Week 14 Blog

Below is a table of my completed work for ETAD 402

Items Required	Completed
Week 1 Blog	Finished
Week 2 Blog	Finished
Week 3 Blog	Finished
Week 4 Blog	Finished
Week 5 Blog	Finished
Week 7 Blog	Finished
Week 9 Blog	Finished
Week 10 Blog	Finished
Mid Winter Break
Week 12 Blog	Finished
Week 14 Blog	Finished
Assignment 1 Text	Finished
Assignment 2 Images	Finished
Assignment 3 Audio	Finished
Assignment 4 Sketchup	Finished
Assignment 5 Video	Finished
GIMP Training Certificate	Finished
Audacity Training Certificate	Finished
SketchUp Training Certificate	Finished
Assignment 4 Embedded Youtube Video	Finished
Assignment 5 Embedded Youtube Video	Finished
Chapter 1 Quiz	10/10
Chapter 2 Quiz	15/15
Chapter 3 Quiz	10/10
Chapter 4 Quiz	10/10
Chapter 5 Quiz	10/10
Minimum of 14 comments on Peers’ Blogs	Finished

This class has encouraged me to push myself further than I normally would.  I really enjoyed the layout of the assignments and how clear your expectations were.  I did not find the workload too heavy, however it was still challenging when learning a new program.  I feel that I did exceptionally well in this class and I really home that the Master's program is fairly similar.

I had some blogs completed late, however I feel that it was a grey area.  This has been my first correspondence class and really liked the flexibility of it.  Thanks Marc for the excellent experience.

Self Assessment

5 Major Assignments                  45/50
5 Chapter Quizzes                       20/20
Blog Entries/Peer Sharing           20/20
Participation and Interaction       10/10

Total                                           95/100

Assignment 5

As I said in my blog, I would like to turn this into a series of video tutorials for my PAA8 - 10 classes and link them to my Google Classroom along with the assignment sheets and the corresponding assessment pieces.  It would be an incredibly large undertaking but I think that it would really benefit my students.

I do think that a tool like this would be great to introduce to students for their own assignments, perhaps in safety videos or presenting alternative building materials.




The process:

I began by creating a script.  I am not much of an artist and I felt that a script would work best for me.  I typed up what I wanted to say and I typed underneath in bold what I wanted to show.  The bold parts made it incredibly easy to see what shots I needed to make.  I feel that was a system that worked best for me.

Once the script/storyboard was created, I began shooting.  I got all of the footage that I needed plus a few more takes, just in case I needed them.  Once I got home, I uploaded all of the data and picked the best shots.  I definitely saw a difference in quality on a bigger screen.

I began to import my videos and chop up what I wanted, in accordance with my storyboard.  At this time, I found a couple clips from bensound that I threw in (Thanks Marc).  I was able to edit the audio in Shotcut and matched to the audio to the video.  While I was playing with sound, I muted the clips that were poopy and brought the volume down on the power tools and the sanding.

Once my video was completed, I exported it and created a new project with overdubs.  The overdubs were completed in Audacity and took an embarrassing amount of takes.  Although it is done, I would like to rerecord(sic?) using my Bluemic Yeti someday if I do eventually create a wood project series.



Self Assessment

Cinematography              25/25
Pre-production                 13/15
Programs                         18/20
Final Product                    25/25
Overall Quality                 15/15

Total                            96/100

Week 12 Blog

Despite what the others feel about the camera angle guy, I felt he was fairly engaging and informative.  I was able to take what I learned from him to compose a multi-angle how-to video.  

For an open sourced video editing program, Shotcut is quite a beast with a lot of options.  I found that once I got the hang of the program, it was much easier to use.  I was getting very frustrated with the program however, because whenever it was doing a "heavy" task, Shotcut would crash.  I see that Germs and Lance were having similar problems.  

Although I was working with fairly large files, Shotcut would be ideal for students that are capturing video on their phones and importing it to their Google Drive.  It seems to be another tool that can be utilized by students when creating choice assignments. 

Working on this assignment has inspired me to create a series of woodworking videos that can be shown to anyone by anyone.  There has been a push for teachers to begin using "Google Classroom" in our division and I have been banging my head against a wall trying to figure out how to use it effectively.  I believe that if I can produce these videos, which would be supplemented by the assignment and its rubric, students can complete their projects wherever they are, whenever they can.

Week 10 Blog

Well, I bought in.

This is my first year teaching industrial arts. When I began, I had project plans created in SketchUp from the previous teacher. As someone who is unfamiliar with SketchUp, I felt deterred from using those plans. Instead, I created plans in AutoCAD because I was a lot more familiar with the program. After I was forced to learn SketchUp and understand the software for this class, I feel much more confident in creating projects.

Right now, my drafting program utilizes AutoCAD and Revit, two programs in the Autodesk suite, which are free under student licensing.  They are fairly complicating to learn, especially for my PAA 8 and PAA 9 students who haven't grasped the concepts of orthographic and isometric views yet.  I found that SketchUp is easier to use and even easier to create presentation drawings for students, compared to AutoCAD and Revit.  I cannot wait to implement it next semester.

Accessibility is huge as well.  As Kyleigh had said in her blog, SketchUp is cross platform.  This is beneficial to education, especially in my school division because we are "buying in" to chrome books.   They are a third of the price of laptops, the batteries last ten-fold and students sign directly into their GAFE account without storing crap directly on the hard drives.  SketchUp can be accessed from anywhere at anytime, which is beneficial for kids that want to work on projects at home.  You can't do that with AutoCAD (well, you can, but I'm not going to get into that).

Enough blabbering about that.

My project began as a painstaking endeavour; John can attest.  I found a trailer in the 3D Warehouse that matched the dimensions of the Flaman trailer.  From there, I researched the legal height of trailers in Saskatchewan without needing a permit.  I then measured from the bottom of the tire to the top of the roof and made sure that it was no more than 13' 6".  I went with a flat roof because that allowed me to maximize the internal space of my tiny home and allow the feeling of "openness" inside.  

I began to feel nostalgic because SketchUp reminded me of the Sims.  Most objects in my project are from the 3D Warehouse, however everything is modified.  The cabinets in the kitchen were the first thing to be modified.  From there, my modification grew.  I went from changing paint colours to manipulating objects.  I took away stairs from the TV cabinet and added shelving; I cut down the ladders and adjusted the colours;  I built the dresser in the bedroom from one small set of cabinets.  I feel that the background is the icing on the cake.  It provides a beautiful environment for my tiny home.  I did not create the background.  Instead, I found a house in the 3D Warehouse and deleted everything that I did not need.

With a project like this, you never feel finished.  When you understand the tools of the program, the possibilities are endless.  

Week 9 Blog

The Design Thinking Model gives students an opportunity to develop solutions to real world problems and make improvements to the tools that they have created.  It allows students to see the practicality of an object while bettering another students' educational experience.


The Model is broken into 5 components:

Empathy - Learning about the audience for whom you are designing. 

Define - Redefining and focusing your question based on your insights from the empathy stage. 

Ideate - Brainstorming and coming up with creative solutions. 

Prototype - Building a representation of one or more of your ideas to show others. 

Test - Returning to your original user group, sharing and testing your idea for feedback. 

Now that I am comfortable with SketchUp, I would like to implement Nichol's Model into my teachings, perhaps in PAA9.  I feel that scaffolding simple challenges such as the tops or the lego challenge are great stepping stones to channel student creativity.  This would eventually lead to innovative designs that would benefit others in a real world setting.

Assignment 4

Hey everyone,

After obsessing over SketchUp for the past couple weeks, I have finally completed my tiny house project.  I began the project by looking at Flaman's trailer inventory here in Prince Albert.  I found a flat deck trailer for really cheap and I "built" my tiny house on it.  I began with 4 walls and customized everything from there.  I felt that I had a better grasp of the program after exploding, modifying and regrouping pre-made objects in the 3D Warehouse.  

Once my home was complete, I found a nice background to place the home on. Although I had to remove the pre-existing house, I am incredibly satisfied with how it turned out.

I will go more in depth on my experiences and feelings about SketchUp in my blog post.

You can access my .skp file here.


Here are my scenes from YouTube:

Self Assessment

Completion                 10/10
Accuracy                     10/10
Visuals in Model          20/20
Aesthetics                   20/20
Scenes                        18/20
Overall Quality             18/20

Total                            96/100

SketchUp Certificate

Week 7 Blog

I, like many of my colleagues, found the Lynda training for Audacity significantly less overwhelming than the GIMP training.  As a musician, I have played around with GarageBand before.  I find that a lot of knowledge that I had for GarageBand can be applied to Audacity.  I feel as though adding effects to a track in Audacity may be much easier.  I suppose each tool is designed for a specific job.  GarageBand is more for music recording, whereas Audacity is more ideal for podcasts.

From looking at the Lynda tutorial, Audacity looks fairly straightforward- make a selection, delete; make a selection, add filter; place your time stamp, generate silence.  

When I was teaching grade 8, I actually had my students 

> Read a Robert Munsch book

> Record their voice in Audacity, save as mp3

> Upload audio to their Google Drive (make public)

> Get link from the audio

> Generate QR code from that link.

The idea behind it was that our Kindergarten students would be able to scan a QR code on a Robert Munsch book in their classroom and follow along with the recording as they read.

For example, here is "More Pies" by Robert Munsch as read by one of my former students.

Although I used Audacity with my students, I did not have an in depth understanding as to how to use it; especially for editing.  I know that this program can be incredibly beneficial in the classroom to diversify your teaching.

Assignment 3

Audacity Certificate

Week 5 Blog

I used old photos that I wanted used as wallpapers and posters.  I took most of the pictures with my girlfriends Nikon D3200 and my iPhone 6.  Some images I created myself, and a couple were taken by my good friend. After using GIMP this past month, I have noticed a few benefits and flaws to the software.

When I first began playing with GIMP, I noticed that it was incredibly simple to move around images on different layers without having to manually select an image on a specific layer.  This is VERY handy when making minor adjustments.  I really found that the interface was simple to use.  Whenever I was looking for a tool, I was able to hover my cursor over an icon and I would provide a summary (I really noticed this when I could not find the Clone Tool and was mistaking it for the Perspective Clone Tool).  Another benefit was the endless amount of support for the program.  I cruised around r/GIMP quite a bit and found plenty of tutorials on YouTube.

It really, really frustrates me that I am not able to create shapes with it.  Yes, I understand that it is an image manipulation program, however it's disappointing that it lacks basic shape tools that even MS Paint has.  With the interface, I wish that the Dockable Dialogs were floating.  I found it annoying when I had the workspace full screen, the windows would disappear in behind the workspace.  I worked around this by just shrinking the main window and sucking it up.  I eventually found that I can enter Single-Window Mode; a mode that contains all Dockable Dialogs on one giant window.  I believe that this is a feature that Photoshop does not have.

There are many tools that I have not used yet and I look forward to delving deeper into the program now that I actually have an image manipulation program.

Assignment 2

In each of the groups below, the photo on the left is the original image.  The photo on the right is the edited/manipulated image.

This image is an old picture of my Volkswagen Golf when I was going through my "stance" phase.  In this image, I adjusted the Brightness/Contrast to brighten up the image.  I created a text overlay for my buddy's photography company and changed it's opacity.  I also used the Clone Tool to clean up the stone chips that were in my wheel.

Once again, I chose to edit an old photo of my Golf from a meet that we had in Saskatoon.  In this image, I adjusted the Hue/Saturation to create a more vibrant image, accentuating the graffiti in the background (not necessary, I know).  I also placed a watermark on the photo to promote my friend.

I play bass guitar in a Rock and Country cover band called "The Bush Pies" alongside John Germs.  We were requested to submit band photos, however we did not have any recent ones.  I pulled up an old photo from an old shoot and decided to manipulate it.  In this image, I cropped the original photo and put a text overlay on to promote our band.  For the text, I chose a colour that best matched the building in the back and placed a light shadow on it.

I have a friend that has an old Volkswagen Caddy that wanted to see what it would be like if it was lowered.  I was able to achieve this by using the Free Select Tool.  I selected around the fenders, under the vehicle, up and around the entire image to essentially cut the picture in half.  I was then able to bring down the top half of the picture to "lower" the truck.  Once this was completed, I used the Free Select Tool again on the back window and adjusted the brightness.  To finish up the image, I added a Vignette, which darkened the corners of the photo adding a nice "Top Gear esque" feel.

I created a banner for our band Facebook page by using a bush pie iron and manipulating the image.  I used the Clone Tool to get rid of the cast text in the iron.  Once the area was completely clear, I created 3D text to sit inside the void.  The text was adjusted to add perspective and was completed by following a guide online.  From there, I changed the colour of the font and made in translucent.  To finish off the image, I used the Clone Tool again to extend the rods on the iron and added text.

My Mom and Dad went to Mexico last winter and have been wanting one of their pictures blown up into a Poster.  For this image, I began by getting rid of everyone on the beach by using the Clone Tool.  I then change the brightness of the image so that it didn't look so dull.  I completed the image by adjusting the Hue/Saturation to make it more vibrant.  I was able to print this out onto 18x24 photo paper at Staples and it is now hanging in my Mom and Dad's kitchen.

My Girlfriend is a second year teaching whom is slowly developing her teaching resources and establishing different classroom management tools.  She had recalled a tool that one of her former teachers used to use.  On evening, we created this graphic that she now uses in her classroom.  The images are clip art that were found on Google Image Search.  

We recently purchased a house and have put A LOT of work in these past few months.  There is still a significant amount of work that still needs to be done, however I used GIMP to see what the finish product may look like.  For the grass, I used the Clone Tool and Smudge Tool to spread it around to see what it would look like with fresh sod.  I used the Clone Tool to clean up the gable, get rid of the railway ties, and remove the football lights by the roof.  I used the Fuzzy Select tool to select the recently poured concrete driveway and adjusted the Hue/Saturation as well as the Brightness/Contrast to match it up with the preexisting concrete.  I will be using this edited image for future plans.

As a band, we recently decided to put some money together to have a logo put on the drummer's kick drum.  I found out very, very quickly how difficult it was to create shapes in GIMP, however I was able to get do it by using different tutorials and walkthroughs.  What I learned is, you can make circles with the Ellipse Select Tool and squares/rectangles with the Rectangle Select Tool.  I used many layers to create the images.  I began by making the pie iron first, merging the layers, then copying it to wherever I needed.  Once this was completed, I added the text.  The band ended up choosing the first image.  Although it was the most time consuming image, it was the most rewarding.

Shea took her students to the Hannigan Honey farm this past month as part of her Bee unit.  In order for parent drivers to get there, she needed to supply them with a map.  I was able to create one from a screen shot of Highway 55/Shellbrook on the Maps Application on my Mac.  From there, I edited the photo by cropping out the Grab window and using the Rectangle Select Tool to build the lines.  I then, rotated the lines, changed their colour to green and added in text for each point of reference.



Self Assessment for Assignment 2:

Visual Aesthetics                     20/20
Variety of Tools Used              19/25
Creativity                                 23/25
Posted with Information         15/15
Overall Quality                        14/15

Total: 91/100

Week 4 Blog

First off, I was completely blown away by Lynda.  That is an incredible resource that I wish I knew that I had access to sooner.  It can be very overwhelming to learn a new program.  

GIMP is magical.  I never knew that an open-source program of it's caliber existed (other than Linux and that whole cheeseball); especially one that that can compete with a $700 program such as Adobe's Photoshop.  The beautiful thing about open-source software is that there is plenty of support. I don't know about anyone else but I have stopped over at r/gimp (SFW) a few times when Lynda didn't help me.

I have some experience using Photoshop from when I was in high school.  From what I've learned then and what I have learned from Lydia, I can see that the tools and the interface is very similar.  It is, in sense, like riding a bike.  I am excited to hone my skills now that it is on my computer and develop band posters and potential renovation ideas for our home.  As for the classroom, I feel that my Practical and Applied Arts 8 and 9 students would really benefit from using this program to manipulate photos, while being taught to do so in an appropriate and safe manner.