Blog # 6: MMP Storyboard and Reflection Video

MMP Storyboard

For my Multimedia Project, I will be reviewing different apps to use in a high school math classroom.  Below is the storyboard outlining my plans for the blog I will be creating to display my findings.  It is a rough idea of what I think my blog will look like.  Some of the aspects of design I will use when creating my blog focus on text, color, and the use of whitespace.  I will mix in images along with the text to give viewers a visual representation of what the app looks like (note: I did not include pictures below because I have yet to finalize the 10 apps I am going to review).  I will also pick appropriate fonts that are easy to read and I will keep the size of the font in mind, making the headlines bigger and bolder than the main text.  I plan to separate my review as indicated below to make it easy to navigate the information: name of app, price, purpose, summary of its capabilities, positive aspects, and negative aspects.  I will make sure my images are of good resolution and will use my MDMC still media tool, FotoFlexer, to help edit them.

 

  

Concept Video

Below you will find the video I created of a slideshow of different pictures from my vacation in 2010.  My fiance and I went to Pittsburgh for my family reunion, followed by a couple days in Ocean City, M.D., then a couple days in Baltimore, and ended our trip visiting my sister and some friends in Washington D.C..  Because the video could only be 60 seconds (61 after I uploaded it to YouTube), it goes through pretty quickly.  I kept the transitions very basic, except for some more defining ones between the different cities we visited.  I created it using iMovie and used the template for photo album but put in my own title page, credit page, and transitions.  I hope you enjoy!  I had trouble posting the video here, so please use the link below.

Vacation 2010

Blog #5: Mini Art School 3

Task #1: Cropping

Here are six images, each of which I cropped two times, at least one of which changed the focus of the picture.

Forrest Fire:

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

The first image was cropped to change the shape and focus on the animals.  The fire almost looks like it could be the sun rising or setting.  The second cropping focuses just on the top of the trees and the fire coming from behind them.



Island Shot:

 

 

 

 

 

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

In this first cropping, the image was cropped to zoom in on the island.  In the second cropping, the island was taken out of the picture and the focus was on the interesting cloud arrangement.



Japanese Garden

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

The first picture was cropped to focus on the tree, the bridge being simply in the background.  In the second cropping, the bridge was prominent but behind the bushes.



Berries in Branches:

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

The first picture was cropped to zoom in on the berries and square out the dimensions.  The second photo was cropped to eliminate that focus in the photo.



Ocean Life:

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

 The first image was cropped to focus on the one bigger fish.  The second image was cropped to change it to a vertical photo, still focusing on the one fish.



Winter Wonderland:

Original Photo

Cropping #1

Cropping #2

This photo was cropped to first focus on the smaller tree in the middle of the original photo.  Then, the focus for the second cropping became the branches in the tree to the right.

Task #2: Typographic Conveyance 

Here are six typographic conveyances that I came up with.  I used four from the book and came up with two of my own.

I made two representations for brick.  I used the font Impact for both representations because it seemed like a strong font.  The first representation was made using PowerPoint with a pattern lettering and the second was made using FotoFlexer with a brick background.

I made the rest of the representations using PowerPoint.  I concentrated on using fonts, colors, and patterns that portrayed the feeling of the word itself.

Task #3: Coloring

For this task, I made three representations based on the same photo.  I tried to incorporate some of the same colors for the backgrounds and fonts.  The colors in the third one are slightly off, since changing the colors of the background distorted the way the image was viewed.

Blog Entry #4: Mini Art School 2

For the Mini Art School assignment #2, I decided to work on these two challenges:

Task 4 #1

I chose to compare the websites of the competing companies Target and Wal-Mart.  The grid structures of their websites are very similar.  Both websites have what looks like approximately the first quarter of the width of the page dedicated to a featured column.  For Target, this column contains the daily sales and for Wal-Mart, it is used for navigational purposes so that the viewers can click on which department they want to go see.  It also contains the current deals below the navigation tool.  Both companies also have navigational and search features horizontally along the top of their sites. 

Besides for the top row and left column of the website, both companies use the remaining space for the main ads.  Target’s main space is constantly changing.  They have five different advertisements for the different departments within the store.  Sometimes the ad is up for about 3 seconds, while other ads are up for about 10 seconds at a time.  Wal-Mart on the other hand, chose to highlight one department, babies right now, as their feature main advertisement on the main page.  Both sites below this main visual have other, much smaller.

Other design features that stand out to me about these two websites are Target’s use of color.  The navigation tools along the top are in bright red, Target’s signature color.  Some of their main alternating feature ads are bright and bold, while others are smaller and contain trapped white space.  Wal-Mart, on the other hand, uses a more subtle blue color.  Their main ad is what really pops on the page but there is so much going on in the ad that it seems very cluttered.  There is not one focal point.

Here are the two websites if you’d like to take a look:

http://www.target.com/

http://www.walmart.com/

Task 1

 Here are twelve different fonts each with two words whose meaning is amplified with the font, and two words that seem to be contradicted by the choice of font.

Blog #3: Mini Art School

Task 1: Required Design Critique

Hawaii Honeymoon

As you may know, I am getting married in a little over five months, and therefore, I have many wedding magazines.  While reading about possible honeymoon locations, I can across this article/ad for a Hawaii honeymoon.  I found this page aesthetically pleasing and decided to break down the design elements I read about in the articles and in White Space Is Not Your Enemy.  

1.     Layout – The layout of this page reminded me of the “works every time layout” (Golombisky & Hagen, 2010, p. 21-31) but with an extra picture.  The visual is at the top of page, where the reader first looks.  This is followed by a headline, text with columns, and then a tag at the end.

2.    Visuals – The visuals on this page are beautiful, very enticing, and directly related to the purpose of the article/ad.  The beautiful beaches and gorgeous waterfalls make me want to book my honeymoon right away (if only my fiancé wasn’t afraid of getting on a plane).

3.    Audience – The audience here is engaged couples looking to plan a honeymoon get-away.  This ad attracts its audience particularly through the smaller picture, a romantic visual of a couple at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort and Spa enjoying themselves in paradise.

4.    Headline – The location of the headline right below the picture and above the text is good; however, the overlap of the headline and the visual makes reading the headline a little difficult, especially since the font is white and the background is at times light.

5.    Fonts – The fonts were well chosen for this page.  The page designer stuck to one or two normal fonts that are easy to read.  The size of the text is good as well.  The headline is the biggest size and the other important features of the article are slightly bigger than the average text, drawing the reader’s eyes to the important features.

6.    Columns – The text on this page is split into two columns, which makes it not seem overwhelming for the person reading it.  I must admit, I will often skip over a page with a lot of text when flipping through a magazine, but a page layout like this makes it much more inviting.

7.    Colors – This page is not just plain black and white; it has inviting colors without being hard to look at.  The designer’s choice of introducing the color orange may be used to evoke happiness and adventure from the couple as mentioned in Graphic Design Basics.

8.    White (Negative) Space – This page has the right amount of white space, not too much that the page looks empty, but just enough so that the page is not cramped and is easy to read.

9.    Tags – At the bottom of the article is a tag for The Knot, the company that made the magazine, along with their website URL where the reader can obtain more information about honeymooning to Hawaii.

10.  Busy Backgrounds – To fill some of the white space, the designer of the page used vertical lines.  I do not think this was needed, although I do not think it takes away from the page either.

Task 2: Before/After

I am an advisor for the National Honor Society at my school.  In the fall, the organization collected school supplies for lower income districts.  One of the officers created the before flyer, and I redesigned it.

Before

After

When redesigning this flyer, I tried to use the techniques I read about it White Space Is Not Your Enemy.  I used a layout based on the works-every-time layout.  I placed the picture at the top to draw attention to the flyer followed by a big headline.  I tried to limit the text and place it in columns so that it is not overwhelming the space.  In addition, I included more white space and less colors for the text, as to not take away from the colors in the picture.

Task 3: Toy Store Ad

This was by far the hardest task for me to complete.  Here are the two 90's Toy Sale ads that I came up with.

Highly Structured Layout

Loosely Assembled Ad

I modeled these advertisements off of the examples in Design Basics Index.  Along with one add being more structured than the other, I tried to incorporate other design elements into the ads.  I put borders around the visuals and stuck to text in only two fonts and colors, one for the border and tag and another for the rest of the text.  White space was used to separate the different elements in the ad.

Blog #2: Joining Communities

For my MMP project, I chose to join the following three communities:

·            iPad

http://www.thinkfinity.org/groups/ipad

I joined the Thinkfinity community iPad.  Since all of my students have iPads, I have been looking for creative ways and interesting apps to use in class.  When checking out this community, I found discussions that were specifically related to great apps to download, discussions on general ways to use the iPad in class, and discussions on subject specific ideas with the iPad. 

·            Project Based Learning Group

http://www.thinkfinity.org/groups/project-based-learning-group

I joined another Thinkfinity community called Project Based Learning Group.  Along with establishing a classroom with a twenty-first century learning environment, I also want to create more authentic assessments and discovery learning activities for my classes.  Within this community, there are discussions posted by subject.  I am very interested in looking for some ideas about project based learning in math classes and bouncing ideas that I come up with off of other members in the group.

·            Edmodo – Math
http://www.edmodo.com/home#/community/math

The last group I joined was through Edmodo, a content-based group, Math.  In this community, other math teachers have posted questions and ideas about good mathematical problems/applications to use, good apps or other technology questions/ideas, and games.  I am interested in collaborating with other math teachers about different ways to create interesting learning experiences in my Algebra II and Precalculus classes.