Graphic Design Online by Jill Olthouse
In this article, Jill Olthouse discusses the high cost of school licenses for great graphic art programs for school sites. The two she prefers are called Fireworks and Photoshop. Because of their high cost, Ms. Olthouse has researched other options and tells about her experiences using these free online programs with her middle school students at a computer graphic arts two week long class. The National Art Gallery's NGA Kids Art Zone is an online laboratory of artistic exploration. One of the authors recommendation is this organization's "Brushter" program. It enables students to create abstract art and change the size and stroke of the paintbrush. Kids Art Zone also has and other applications for 3D objects and collage. A favorite of the students' was "Hero Machine", an application that allows even non-artistic types the chance to design super heroes and create crazy outfits and accessories for them. Students get to work with changing layering in this project. Ms. Olthouse also added a Language Arts piece to the project by having the students write stories and adventures about their super heroes. Next the children worked with Fotoflexer to manipulate photos and sharpen them, take things out and change colors. They then used Aniboom which allowed the kids to work with animation in cartoon frames. They had a difficult time with the "save" feature on this application. The last project the students worked on was one that is not available online as an application. It is Google's Sketchup, a program that let the students work with making 3D buildings and architecture. This is a fairly complicated program and they were unable to spend too much time with it. Ms. Olthouse lists several other online application tools that could be very effective tools for teaching graphic arts skills.
This article was very simple but full of resources that I could one day use with my students. I think that making use of free online resources to enhance and teach our kids is wonderful and so fun for the students. I will definitely take the time to look up the applications the author spoke about. All of these resources could be used to enhance Language Arts projects as well as other content areas. I love the idea of using technology to liven up projects and assignments. It adds a new twist on traditional curriculum.
Aniboom Shapeshifter: www.aniboom.com/
ShapeshifterAnimachine.aspx Aviary: http://aviary.com/home
Fotoflexer: http://fotoflexer.com
Google Sketchup download: http://sketchup
google.com HeroMachine: www.ugo.com/channels/comics/heromachine/classic.asp
NGAKids Art Zone: www.nga.gov/kids/zone/zone.htm
Splashup: www.splashup.com
It's not coolness factor that counts, by Don Hall
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In this article, Don Hall talks about the emphasis on what is "cool," in
particular with technology. He says that there is too much focus on what's
cool, w...
14 years ago
How fun! I totally agree that making assignments and projects fun for students is a great option to have. I think I have heard or read something similar to this before, but I can not think of it right now!! This sounds like a great website to use for students, now that art and other creative sources are being limited in out schools. It gives the students a time to reflect and be loose about an assignment. Its also good for the teacher to get creative once and a while and watch the students become little artists in the making! I will also like to look up these applications and mess around with them myself! Great job Erin!
ReplyDeleteErin,
ReplyDeleteI really like your article. I think that Mrs. Olthouse is right about these ridiculous prices for the graphics art programs. I really like the hero machine. I could see myself using that in my class when I have my students writing short stories and linking them with their hero's. I thought that your article had a lot of different resources that I see myself wanting to use.