Assignment 2 –#edtechcca2

During this weeks task I found myself really struggling as sound is not really my thing (unless you are talking about my eclectic music taste.)

I started thinking about how sound can represent visuals and images and how this could be used within Art and Design.
I selected a photograph recently taken by a student and used this as the inspiration for my first soundscape and used Beatwave on my ipad to create it. What do you think?

by Katy Hall

I then thought about how I could use this in one of my lessons. Students often struggle to describe images in words so perhaps they could describe a piece of Art with sound and this would then help describe it with words?
This is what I attempted, I thought about a specific piece of Art and thought what sounds could be used to describe it. What Art work could this soundscape represent?

Sound Scape 2.egg on Aviary.

ANSWER

For this second soundscape I used Aviary within the colleges google apps environment and found some sound effects on soundbible and soundfxnow. I used Monster Growl Sound, Crowd Boo and Heckles and Soldiers Marching. Hopefully these describe the image with sound.

Assignment 1- #edtechcca1

The assignment is...'Make two signs or symbols using a graphics tool of your choice. The first sign should be for your own department or course, the second sign should be for another educational department or course. Use only pictures, no words. Use only simple abstracted shapes, no photographs.'

To start I identified the course I would begin making a logo for- Creative Media Production.

I then used Notes Plus on my ipad to jot down some thoughts and words. I chose this app as I use it most days make notes during meetings-it syncs with my dropbox/gdocs and allows me to type and handwrite. This time wanted to try and add some visuals to map initial thoughts.

In Art/Graphics we often get students to produce initial and abstract ideas using pictograms/glyphs either with the shapes themselves (we had a few sets cut with a laser cutter) or digitally in a vector editing program so I decided to follow this process digitally. I used a range of simple shapes and windings in Adobe Illustrator.



Glyphs used



First Symbols recreating images from initial ideas



I then started trying to make a symbol for each word "Creative Media Production" and put them together as groups of 3.

My favourite so far is the bottom design as I feel it has both aspects of the subject we offer...Interactive Media and Film/TV. 

I  followed this process with the 2nd subject - photography.

So far this is what I have come up with.

I plan to develop both of these designs further looking a how these symbols could communicate their intentions with more clarity... 

To start this development I got my Btec Graphic design students to give me some feedback on my initial ideas. They were very honest and I have alot of development work to do especially on my Creative Media Production Symbol.

Based on feedback from my students I developed elements of the designs further making them clearer. I did experiment with adding more detail to the symbols but preferred the simplified versions with 3 colours.

More detailed experimentation 

Final Designs

Introduction #edtechccp1

This is my first post as part of the Educational Technology Creative Collective #edtechcc. My first task is to introduce myself and what I aim to get out of this project.

Who am I?
My name is Helen and I am Course Leader for Creative Media Production and Photography at the City of Stoke on Trent Sixth Form College. I took on this role before the summer though I originally trained as a Design Technology teacher. I now teach a wide range of Btec and Alevel subjects including Graphics, Photography and Art.

Why am I taking part in this project?
I spend my days trying to encourage creativity from my students and staff around me. I have found that now I have taken on a more managerial role my own creativity is not being encouraged to the extent it once was, (I am not finding enough time to play with tools/ideas and generally geeky things). I wanted to take part in this project to rectify this balance and set some time aside for my own learning and experimentation with technologies and ideas.
I have also tried over the last few years to reflect regularly and publicly on my own practice through this blog though this has not been terribly successful so I am hoping this project helps me form a habit of sharing and reflection.
The final reason is it is coming up to my second 'Twitterversary' and felt that recently I had stopped contributing as much to the community due to work pressure. I felt I needed to find a way to begin giving back again. Twitter has been very important to me over the last two years but I am very aware that you need to contribute and collaborate to keep learning.