Wisconsin Association of School Boards Art Challenge 2011

The challenge for this year's Wisconsin Association of School Boards Student Art Exhibit and Awards is "Building Relationships." Please click on this link to read more about the challenge. http://www.wasb.org/convention/art_exhibit_2011.pdf Because the pieces chosen for entry will be professionally mounted, the DUE DATE for this project, and the accompanying write-up, is Monday November 1st.

Image Editing with Picnik

I have been exploring image editing websites in order to find an application that is user friendly and that offers a multitude of fixes and special effects. I found what I was looking for at Picnik. Images upload to, and download from, Picnik in a reasonable amount of time. In addition to offering all the usual fixes (crop, resize, rotate, color and saturation) Picnik also allows a user to add text, add a border, sharpen a fuzzy image or straighten a crooked image. Images can be manipulated using a multitude of special effects that can be applied in varying degrees using sliders. Picnik offers a Premium upgrade but I honestly don't know why anyone would purchase the upgrade because Picnik offers so much for free. With its ease of use and abundant effects, I'm certain my students will also enjoy using Picnik.

VoiceThread

When I took a Digital Photography course this summer, we had to create a VoiceThread. (There is a link to my VoiceThread on the right side of my blog.) Using VoiceThread, you can turn your images (photos or any scanned images) into a narrated story. You can choose whether you want your finished VoiceThread to be made public or kept private (you can also invite others to view your VoiceThread). The cool thing about VoiceThread is that other people can leave text or recorded messages about your images. I see now that there is also a new Ed.VoiceThread for teachers and their K-12 students. The only problem with the Ed.VoiceThread is that there is a fee for using it. The original VoiceThread is free. Here is a link to the original VoiceThread. I may use a VoiceThread to introduce myself to my students in future classes.

Great Website for Drawing Help

As part of my Drawing and Painting Unit, I will be teaching my students how to draw self-portraits. I have been looking for pictures that illustrate facial proportions. I have also been looking for line drawings of the eyes, nose and mouth. I found what I was looking for, and other valuable drawing tips, at artyfactory http://www.artyfactory.com/ Check it out and see what you think.

A Cool Movie Site!

After looking at some of the applications available on Go2Web20.net I did a search for movie-making applications. One of the applications that came up is Animoto for Education http://education.animoto.com/ I signed up for a membership and used Animoto this weekend to create a sample video. Animoto is really easy to use and it creates really cool videos. A question I have is, can I narrate a movie slide-by-slide? Here is a link to my video. http://animoto.com/play/YrUGEnQxQZkWTliqidHFcQ