The Drama of Blogging

The drama of Audacity

2008-12-18T10:12:00.001-08:00

I wanted to blog about the audacity assignment. Out of all of the assignments, I found this one to be the most difficult. I had many problems with my Audacity project, and in the end, I worked out MOST of them. To begin, when I downloaded Audacity on my computer, it was not working properly. When I went to open a song in the Audacity, the song would play but in barely a second. It would literally zip right through the song. I tried to adjust the speeds, but nothing was working. So I proceeded to re-install Audacity. That did not work either, because every song I put on there would simply speed right through. I thought it might be the song I choose, because it might have been “protected.” So I went back and choose a song from a CD. This still gave me problems. So I finally went to the computer lab and tested out the Audacity there. I placed a CD in the disk drive, opened the song in Audacity, and pulled out the CD. I did the entire project, and when it came time to convert the newly mixed song into an MP3, the audio tracks were empty. The only conclusion I could draw from this was the fact that I removed the CD from the disk drive before it had a chance to copy itself onto my computer. So I tried the project over, this time keeping the CD in the disk drive. It finally worked. I had some troubles getting the song to play, but I was able to do all of the editing, and adding of the effects, which can be seen though the screen shots that I took. Overall, I found this project to be most stressful. But, I know that if I were to do it over again, I would know exactly how to edit music. I am glad that I now have this skill.

The Final Projects

2008-12-18T07:02:00.001-08:00

I thought the final projects for this class were so amazing. They were extremely diverse and all very informative in their own right. I am glad that this was pretty much an open assignment because it gave us the opportunity to take what we learned and create something new and exciting. One of the highlights from that evening was the Fashion show. I really enjoyed the way they used power point to combined all of their research in a presentation. I also thought they put in a lot of time and effort in their research and overall presentation. I like that they were wearing clothes that represented different fashion trends and the progression of those fashion trends. I think its great that they made their presentation comical as well as very informative. They did well presenting the information to the class.

I also really enjoyed the group that displayed pictures of NYC with music for their project. I think it is great to think outside of the box when it comes to great art. New York City is filled with art, and that presentation reminded me to open my eyes and look around at all of the beautiful art around me. I really enjoyed the way they edited the pictures, and used the Ken Burns effect to emphasize important parts of the pictures.

As for our presentation, I think it was successful. We all worked well together, and I always enjoy meeting people that have a great appreciation for the arts. I think we work hard to create stress the importance as well as the beauty of story telling. I learned a lot about Korean Folk tales, and stories while incorporating elements of this class.

My Peers

2008-12-18T06:44:00.001-08:00

I really enjoyed opening up Erica's main page. I think that she did a great job editing her picture. I love that she added stars to her picture that frame her face. I think it works well for that picture, and fits her personality. I also appreciate her color choice. The gray in the background is a nice color and does not take away from the picture of the links. I also enjoy how she has a quote at the bottom of her picture, and the color of the quote matches the color of her sweater. It is very aesthetically pleasing. I like her incorporation of the line break after her picture and quote and before her links. It creates organization for the view. Her personal links that she choose to put on her main page are very informative and are great resources for an arts educator. To view this page, please click on the following link: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~eng221/

I think Alana's images assignment pages is great. Like me, she choose to make the background of the page black and the text color white. I think that is a great contrast, and it really enhances the photos that she choose to use. I really appreciate the photo that she picked. The butterfly picture has very vibrant colors, and I enjoyed seeing the picture with the various filters on it. All of her pictures that she created are beautiful, but my favorite is the one where she used the polygonal lasso tool as well as brushes and paint bucket. The picture is so vibrant. It appears to be a rainbow in the back of the butterfly and there are mini butterflies of various colors flying around. It is very magical looking. You can view this picture, as well as others at the following link: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ajh372/images.html

Libby's Shakespeare movie is great. I really enjoy the way she used the Ken Burns effect to emphasize various pictures of Shakespeare. It is evident that a lot of thought went into where the zoom and the focus would be when the Ken Burns effect began and when it finished. I love the images she choose to pick, and they went great with the music. I feel as though I can use this movie in my classroom because it make Shakespeare, a topic most students dislike, fun and exciting. I really like that she choose to use red as her background and white as her font. I think that is a great combination, and it works well with the pictures she picked. My favorite picture is where she uses the Ken Burns effect to zoom in on a paper that Shakespeare is holding that says "to be or not to be." I thought that was very creative. You can go and see Libby's Shake it up Shakespeare video at the following link: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~ehk245/movie.html

BlackBoard

2008-12-18T06:32:00.000-08:00

I have mixed feelings about the blackboard system. I think it is a great way to discuss things outside of class, as well as refer to assignments that have passed or that need another look. Yet, it does not compare to actual discussion in class. Also, I try to be very careful when posting on blackboard discussion because it is hard to read the intent of someone through their blackboard post, I would never want to offend someone in that way.

For this class, I think blackboard has been great. I have enjoyed using the assignments page to refresh my memory about different assignments that we have completed throughout this course. I also think it is great that all of the links of our peers websites have been available for our viewing.

I would consider using blackboard in my class when I become a teacher. I think it is a good way for students to track their grades and their progress. I think it is also great that you can make homework available for students in can case they forgot a homework assignment or a worksheet. With blackboard they can simply do a file transfer and download the worksheet right onto their computer. I would also use blackboard to make the course requirements and syllables available to the students so that they can have ownership over that knowledge. Students can be encouraged to post links and upload papers so that they can work in groups without actually meeting each other outside of class. It is also great to have the students submit their homework this way, so that they have less of a chance of loosing it and I as the teacher will be able to view it right on my computer. The downside is that not all students have access to computers, and outside of a college setting, I do not feel as though it is right to ask as student to seek out a computer so that they can upload their essays. I think that blackboard is a nice option, but anything lower that college, should not make it mandatory.

American Connection

2008-11-25T14:03:00.000-08:00

The Children Live On

2008-11-25T14:00:00.000-08:00

The tree falls....

2008-11-25T13:56:00.001-08:00

An Axe

Falling Tree

The Heavens await...

2008-11-25T13:52:00.000-08:00

The Tiger and the Children

2008-11-25T13:36:00.000-08:00

The Tiger

A Child in a Tree

Brother and Sister

Story-Telling: A tiger in mom's clothing

2008-11-25T13:20:00.001-08:00

I am excited that our group is so ethnically diverse. We are using that diversity to our advantage and choosing to do our project on a story based on a Korean Folk tale. I love hearing about new stories from different cultures because they so often can relate to stories we have in America.

In this particular story, we believe there are four main character: A mother, two children, and a tiger. A tiger eats the mother and tries to fool the children by dressing up in the mothers clothing. (This is very reminiscent of the story of Little Red Ridding Hood, where the wolf eats the grandmother, than proceeds to dress up in her night gown) The children catch on that the tiger is NOT in fact the mother, so they thought it wise to trick the tiger. The children coaxed the tiger outside. The children quickly climbed up a tree so that the tiger couldn't reach them. The tiger was tricked once again as the children told him that they used an ax to get up the tree. The tiger, not being very smart, used the ax to try to climb up the tree. Of course, the tree started to fall. Just at the tree was about to fall, the mother, who was now in heaven, through down a rope and saved the children. The tree feel on the evil tiger, leading to his death. The children then became the sun and the moon in the sky.

We are planning on using this story as a basis for our "movie." We choose to tell a story because we feel that all of our disciplines are used to tell stories.

Blog For Class

2008-10-29T16:21:00.001-07:00

This is my first blog for my Tech class. I have never blogged before, and I think I need some time to get used to it. I am learning a lot of useful things in this class, and I wonder how a blog will fit into my classroom. When we all become teachers, I wonder how blogging will become a part of it. I guess it is a great way to keep track of your personal thoughts, but I also think a journal is good for that as well. I am not much of a journal person, so this will definitely be a change for me. I am excited about our group assignments for the final project. It is always nice to be able to meet people who have an appreciation of the arts, but are not necessarily in your discipline. I think all of our ideas pooled together will be a great project. We had a great opening discussion about what are some topics we can work on for our project. We thought we could focus on story telling as an umbrellas topic because dance, music, and theatre are all great ways to tell a story. We also have a very culturally diverse group, and thought it would be interesting to investigate some stories in other cultures and use our artistic disciplines to present those stories. There is much more discussion to take place, but I think it is going to be a very interesting process. I am sure I will be using this blog to document that process!