The Teacher Toolbox

Every now and then I get really bored with what I can do and want to branch out in a completely different direction. Recently I’ve been doing a bit of cartooning & I’ve been using the web to learn skills.  I’ve read tutorials, asked questions on forums, I attended a workshop through adult education, read a few books, toyed with software and emailed my workshop tutor for opinions and advice.

This week I’ve discovered a cartoonist who has his own rather popular webcomic called ‘Blank-It’. One of the interesting things that Lemmo (the artist) does is to broadcast himself creating the panels of the cartoon using his Ustream TV channel.

In this broadcast Lemmo discusses his design decisions and techniques. He also answers questions from the audience and gives advice. It is so cool to be able to interact with an artist who is in the process of producing an artwork. This has to have implications to those who teach art in schools.

During this stream I asked Lemmo several ‘newbie’ questions and he gave great advice.

Firstly I asked about the software he was using to broadcast his screen and his webcam = Webcam max

Next I asked about the production of shadows in comics as I’d been using the dodge tool in Photoshop and was not particularly happy with the results. Lemmo suggested creating a new layer and then with the pencil tool set on black with the layer opacity set to 15%. This allows you can make shadows with a much harder edge. Then if when printed out the shadows are not to your liking you can head back into the Photoshop file and adjust the opacity on the whole layer which will improve all the shadows. Great advice on so many levels!

In this screen dump you can actually see Lemmo taking a little time off his work to offer me a bit of advice on mine. This was greatly appreciated and I then implemented the advice in my next cartoon. Have a look at the shadows in Byte Club.

So what is my point?

There are many people out there using the interactive web in all different fields. How are you going to use these tools to improve and extend your learning? How are you going to make your students aware of these tools in order that they extend their own learning beyond the constrictions of a narrow curriculum?

Adrian

For me looking on in here in Oz, NECC http://www.necc2008.org/ is the choir i.e. most of the teachers who attend already use Read/Write tools to connect with the world and are aware of the need for a 21st C skillset.

So here is my message to the choir… print this out, leave it laying around so people will take it home to the ‘chalkface’

You’re not a typewriter! You’re not an electronic text book! You’re not an electronic text book! You’re not a games console! You’re not a glorified piece of @$%*ing cardboard!!!

You’re the all seeing all dancing tools that enable interaction with the world!

Adrian

PS Thanks for the inspiration Brad - Language Warning on this one people!

Stressbuster IX

“Once more into the breech dear friends, or close the wall with our English dead!”

Henry’s Victory would have been much more decisive had the battalions to the rear not misheard the command.

Spore Creature Creator is really cool. I knocked this guy up in about 10 minutes then dropped him into Comic Life. I’m getting the feeling my son and I will be having heaps of fun with this trial version.

The trial version is a big download c 220 000 meg so it takes a while to come down. I tried to install it onto an old XP based laptop but it just didn’t have a fast enough graphics card. Once I installed it to my work machine all is well.

The interface for making the creatures is super easy drag and drop. You can then take your creature for a ‘test drive’ where they walk, roar, sit etc.

I’m seeing possibilities for really out there digital stories as the program has the ability to capture motion and stills.

Looking forward to having a good mess around with this software tomorrow.

Night all - Enjoy!!!

Adrian

Grab the download from the Spore Site - and so far it looks like I’ll spend the $10 to get the full version when it is released.

Today I was asked about the process I use when drawing my Stressbusters cartoons. So here is the process that I’ve developed over the last couple of months to give the strip a unique feel.

Check Out All the Stressbusters - to get an idea

1. My drawing tool of choice is my Wacom Tablet. I use it to draw all the lines as ‘Drawing with a mouse is like picking your nose with your elbow’

1a. I then use Inkscape’s calligraphy tool (freeware) set on a line thinkness of 1 and 2 to draw the characters. I find this creates line that gives the pics a nice feel.

2. I save each character, plant and background as an .eps file

3. I import each .eps file into Photoshop and colour it on a separate layer. I’ve been messing with the magic wand tool to select areas and then fill them with a gradient rather than straight colour.

4. I position all the characters and resize it all to about 400 pixels and save it as a high quality jpeg

5. Next I import the pic into Comic Life Deluxe Comic Life Deluxe $30 and add the text and speech bubbles. NB it is also available for the PC

From now on I’m still experimenting… I’m stuggling with file size verses clarity. When I export or save in Comic Life the pics turn out very blurry. So at the moment I do a screen dump of the Comic Life screen and optimise it for the web in Photoshop.

Stressbusters really are work in progress.

cheers

Adrian

PS Feel free to print them out and pin them on your notice boards.

The latest word game available on my website comes courtesy of a teacher who modified a few of my games to match the needs of her students and then emailed me her work. Thanks a heap Mary… I’m sure the world will appreciate your work!

Check out the new word game here

cheers

Adrian

PS Don’t forget to check out Firefox 3 later tonight

Firefox has been my browser of choice for several years. I love all the extensions you can add to it to make it really yours - Twitter, download managers, photo galleries, local spell check dictionary etc, etc.

Today Firefox is releasing Version 3 and they are trying to set a Guinness Book of Records for the most software downloaded in a single day. Let’s help them set a record and as a bonus get a really nice, flexible web browser at the same time.

If the link still points to Firefox 2 check here http://tinyurl.com/4e7fv5 to see when Firefox 3 will become available to you.

cheers

Adrian B

Oh, and I love the spell check function when you are blogging with children.

Stressbuster VIII

Eric was about to find out that uncontrollable laughter was not the correct response to, ‘Has anyone seen fluffy?’

I love using calculator games in the classroom as, accompanied by HEAPS
of discussion about efficient number strategies, they can be very powerful learning tools.

Conversely though… if they are used poorly calculators just help you get to the wrong answer faster

Enjoy my new calculator game.

cheers

Adrian

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After disarming his opponent early in the battle for the waterspout, Insey left himself somewhat unable to deliver the coup de grâce due to his poor swordsmanship.

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