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MOMA in just a couple of minutes...

A photo of every painting on display from the painting galleries in the MoMA on April 10, 2010. Pretty cool!

What is painting? Do you sense how all the parts of a good picture are involved with each other…Not just placed side by side? Art is a creation for the eye and can only be hinted at with words. -John Baldessari

Digital Storytelling

Storytelling is an ancient art. When I think of stories, I think of tales - talking, gesturing, and expression between people. The first stories were memorized and then passed on…probably changed a bit here and there depending on the teller. All stories contain some sort of plot, character, and narrative point of view. We use stories to convey events using words, images and sounds, and the best storytellers are those who use improvisation and embellishment. These are the characteristics that add excitement, and that “on the edge of your seat” quality. Storytelling is universal. Cultures all around the world use stories to entertain, preserve, and teach values.

The vehicle for expression of a story evolves as time progresses, but the basic elements remain. Digital stories, for example, are used in relation to and with the help of a computer. In some ways, their digital nature makes them more easily and more widely shared with others. Televised and computerized media have really taken over…....

Digital storytelling is certainly a modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Is it better? I don’t know. I think it just provides a different way. Images, music, voice-over, and sound effects are used to express thoughts and share information instead of relying solely on memory and improvisation. From sharing personal narratives to recounting historical events, digital stories do provide the means to tell a story in a new and exciting way.

I used imovie to share a condensed version of my life to show my students at the beginning of a new year. I think it is important for students to learn information about their teachers. I remember how curious I was about the lives of my teachers when I was in school. I tried to share at least a couple moments from several important points in my life. I believe that opening up my life with students will help them to get to know me better, and also hopefully make them more comfortable to share information about themselves with me. Accessibility, openness, and honesty are important traits to me, and ones that I will aim to keep at the forefront of my teaching.

As for imovie, specifically, I actually think it is a good program. I had some trouble in the beginning with effects, transitions, titles, and timing. Yes, a lot of issues in the beginning! But after deciding to start again and reinsert all of my clips, I had very little trouble. I think there is a learning curve for imovie, but after some frustration I began to figure out some tricks and short-cuts. As with any new thing, the more you practice, the more you figure out little things here and there . That said, my imovie is not showy, but I think it does of good job of showing snapshots of my life. Overall, working with imovie was a positive experience and one more application that I now better understand and will possibly use again in a different setting.

As a final thought, I think that imovie could be a wonderful tool for preserving family histories. I got all of the photos that I used for my imovie from the scrapbooks that my mom has diligently put together. She complied these books for both my brother and me from birth to college (6 albums each). As a family, we have very little information about past generations. I think the albums my mom has constructed will be gems for my own children and grandchildren. But, what if older generations worked with younger generations to preserve their memories and stories for future generations. I remember some stories from my grandmother, but not nearly enough to be able to give justice to her life and pass on her stories. How interesting it would be to use imovie to preserve the stories of the past. Further, as students are gaining knowledge of stories from older generations, they could also use their technological knowledge to teach older generations about digital storytelling - a winning situation for all.

Inspiration Creation

I had a lot of fun making this diagram in Inspiration 8. I had never used this software before, and found it very user-friendly. This particular diagram shows the elements of art (line, shape, form, space, color, value, texture). I can see using this program when brainstorming a topic with students. This would allow an organized product to emerge from an seemingly disorganized classroom brainstorming session. Really, Inspiration would be good for anything that involves planning and organization. Specifically, I can see this being a good teacher tool when planning lessons.


I'm including a helpful link on 50 Uses for Inspiration and Kidspiration Software in the classroom.

The Elements of Art

A cool video explaining the elements of art and showing how they relate and build upon each other...