your pizza sites from the first week to compare.  If you had trouble it was usually because you tried to do too much.  Keep it simple!!

There are a handful of you who struggled.  I urge you to find the time for extra practice, either with a partner or with me.  

Take time to look through the UDrive.  Which website do you think would sell the most product?  Why?  

If you completed the exam here are today's options (you must do one or all):

1. Work on the blogging challenge.  Make new posts or comments.  Improve past articles (check typos!).

2. Improve your exam website.  Ask me or a partner what you should change or improve.  This would be great practice and similar to what a client would offer. 

3. Complete additional Flash or Fireworks tutorials to improve your skills.

4. Review some HTML and play around with Tables.  This might have really helped some of your exams.

5. Research your family tree using Geni and Familysearch.

Web Design Exam

Your exam must be done in one period.  You must complete:

1. A working website that highlights a new product.  Save folder to Udrive-WebSchneider-MP1Exam.

2. A blog post advertising this product in a short paragraph or two.

Here is the grading rubric.

Exam: Sell Box4Blox to young mothers who need to organize their house.

(yes, this is the same as the sample I gave you yesterday!)

Exam Prep

Our exam will be Wednesday April 1.  Here is what you will need to know:

At the beginning of class tomorrow you will be given a product to sell (shoes, a Senator, pizzas, etc..).  You will also be given an audience (teenagers, auto executives, students, etc...).  You will have the class period to create a website selling this product and to create a blog post "hyping" this product launch.  You will have to work fast.

I would study:

1. Defining and creating a website in Dreamweaver.

2. Basic Flash and Fireworks techniques that will improve the modern look of your website.

3. How to link and write effectively to your audience in a website and a blog post.

4. Check out the website rubric.

5. Prepare some templates.

Sample exam: Sell Box4Blox to young mothers who need to organize their house.

How to write

Today we will again practice reading, synthesizing, and writing.  What is your message, and who is your audience?  Don't forget many of your readers do not live in the United States and might be five years old or fifty.

Choose one, some or all to write about:

• Read this color pencil thing carefully.  Its brilliant. 
• I kind of want to do this thing for Seymour.  
• Should dogs be more visible at Seymour High School?
• What do you want to do when you are 96?  What did you think of Professor Kurnow and his story?
• Do you twitter?  Should we in school?

What do you think? Tell me in your blog.  Include quotes, links, other info and your thoughts.  

Friday

I think this has been a good week.  I have enjoyed watching you create your Fireworks products.  As we transition from the more technical part of web design ("What does this button do?") to the creative side ("What emotion do I want to create?") many of you are struggling.  This struggle is essential.  Quality design does not come without sacrifice, thought, and perseverence.

In addition I really need you to focus much less on you and much more on audience.  Otherwise your work will not accomplish its goal of selling movie tickets, pizzas, or ideas.

Please answer the following questions on your blog:

1. What did you learn this week? Include link to assignment.  What score/grade do you expect?

2. Which product (poster, letterhead, etc...) are you most proud of?  Why?

3. Which product in the UDrive are you most impressed with? Why? 

If you complete this please hunt for red dots for your clustrmap and complete the fourth blogging challenge.  Check out some other blogs.  You could also write about the NYTimes article I posted yesterday.

Sexting

Kids do stupid things and there could be serious consequences.  Check out the blog today from Gadgetwise.  

Remember, everything, and I mean everything, you do on an electronic device can haunt you forever.

Fireworks Challenge

Here is the Fireworks challenge.  You get one point for every successful challenge.  Goal is five points but you can score up to seven (extra credit).   If you submit five successful entries your grade is 5/5.  Yes, you will have to move fast.  Computers available after/before school and during study halls.

Notice that I did not give specific assignment of tools for each challenge.  You have many choices. I am curious to see how your design process works.  Think about audience!

Keep all challenge assignments in a folder (bschneiderchallenge) to submit to the UDrive on Friday.

Some images you need are in the UDrive-WebSchneider-Fireworks Challenge folder.

1. Create a logo for "Acme Iron Works".  Here is a good idea tool for logos.

2. Create a letterhead for "Acme Iron Works" of Seymour, CT using a word processor (Google Docs or MS Word for example).

3. Put Barack Obama in the stands at a New York Yankee game.

4. Put Claudia in a green tube. (image in UDrive)

5. Create a cool business card for Mr. Schneider.

6. Create a poster for the new Star Trek movie.  

7. Change the girl's prom dress to blue.(image in Udrive)

Fireworks

I enjoyed reading your blog posts about the TED talks.  I had fun pushing some of you who are stuck in a pragmatic definition of life.  Is life about "metabolic processes" or is it about having a soul?  Keep watching, and keep reading.

Good job to Gabriela and Alex for enrolling in the blogging challenge (notice their red dots?).  Keep up the good work!  Now that you have readers what will you write about?

Today all classes will work on Fireworks tutorials.  Whether this is new or review I would like all to do the same work to start.  You should move straight down the "image effects" category.  Then move to the other categories.  This is sandbox time today and tomorrow.  Create a fireworks folder to save all of your work.

Web 4 has completed their project and should answer the following questions in their blog:

1. What did you learn?

2. What would you have done differently?

3. Did you create a successful movie?  Why or why not?

4. Is this your best work?  Why or why not?

TED Talks

Well, yesterday was brutal.  I slept almost all day.  I'm conscious today so I am here, but don't expect too much.  By the time you read this I am either feeling fine or I am realizing it was a big mistake to come in.

It was nice to be home yesterday and read your blog entries.  A few reminders:

• Write in 3D.  Include links.
• Leave comments.
• Build on what other people say by linking to their articles.

One thing you want to do in life is get around smart people. I was lucky to go to a school that had really, really smart people around. Listening to them makes life interesting.

Many of you have seen some of the TED talks before. TED is a place where smart people get together and kind of do a show and tell.

I would like you to watch at least two videos today from start to finish. Everyone must watch the Theo Jansen video. I give you some prompts to start a discussion on your blog. Some of these videos are about 10-20 minutes long. They say teenagers can't pay attention to anything. Prove them wrong.

Hans Rosling: How data is cool. Think of your little Excel charts. Will you be ready to use data like this. This guy is fun to listen to.
Jeff Han: How displays will change. This would profoundly change how we use computers.  This is from two years ago.  How fast technology evolves (Hello iPod!).
John Maeda: A smart, funny guy talks about simplicity. Think about how simplicity is the driving force in design (hint: iPods).
Rives: This guy can talk.  Power of the spoken word.  I laughed out loud (also notice his use of powerpoint).  Check this poem about the internet by Rives.  Fascinating (and why you should work on your poetry).
Theo Jansen: Freaky. Mind-blowing. But pay attention. What is life? Can you make something that lives out of PVC pipe? He does. Cyborg alert!
Blaise Aguero y Arcos: Demonstrates Photosynth. Wow. The Notre Dame cathedral thing is amazing. Can you think of ways you could use this software?
Anand Agarawala: The BumpTop desktop. Certainly a different set-up! Would this help you search your photographs?

William Kamkwamba: Inspiring.  Many of you are 14.  What is on your resume?  Think about all that you have to work with here.

What did you learn? Share what you learned. Start a conversation. Can you add something to a discussion?

Be sure to have links to the talk on your blog.

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