Top 10 MAET

MSU-MAET TOP TEN
Class of 2007

10 - Skype is a MUST HAVE!
9 - Email can ALWAYS distract you from what you SHOULD be working on.
8 - Websites should be finished in your head before you start on the computer.
7 - Just when you think you know everything about a software, someone has a TECH TIP that you never knew!
6 - You'll learn more from your cohorts/professors than you could ever teach yourself - SO ASK QUESTIONS!
5 - If you don't USE IT, you'll LOSE IT!
4 - Potatoes (in any form) are NOT brain food!
3 - You'll be married to your computer, but CAFFEINE will be your secret affair!
2 - You'll realize that you spent over 540 minutes on a 59 SECOND video, but you'll still be proud of what you did.
1 - Trying to be compelling takes more brainpower than writing a 55 page single spaced ARP!

pre-ARP Presentation

As I finalize my presentation, I feel that I am not doing it justice. The mass amount of time and effort that went into this year-long project is impossible to explain in only 10 minutes time. I am struggling with which aspects of the project to focus on, and while to leave on the side. I wish I could convey a more rounded summary of my efforts, but I will have to settle for grinding down the edges as much as possible. I am excited to share the project with my cohorts and professors and to get feedback and possibly share more about what I was able to do because of my ARP. I feel that despite the lack of concrete quantitative data the project was a valuable learning experience and a huge success.

Transliteracy throughout History

http://transliteracies.english.ucsb.edu/images/flash_projects/john-morph.html

This is an excellent example of the development of Transliteracy from the BEGINNING. We think of transliteracy as from the current books to what the future will hold, but transliteracy has been going on for YEARS to some extent. Watching this flash really made me think the of past and how writing in general has developed throughout the years. There have been so many developments that really "REVOLUTIONIZED" the process of creating and reading text throughout history. I'm sure at every point that a new way was introduced, civilization thought that it couldn't advance any further! This website has shown me where we've come in the last 2000 years, it will be amazing to see where we will be EVEN 20 YEARS from now.

We're not really changing HOW we read, we're just changing WHERE we read.

iImage Reflection Questions

1. Give a one sentence description of the idea.
" No Child Left Behind emphasizes the score but forgets the student."

2. Describe the experience of the idea
I wanted the viewers to feel the despair and abandonment that is happening to students in today's public schools systems after implementing No Child Left Behind. The students scores are higher than before, but at what cost. Teachers are pressured more and more to focus on the standardized test where a portion of the school funding is decided, but are told "not to teach to the test." More time is taken away from the beginning of the year which teachers should use to get to know their students, learn their strengths and weaknesses and begin to form positive relationships that will set the tone for the rest of the year, in order to prepare for the test which is given in October, only one month after returning from summer vacation. The girl in my iImage is a representation of the felling shared by both students and teachers as more time is spent training for the test than is spent on the individual student.

3. Describe the design of the i-Image
My thoughts behind the iImage after reading the article about design, was to create the girls face as the focus, appropriately in the middle. I then wanted to surround her with the terms of NCLB. To give it a sense that she was visibly upset by the invasion, I placed a few words very close to her but not to disrupt her face and the anguish it presented. I hoped that the eye would work its way left to right around the head reading the terms that were surrounding her and getting a sense of why she was so miserable. Finally the eye is to loop back to her face where it follows the path of the tears down directly to the altered logo "No Child LEFT."

JumpCut video trial

Jumpcut was a new application for me. I found many frustrations while trying to work through it. First of all I forced myself to read the directions - Geetha would be proud! I watched the "training video" first, which seemed very simplistic and short, then I read through the entire users guide taking notes along the way. It seemed rather easy, and proved the same, the only problems I ran into were picture sizes. I had HUGE pictures saved, and at first used those files, but they took forever to upload. So I had to go back and resize those pictures. It was easy for me b/c I knew how, but I can see someone with NO experience trying this for the first time, becoming impatient and giving up. Audacity was easy to use for me as well, b/c I've been using it throughout the school year, but again, with no experience, someone might have a hard time figuring out the self narration and importing it into the program. The timing of the pictures and the effects seemed easy enough to use. The title got me a little confused as I tried to add it at the end and it automatically placed itself at the end of the presentation, so I just took it off at the last minute. I'm not happy with my final product, but again we were told it was a rough draft. I obviously would refine it and create a more seamless version if we were to follow through to a final product. It definitely helped me think about the story board and the assignment due on Monday. Now it's just about taking what I've pieced together and revising it to become something I'm happy with. AKA. Take the "crap" and make it something "good."

Tagging - Method to the Madness

I've always viewed tagging for personal use, before delicious, that is. Delicious is the first application that I can see the use of having multiple eyes viewing it for a purpose. I agree with the idea that it's "less intrusive" than e-mailing everything that is interesting to you that you think might be interesting to others. My older tags in my edublog and flickr were very representative to the moment. WYSWYG - What you see is what you get was the method to the madness last year. I was very novice in the idea of tagging, not truly understanding the idea BEHIND the purpose, but this year I'm getting a clearer idea of how it can be used effectively. When thinking about going to refine my tags, I'm having a hard time. Only the idea of a broader tag seems like the only revision. Such as the tags as "BATH" also having the tag of "VACATION" or dating it "2006." I realized that I was very specific, but didn't think of the basic labels that people may search under. For example, I have a picture of the Gin in Plymouth, England. I labeled Gin, Plymouth, and England...basic right? But not SIMPLE! SO I went back and included Barbican, and street. Trying to think about my iImage and what basic search terms while I had a sense of what I was looking for already is helping me refine my tags.

The Temporary-Final to my iImage

Iterative Design at its best

I was a little apprehensive going into the "Feedback" session of our iImage first drafts. I felt pretty confident in mine. I knew that there was strong emotion behind making, so I felt I was doing an adequate job of creating a compelling image. However, I was a bit humbled after the process. I realized, like many time you work on something so long your eyes start crossing, that I had hit a plateau that didn't continue on ahead and felt I had nowhere else to go with the image. But in fact, by hearing the input of my professors and classmates, I realized quite quickly that there was a figurative bridge to where I wanted my iImage to go, it just took some guidance to recognize the path that led to it.

Having others share their first impressions definitely helped me realize what message I was getting across to them. Some of those messages I quickly realized were NOT the ideas I wanted coming from my iImage. Taking that information and using it to further create my product resulted with a product I'm even prouder of then when I first thought I was "done." One of the articles we read taught me that we're never DONE until we're SATISFIED, but SATISFACTION can be a temporary thing as well. Going back to relook at the specific goal trying to be reached has helped me improve my work immensely! :)

iImage accomplished. Bring on the iMovie!

iImage first draft (published)

This is my first public draft of my iImage. It seems to be coming together. It's amazing after looking back on some of my previous drafts, how it can develop. I tried to consider the article on graphic design as I was going through. I matched the colors in the lips to the colors in the logo. I wanted to create depth so that the concepts upsetting the child were all around her (not just next to her). I want to invoke a feeling of sympathy first. Have the view wonder why is this child SO upset. Then I want them look around her and at least understand that there are math terms involved. Finally to look down (the same path the tears would take) and find the altered logo of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). I'm not sure which word I really want to have emphasis on. Obviously LEFT is the bolded (and changed) word from the original logo, but CHILD (to me) to be an option for focus in my crusade! I feel near the end with my iImage but not yet there. I need time away from it before I come back one more time to make sure it still invokes emotion in MYSELF. That seems to be the true test!

fireworks mini-project

iImage Idea part 1

My idea for my iImage started forming soon after October of this past school year. We have a curriculum change in the Math Department about 2 years ago, along with the first year of measuring our AYP. The first group of students did quite well, considering that they were the first group of students to come to 8th grade after attempting to complete the ENTIRE Transition Math book, whereas, previously, the students only did HALF of the content throughout the year. This year, administration was sure to remind the 8th grade staff (including myself) of the success we had the previous year and to make sure that we understood because of NCLB our scores had to continue to increase. We spent much of the first month "hammering" in ideas that we knew would appear on the MEAP, despite the fact that these students wouldn't normally be exposed to this type of content until near the end of the school year. I was beginning to feel that we were allowing the "TEST" to consume the time, discussion, and the personality of the classroom at the beginning of the year, which is typically a time used to get to know the students, their strengths, their weaknesses, etc. Instead, we were packing more "stuffing" into the pillows until the seams were stretched to their limits.

NCLB is a common grumble among teachers. The picture from afar seems to be ideal, however, to bring it into a classroom that is being funded less and less is to get a close-up of that pretty picture and realize the many flaws that exist when you study the work up close. My brain began to toy with the idea of how I can pull together my content area and the effects I SEE from NCLB. This is where my iImage began to take form.