bunk2 — Camp Magic MacGuffin

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Thursday, June 7th, 2012

I followed John Johnston’s lead and started off with the Warhol assignment (560…3 stars). I don’t have a mac and thus photobooth was out and I didn’t try the face trace because…well, because I figured one project at time, sweet DS106.

The tutorial definitely helped but I didn’t follow it exactly simply because I couldn’t get it to work. (I think my version of photoshop [5.5] is different.) The main change came with Step 3.

1. I selected the appropriate layer

2. Right clicked and selected “load selection”

3. Right clicked again and selected “layer via copy”

4. Changed the fill for the new layer to whatever color and then played with the opacity.

Not sure if that’s a legitimate way to get ‘er done, but I got ‘er done.

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The First to Admit It (Checking Out)

Thursday, June 7th, 2012

Visual Assignment 44—Album Cover (2 stars). This was a fun and fairly simple project that I could do on my lunch hour at work. It also gave me a good opportunity to try a few free web-based photo editors. For this project, I used FotoFlexer (www.fotoflexer.com)

In keeping with the instructions of the assignment, here’s how I ended up with a voyeuristic bird on the album cover of a curiously named band:

Followed the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random The title of the article that that this link generates now becomes the name of my band. Thus, my band became “Checking Out”.

The title of the album is generated by using the last 4-5 words of the last quote of this page: http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3.

Checking Out’s debut album is now called “The First to Admit It”.

The cover art is based off a randomly generated Flickr photo. The 3^rd image that shows up here: http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days is the foundation for “The First to Admit It” album cover.

Here’s a closer look at the original:

Credit to lucia bianchi for the photography: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lubi66/7344834132/

I used FotoFlexer to assemble the random elements to create the complete album cover. Specifically, I applied a filter and adjusted it to soften the image and blur the edges to frame the birds. Then I added and manipulated the text until I found a compilation that I like and viola! Checking Out’s very first album art is ready for release…complete with a dirty bird watching the birdie couple like a green-eyed stalker!

Posted in bunk2, ds106, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, VisualAssignments, VisualAssignments44, VisualTutorials44 | Comments Off on The First to Admit It (Checking Out)

Warhol Me

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

This is my first assignment for this session of DS106 Warhol Something

Take a photograph, or use an existing one, and create a piece of pop art. You can use something ordinary, like Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup can, or do a portrait, like Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe. This can be done in Photoshop, Gimp, or whatever photo editing software you have available.

I’ve done something of this sort before, tracing photos with drawing software (the face trace below from 2007) and even did a wee tutorial using the smartboard software to do the same thing, great fun for kids tracing a giant face.

It is even easier to do with photo booth, I am sure there is even an iPhone app that would do the job. But on of ther aims of my ds106ing is to lose the photoshop fear, so I loaded up the recommend Andy-Warhol-Up Your Photographs with this Photoshop Tutorial and followed along. The tut does what it says on the tin. I could have spent a lot longer tweeking the modes of the layers and messing about with colours, but this is enough for one day. (I’ve been ds106ing a lot over the last few days, mainly due to having a couple of days holiday

Posted in Assignment, bunk2, Default, magicmacguffin, openonline, VisualAssignments, visualassignments560 | Comments Off on Warhol Me

week 2 letter home

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

Having a blast at Camp Magic Macguffin — and this is just the beginning! The daily creates are my favorite part of camp so far. Kind of like arts and craft, ds106 style. I like the immediacy of the assignments — I tend to be somewhat hard on myself in judging what I do/make, and so far I’m proud of what I’ve produced and contributed. I am super stoked that we’ll focus on visual assignments in week 3. I’ve always liked photography, the random chanciness of it. Before tdc I never used photobooth, which is easy and fun. I’m forward to more filming projects — I want to explore more possibilities in digital storytelling as a narrative form. I already have a few stories that I want to tell, and it will be fun figuring out how to mix it all together in a bubbling digital stew. I am digging it.

Speaking of digging, as a proud member of bunkhouse 2 — Wäscälly Wäbbits — I started our wäbbit patch (aka victory garden) this past weekend. Tomatoes and peppers and basil — oh my! I tried to upload the pictures I took but I think they are too big. I have to figure out how to make them smaller, and once I do I’ll edit this post and throw ‘em up here. If you all want me to plant somethin’ special, lemme hear! We will feast on the fruits of our labor all summer long.

Well, that’s it for now. There was some suspicious looking rusty garden shears left near our wäbbit patch this morning. Do they belong to Ol Hatchet Jack? I’ll post a picture of them here and the owner can claim them (again–once I figure out how to shrunk my photo files). Until then, I am one happy camper!

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That was week 2 I think…

Tuesday, June 5th, 2012

I love the sense of timelessness that you get after a short while camping, hard to know which day it is.
Starting to make some contact with my bunkmates and other folk, some amazing folk here. Still trying to find my minecraft feet. Lots of kindly help.

So for week 1 we had to:

Watch and Review Mike Wesch Videos Michael Wesch at UMW Faculty Academy Part 1 and Part 2

The main point of this week’s reflection is to connect the concepts described by Wesch to your own experiences on the web, and project how this might play out as you develop your own online space for this class.

I am not going to reflect much on this here, but I though some workflow/playflow notes might be of interest.
I, like any other teacher interested in Web 2, am aware and have nodded along to Mike Wesch’s famous youtubes. I was keen to watch these ones, but 2 hours seems a long time to spend. I downloaded the videos, ripped the audio, converted to MP3s and stuck on my dropbox:

michael_wesch_at_umw_1.mp3 27mb
michael_wesch_at_umw_2.mp329 mb

I then made them favourites on my iPhone so that I could listen to them away from wifi. Yesterday (Sunday now 2 days ago) I was driving an hour to go for a walk, so listen to one on the way there and one coming back. This is one of the reasons that I am a podcasting fan, as a consumer I can multitask. As a producer podcast has needs fewer media skills, so I like that too.

Listen to someone with a powerful presentation that includes video is not ideal, but this worked, I’ve seem some of the material before and imagined the rest. The problem was, it is hard to take notes or mark time when driving (Ideally, I’d like a voice controlled app that I could pause a podcast/audio and record my own audio notes).

One of Mike Wesch’s big points is how learners are disconnected from the classroom, a familiar refrain from lots of educators across the sectors. He clearly demonstrated how he had overcome this by involving the learners more fully in the teaching & learning process. Of course he tells it less baldly than that, his examples are beautiful. This is the way mainstreak Scottish education is developing through the curriculum for excellence. It feels right, there are now lots of great examples (plenty of recent Scots one on pedagoo.org) and on a tiny scale I’ve occasionally seen it work in my classroom.

I am still left wondering if this will work longer term. I do worry that the best example of this depend on really outstanding teacher connecting in unique ways with classes. The proof might be after a few dozen DS106 the question, how many daily creates and assignments do I have to do? no longer exists?

My week 2 daily creates:

and

That was five tdcs in one week. I find it easier to try and do as many as possible, last session once I slowed down I stopped.

Plugin notes: For Week three we are to try some plugins, I’ve already installed the Google Fonts Plugin. I couldn’t get Awesome Flickr Gallery to authenitcate with my flickr API key. I am now using slickr flickr which seems to do the trick.

Posted in bunk2, camp letter, Default, magicmacguffin, openonline | Comments Off on That was week 2 I think…

Better Late Than Never…Please Forgive Me

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Greetings from Camp Magic MacGuffin and Bunkhouse 2 (aka Wäscälly Wäbbits)! Sorry I didn’t write home sooner; I started my journey a little behind schedule and got lost along the way. I am happy to report I arrived safe and sound, albeit a little frazzled.

I am slowly, but surely, getting up to speed with the camp agenda, activities, and, of course, the technologies. Arriving a little late and a little naive left me lost in the woods for a week or so, but following the sounds of activity at camp and sending out the occasional smoke signal, I found my way to camp, gathered my supplies, and dove (or belly flopped) into the stream of other campers, counselors, and the activities!

My social networking experience was limited to Facebook, LinkedIn, and very limitedly Google, so I had to sign up and learn to use Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, and SoundCloud. It’s pretty cool that these tools have apps I have added to my iPhone and iPad to make my participation easier while away from my laptop.

I also got to chose my very own domain name, set up a blog site, and started blogging! Be proud…it was quite an accomplishment for me! This is where you can follow my progress through the summer. So far, I’ve been able to add a Gallery that posts by Flickr photos, a Twitter feed, and a little window dressing to pretty it up a bit!

Everyone here has been helpful and nice so far, except for one rogue camper that raised some hackles. The camp directors have him sequestered now, so we can get on with the fun and games. Looking forward to meeting new people, getting new perspectives and trying new things. That was one of my New Year’s resolutions this year, and as it turns out, this camp is a great opportunity to do just that!

The Daily Creates (TDC) are a lot of fun. This camp’s visual assignments gave me excuse I’ve been looking for to buy a new camera. I chose the Canon Powershot SX260 for its compact, point and shoot size with a megazoom (80x!!!) So far, I am LOVING it and the ds106 TDCs are giving my great way to play with my new toy and explore its features and capabilities. It also took awesome photos at the ZZ Top concert yesterday!

I’ve been sharing the TDCs on my blog individually as I completed them, but I think in the coming weeks as my blogging become more frequent, I will be transitioning to a “once-per-week recap” format. Maybe. I get so excited about each one that I can’t help but share, share, share it!

I also learned about Vonnegut and The Shape of Stories. This gave me a get opportunity to share my newest literary (ok, I use that term loosely) obsession with Fifty Shades of Grey! I’m on book #2 now, Fifty Shades Darker. True, it’s kinda like “mommy porn” but all the hoopla and controversy over this book trilogy seems a little miss placed. If you’d be offended by a sexually explicit language or acts, don’t read it. But if you’re open-minded and not a prude, give it a try. It’s making my commutes from work to camp (more than 2 hours each way everyday), MUCH more interesting! Hahaha!

Due to my other obligations and responsibilities, I have yet to be able to join the others at the campfire, but I trying to get there this coming Thursday, if I can de-conflict my schedule. In addition, I still have a few things to do to get completely up to speed and get some badges, including:

Complete TDC136, a video recap of a family legend. But which one to share? And I HATE myself on video. Guess I’m gonna have to suck it up and get used to it. I doubt I can avoid video assignment for the entire experience.
Watch the Mike Wesch video on internet culture and media learning and write a reflection of the material on my blog. I’ve started watching it, but boy, is it long. I rarely make it through watching an entire movie these days. All my activities are exhausting, but watch for it. I’ll have it done by the end of the week.
I’ve spent a significant amount of time on Bryan Alexander’s (author of Introduction to Digital Storytelling) website and checking out his stories and links. Now I just have to put pen to paper, so to speak, pick one and discuss it.
Minecraft. Well, I’m not really looking forward to this one. I’m not much of a video game person. Okay, except for maybe Angry Birds, if you consider that a video game. A shortage of funds has kept me from starting on this adventure, but I’ll be starting soon. I hope to find a lot of help there; as I’m sure my inexperience in these types of forums will have me in a learning curve. Maybe I’ll type a rope around my waist or leave a trail of bread crumbs, in case my bunk mates need to send out a search party

All this and more will be accomplished by my next weekly letter home this coming weekend. I’ve already seen the Week 3 announcements and agenda and I’m optimistic that I’m proficient enough with the tools to set a good pace forward. Time to wrap up my rambling…

Stay tuned until next time…

Posted in bunk2, ds106, magicmacguffin, umwsum12, weeklyletter | Comments Off on Better Late Than Never…Please Forgive Me

Cloudy Canine

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Cloudy Canine, a photo by chanda0703 on Flickr.

You’ve met Duke is previous photo assignments. Here’s Gracie. Cloudy and out of focus. Had to play with the camera a bit, using the fish-eye lens and be quick to beat the focus feature. Took me a while to get it but I had fun trying!

**Note: I just got the great new camera on Friday (Canon PowerShot SX260). Still getting to know the features, but the assignments for ds106 are really making it fun!

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Daily Create 148: Create a photograph today where some/all of…

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Daily Create 148: Create a photograph today where some/all of your subject isn’t in focus. (Taken with Instagram at George Washington Hall)

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Youth and Elders

Monday, June 4th, 2012

a-family-food-story

I watched this video that I found through “Dr. Nemo’s” website. I liked the flow the video had. By flow I mean I liked how the music in the background paired with the narrator’s monotone voice. Normally monotone can be a negative statement to make about a narrator, but in this case it is not, it fit.

Most people can relate to the generational differences that are felt between youth and their grandparents or great-grandparents. We (the youth) just smile and nod as we try and decipher their ramblings and the repetition of their conversations and actions. Then one as we age, we realize we do the same things. We create a tradition from this. The narrator creates a tradition of having bread and butter on Thursdays.

This story is just that, a story. A family story that is shared orally/visually. It is like a modern day version of oral storytelling, because it is recorded oral storytelling. Just like “Dr. Nemo” discussed in his book, this story is like this man’s journal. It is something personal to him that he is sharing with, well…the world.

If I were to describe the shape of this story I would say that it is like most typical accounts of youth-elder interactions. The youth do not understand the ramblings of the elders, the elders die, the youth age, the youth understand the elders now.

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Shape of Nancy Drew Stories

Monday, June 4th, 2012

Okay, so many people are familiar with the Nancy Drew book series. I was addicted to them throughout elementary school. I always loved going to Costco with my mom because they sold Nancy Drew books in packs of 6 there. So every time I went to Costco with her I was able to buy a new pack of Nancy Drew books. They were easy and quick reads, I could finish them in like half a day. But if you ever read Nancy Drew books, you know they are predicable.

After about my 3rd Nancy Drew book I was able to predict what would happen when I read them. Nancy somehow comes across a mystery that needs to be solved and her friends would help her solve it and often times they would have to travel to do so, or they would already be traveling when they came across their mystery. Nancy would get herself into a dangerous situation while trying to solve the mystery and then she would be saved by either her sweetheart or friends. Then she would eventually solve the mystery.