Time to get INSPIRED...

This week we were introduced to Inspiration, a mapping and diagramming program that helps teachers and students organize ideas and concepts in a fancy digital format.

Here's the one that I made on American Abstract Expressionists:

It includes a textbook that can be referenced for more info for students, and the state standards/technology standards for educational reference.

Inspiration can be pretty cool by allowing you to add bubbles and links to images, websites, and other information to enhance the experience. Notes can be added to items to give more clarity or explanation. Bubble outlines and fill colors can be customized, as well as the background. Images can be imported by simply dragging them into the workspace, or the program provides a library of clip art images to use as well.

The only drawbacks I have with the program are mainly just design and aesthetic issues. I feel I could make something even better with Photoshop or Illustrator (more versatile image/text editing options) but Inspiration's ability to embed links, video, and sound make it worthwhile.

If you're looking for a program to do hands-on brainstorming activities with your students, give Inspiration a try. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Digital Scavenger Hunt

This week's project was to collect digital images as a group based on the criteria provided in the form of a scavenger hunt activity. Our hunt was titled "Shapes" and it sent us scavenging for various shapes outside on campus.

This activity was fun and allowed us to think outside the box a little bit, getting some fresh air and training our eyes to see the simple shapes in the everyday complexities. I love taking pictures, so luckily I was entrusted as our group's photographer. We got some really cool shots in some not-so-obvious places. The hardest shape to find by far was the octagon - we didn't want to photograph a stop sign like anyone else would, so we had to really hunt for it!

Uploading and resizing the images was easy enough. All the tools we needed were provided in the "Image" settings in Photoshop. I might try to amass some digital cameras for my art classroom and take my students out on this type of scavenger hunt. I think art students could benefit from having to analyze and really look around them to find things they might not immediately see.

MONSTROUS Image Project

^^^That's a Picasa slideshow of my MONSTER themed photo album.

It's cool that technology has given us so many outlets to acquire images from. In that slideshow, there are images from a digital camera, mac screenshots, Google searches, scanned images, and even from a program that provides free images! I knew little about the regulations and rules surrounding the use of images online, so I was happy to hear about sites that featured royalty-free images and were free for public non-commercial use. With so much stuff out there, it's good to know that some stuff is still free.

I had never used Picasa before this class, and I am glad to have learned about such a useful tool that I can use to store and organize my digital images. I'll probably be using this more often in the future for sure - I'm tired of losing files to viruses and hardware malfunctions!