Pedagogy Hyperdrive

Self Directed Learning.

2011-12-10T08:44:00.001+11:00

Last week I made a small PD video for the other staff. It was a pd on how to create an organisational system for e-mail. I used screen flow to do this. I learnt a lot about the application and have decided to attempt to create more teaching aids this way.
Total time spent learning and making 4 hours.

Online PD

2011-09-19T10:11:00.000+10:00

Thursday, 15th September.

Undertook and successfully completed the online courses in Sexual Harassment & Bullying.

12 hours

Infrastructure for VU

2011-03-28T08:46:00.000+11:00

Spent several hours today; organising class lists and e-mail lists for my VU classes, in an effort to better stay on top of my classes.

Victoria University's e-mail systems is entirely Microsoft server based and over the years I've shied away from using it, but after several hours of perseverance on Sunday, I now have two nicely organised lists the I can e-mail folks directly with.

Four hours in total.

Uploaded with Skitch!

Symposium

2011-03-21T02:32:00.000+11:00

Attended a symposium on Saturday, from 1:00pm, to 7:00pm.

This was run by R.M.I.T, Melbourne University, & Monash University. It was an investigation into digital light.

Some of the speakers, focused on technology, others, history, and philosophy. Two of the speakers were big hitters in contemporary writing on photography theory and history.

This was highlight of the symposium for me. Geffrey Batchen was one, and is a great orator and his lecture was interesting and uncovered some interesting facts about Henry Fox Talbot, and the inventor of the computer Babbage.

Ultimately the thing I took away for the symposium was that the way western culture treats, reads & consumes photography has not been affected by digital technologies or digital light.

Gallery Crawl

2011-02-22T10:52:00.001+11:00

Spent the day looking at the following exhibitions:-

Stormy Weather, Contemporary Landscape Photography, at the Ian Potter Centre
Endless Present by Robert Rooney, at the NGVi
The Raft, by Bill Viola at ACMI
Unnerved The New Zealand Project, at NGVi

Total 6 Hours.

Forward Planning

2010-12-07T10:23:00.001+11:00

Spent 3 days in a off campus PD session with forward planning as the emphasis. [24 hours]

VU Week 6

2010-09-07T08:29:00.000+10:00

Week 6, [last week] saw the beginning on oral presentations. Only a handful presented, but they were well researched nonetheless. I talked about, resizing images, and using flickr to share images, both globally and selectively. Very pleased with the way this class is going, some of the blogs have very interesting work on them. I think next semester there I should try and incorporate more photo-strolls, perhaps with different locations, Organ Pipes National Park comes to mind.

PIC on the other hand is fairly quiet, the calm before the storm, I suspect so next term will be frantic, no doubt.

PHD stuff has stalled, but with my new iPhone I'm getting right into geo-tagging, it is amazing how accurate it is.

Doug Holloway's books are proving very inspirational, I'm on his 3rd one and it is amazing how I do so much of what he talks about, personally, but I owner how I can incorporate it into the curriculum here?

Picassa

2010-08-29T17:19:00.000+10:00

During class this week, as I watched some students use their own net-books, and notebooks, it occurred to me that using some other software than Adobe's bridge might make the student's ability to learn the key concepts simpler. The software that came to mind is free, cross platform and open source, it is Picassa, made by google.

So I spent an hour or so, playing around with it, on my Mac at home. I think it could work, however it is too late this semester to introduce it to the class, but perhaps next class? So after an hour or so playing with it, and learning a little about how it works, it seems to stack up against the big players, so semester 1 2011, if I get the work at VU, I will use it.

PD Session Heide Gallery 2010.08.10

2010-08-17T12:00:00.000+10:00

These are my notes straight from evernote.

Natalie King

The curator, begins. Talks about the location of the space on relation to the exhibition. Jerrems, died of a rare liver disease. Reiterates the 70's explosion of photography. There is a Talbot image in the show. Very focused on early in her career. Photographer's gallery started by Paul Cox. Interesting background on. How the curator found the images. Might need to revisit how I keep my notes?

Was it Athol Schmidt or John Cato who set up the program at VCA?

She [Carol Jerrems] uses the alphabet assignment and they have exhibited the work. Countdown's first colour broadcast of horror movie by skyhooks. Mirrors used as pictorial and metaphorical device in her work see the book. Work is often intimate and personal interested in sub-cultures. Shot in colour "briefly". Very involved in the women's movement and other sub cultures. Produced a book, 1974 Book About Women. Very particular about sequencing of this book. Uses Flowery and modernist language to talk about the work. One body of commissioned work for Monash university. Best body of work by far is the hospital documenting her I'll health. Use diaries to document her decline, using collage and written diaries. William Yang Documented early gay culture in Sydney. Has produced a book on Patrick White. Dr. Anne MarshHas written a book looking at photography since the 80's. Proto-Modernist, Lewis Carrol. Physco-Social context of the 70's. Casual Aesthetic as opposed to a fine art aesthetic. Democratic medium for an art form.

Sub-cultures, mentioned again. Camera as mirror, camera a surveillance tool. Important because of subject matter and her approach. "Life death paradox of (analogue) photography."I'm guessing that Anne means that digital has an inherent plasticity about them that by it's nature is understood to have these attributes, of plasticity?

Allows her work to be taken subjectively, contrary to objectivity of modernism/high modernism. What about sub-cultures that document themselves? And only shared amongst themselves. CCP has a survey, about photography in public places. Called Photography is not a crime. Public space as place to make images is a highly contested. Dianne Arbus is cited as a major influence on her work as well as Paul Cox. 19 attendees, 5 men. Anne equated digital photography with scanning, as if it was the only way to make digital images?

What does an idea like visual anthropology mean in the 21st century?

[Total 4 hours]

Post Sydney Reflections

2010-08-17T10:26:00.000+10:00

As I said yesterday in my iPhone entires, we were in Sydney, checking out some some art.

Here are my notes from the day, written in evernote, and copied and pasted here, as is, with minor corrections for grammar and spelling.

Steiglitz Exhibition

Definitely a different look between Silver Gelatin & Platinum prints.

Sometime after 1919 switched to Silver Gelatin. Why?

Is this a camera issue as the smaller earlier works are also printed on Silver Gelatin.

They even have a direct comparison between the 2 processes, using the 'Hand of Man' image.

Why was Steiglitz on a boat when he made the steerage picture? "The melding of humanist and formalist values"

Even in the later years his work appears over printed?

Several mentions of "place" where is mine, do I have one, certainly Melbourne itself is, home, but is it my place? Poplars for example, made at Lake George, one of 2 main places Stieglitz claimed as place.

'Barn, Lake George' has some luminosity. 'Some'.

Love the tonality of 'Dancing Trees' one of the few palladium prints that have any silvery richness.

'Window, wood, glass, snow' symbolism, metaphor for Steiglitz at the time.

A lot of platinum/palladium prints, are they simply a different look compared to silver gelatin?

Abstraction Show Downstairs

Has Steichen and Coburn prints.

Whistler gets a big mention but why not Turner?

People are only capable of seeing what they have learnt to see, photography has both accelerated and thwarted this.

Visual puzzles with no real keys. Some of the colours in the, paintings are outright fluorescent.

Is Duchamp's wheel treated with kid gloves like all other art works, it was re-made in 1964, so it's hardly an original, how many exist I wonder?

Trope, in particular a national trope, does Australia have one and if so what is it?

Many prints seem over printed? Georgia Engelhard, cover image from the classic Sarkowski book is very low in contrast and the print seems over printed as well.

Total 8 hours.

What a day!

2010-08-17T01:42:00.000+10:00

Well what a day. Saw some great art, and had a very relaxing day all round. Took comprehensive notes, and will copy and paste once we get home. Made a few pictures, but, all in all just soaked up the art. it was fun and some team building did occur. It would be great to do something similar at some point, in the not too distant future, let's hope the others feel the same!

Sydney PD

2010-08-16T19:46:00.000+10:00

So we, are in Sydney for a PD session. All going smoothly so far. the plan at this point is to hit the AGNSW, then, Museum of Sydney. The weather is awesome, the traffic is hell.

This will be a first as I blog on the move all day from my new iPhone.

Garageband

2010-07-25T21:36:00.000+10:00

Spent 2 hours playing/learning Garageband today. It was fun and fairly easy. [2 hours self directed learning] I decided to add a soundtrack to a slideshow I made using Aperture, getting more and more comfortable with this software.

EOTO 2010

2010-07-11T09:48:00.000+10:00

Just returned from 7 days of teaching the Edge of the Outback program for 2010. 7 days of Digital, with lot's of moving, modifying and changing of teaching along the way. I also learned how to print on the Epson 9880, a wide format printer capable of printing up to 44 inches wide, I even used a couple of my images to print. [7 eight hour days in total]

This year we had mini reviews, which went well. I team taught with Darren Davidson, he was indispensable, as we had a student who has suffered several bad accidents in his life and has some difficulty learning. All in all a great experience I felt, I plan on doing it next year again too.

Aperture 3

2010-06-21T15:50:00.000+10:00

I recently purchased a training manual for Aperture 3, I had my second go at the lessons and after 2 hours I feel I know the soft3ware even better, and funnily enough the lessons alleviated, some of the concerns I had regarding organisation metadata and keywords, all up a real powerful tool.

Two hours today and two hours last week equals a total of four hours in total so far. In the end I hope to get my Apple certification for this software.

PhD

2010-06-17T13:16:00.000+10:00

I am about to apply for a PhD, at Victoria University. I have been reading, 'The Craft of Research' in the lead up, it is a very informative book and makes the whole task seem a lot easier.

Adobe CS5 Seminar

2010-05-07T12:40:00.001+10:00

Thursday the 6th of May saw me at The Sofitel at 25 Collins St. in the City. I spent the dat attendeing the Adobe CS5 software launch. It was an al day seminar, and I have written about it on my main blog.

The thing I most took away from this was that the once clearly delineated jobs of the pre digital world are no longer in place. Photographers can be video-graphers, graphic designers, or any other type of creative, and the same can be said of, Graphic designers, Web Designers, Film makers and so on. Where does that leave photography as a skill and craft taught over an extended period such as a Diploma or Degree Program? I have no answer yet, other than core principles such as, 'seeing', light and colour and composition need to continue to form the back bone of these course. We are indeed living in exciting times. Now if I can just get my computer to work fast enough and never fail me, just like my own real memory.

Aperture Seminar.

2010-05-02T11:51:00.001+10:00

Yesterday I attended a seminar on Aperture. This an Apple's contribution to the image editing market. It is a hybrid image editor and image organising application.

I had some very specific questions for the presenter regarding Colour Management and file management. While he did not answer them thoroughly they gave me some clues as to where to look and inspired ,me to pick it up again for organising and editing photos.

The Biggest drawback to this software is that it is apple only and is one of the reasons I've not thrown myself into it's application and use. Now I think we will offer it as a 2nd year workshop as part of a range of packages to choose from and work with.

Adobe Bridge

2010-03-27T09:50:00.000+11:00

This year, we decided to use Bridge at PIC and as a consequence, I am using it at VU as well. It is turing out to be a fine piece of software, and has only 1 drawback compared to iView Media Pro. The location of the files you work with. In iView Media Pro, I was able to see thumbnails of the images regardless off the location of the disks, with Bridge; the disk needs to be attached directly to the computer running Bridge, in theory I suspect it will run over a network but have yet to try that.

It is now hard to tell when I am learning the software and when I am using it, as I have a new camera. So i'd say I have clocked up another 6 or more hours of PD on the software.

Teaching Load

2010-03-07T14:14:00.001+11:00

Victoria University

This year I have begun teaching at Victoria University; again. I'm teaching several classes in what has turned out to be a popular subject, 'Digital Fine Art Photography' AFC3003. Here is the unit description from the course handbook:-

This studio-laboratory based unit of study will explore the principles and practice of digital fine art photography and equip students with the knowledge to develop, implement and complete a digital fine art photography project in the context of contemporary art practice. Working with a variety of cameras including the digital SLR, students will learn about aperture, shutter speed, ISO settings, white balances and a range of lighting techniques. Image processing techniques using Photoshop and other organisational and editing tools will encompass editing workflows, file formats, image resolutions, colour profiles and creative image editing. The photography project will draw upon art research practice and related writing students have completed as part of their previous visual art studies, with a view to producing a cohesive folio of their finished artwork for public presentation such as a website, online exhibition, and/or artist's book. Research and investigation exploring the meaning and rationale of fine art photography in the 21st century will be a core component of the unit.

I am pleased so far with classes, I used the 1 hour documentary entitled the genius of photography, and the episode entitled 'Documents for Artists', which looked at Photography between the wars in mainly Europe, with a short reference to the FSA and the United States of America, as a starting point for all the groups I teach, the reception so far seems good. The other tasks I have set don't seem to be going so well, particularly the writing component, i.e. the blogs I have asked the students to set up and write. So far I calculate that roughly 1/3 have done this. I've also requested they join flickr and 'participate' that is going better, but again nobody seems to want to to 'talk'? Not sure how to address this. The teaching load at VU will I feel contribute heavily to my PD this year as it is over 6 hours, and that is not counting the 18 hours I've already done as preparation of the course unit.

PIC

Work at PIC is going well. Camera class this year is scheduled for the student's 'prac' day. This means I can follow through each week and keep the students up to speed very easily. Well that is the idea anyway. I have minimal contact with the 2nd years this year, I feel this is a good thing. I have the same group in First Year for digital as well as camera and two other groups for digital 'prac', so we'll see how this all pans out.

New Software

2010-02-21T21:40:00.000+11:00

Spent 6 hours today learning how to use iMovie. I made a short movie, based upon a leaning outcome the students undertake, it is called sound and image. The students put together a short piece, based on some music of their choice, that has no lyrics.

The idea is to take associations of the music and add imagery that may enhance or interpret the music.

As I have often quoted, Walter Pater;

"...all art aspires to the condition of music."

PD Plans for 2010

2010-02-17T09:29:00.000+11:00

CCP is running its usual program of workshops by Les Walkling for 2010. I think I will, attend at least one. Either, the digital fine print, or the digital negative.

VTAC

2010-02-12T08:31:00.001+11:00

The annual publishing meeting was yesterday, there's 4 hours of my life I'll never get back. I even corrected Suzanne, and was right. One small triumph for me.

Gearing Up for 2010

2010-01-31T09:28:00.000+11:00

The year as usual has gotten off to a steady start, during the beak I read some material I'd been planing on reading, but still not enough. I have also created a diigo account, with groups for, both my VU classes and PIC, I also contribute to Diigo in education.. [Diigo actually offer a special service for educators that I'd forgotten about, but when I received the e-mail to activate the account I hopped to it.] Now I am able to send links to these groups and the students I teach will be able to access these links and contribute to them.

Updates to Diigo in Education are e-mailed to me, and this morning in particular, I learned a little about twitter and have finally managed to hook into a vast amount of information about technology and education. The widget on the right has a live update as people post tweets with the hash tag #EduTech. This may now mean I can connect with more Educators around the world who are passionate about Education and Technology.

Some of the books I picked up over the holidays, are:-

The Reconfigured Eye, by William J Mitchell
Source Nature's Healing Role in art and Writing, by Janine Burke
I Blame Duchamp, by Edmund Capon

How these will impact on my teaching is yet to be seen.

Wind Down Reflections

2009-12-03T17:24:00.001+11:00

As the year slowly winds down; I am considering my PD priorities again for the summer holidays.

Alternatives to Photoshop will form a part of that research, other areas will be asset management, as it appears that Microsoft has stopped making or supporting Expression Media.

So; my list of things to explore will include the following:-

Adobe Bridge
Apple's Aperture
Adobe's Light-room V2
Cumulus, by Canto.

I am hoping to have an exhibition again soon, either in 2010 or 2011, I have enough negs for a show of black and white prints and colour prints. Maps is the title of the b&w work, and A Sketchbook 2007 onwards is the title of the colour body, both are on flickr.

Now that Blurb.com, has improved their service to include, Indesign templates and therefore colour management, I plan on including small books or catalogues of these shows as well.

At this point, I am sitting at 307 hours of PD this year.

More self Training

2009-11-24T16:10:00.000+11:00

Brushing up on marking sheets from this year ready for next year, I have managed to learn a few more things about Apple's spreadsheet application, numbers. It combined with Bento are more than meeting my needs for tracking student's progress, assessments and assignments.

External Clients

2009-10-05T15:57:00.000+11:00

I was recently handed a job, whereby somebody wanted to learn 'Web Design', after making contact, and a 3 hour session, it was obvious this person was not going to achieve their intended goal, ie know enough about web design and Dreamweaver to be comfortable in job application situation, immediately.

I left them with some homework to do and organised to return a few days later.

Upon my return, I had personally revisited Dreamweaver to familiarise myself with its new version and how it handled CSS. The client had made some progress on their own project, but was reluctant to admit it was an achievement.

Prior to my second visit, I had developed 2 exercises to help the person try and understand the relationship between HTML & CSS. The client limped through the first, but threw the towel in before I could even begin the second.

So, five hours of teaching in an external environment, and several hours of 'prep' had helped me understand Dreamweaver better, not sure about the client.

I'll just call it 5 hours of PD.

New Publication

2009-09-08T11:24:00.000+10:00

This, looks like an interesting publication, Research Highlights in Technology and Teacher Education 2009. What I like the most, is that it is available as an electronic download at almost 1/2 the price of the softcover hardcopy.

Some other links worth noting; a free pdf reader site that lists fee and or open source PDF readers. I've been looking a long time now for an open source page layout application, with the strenght and flexibility of Indesign, and I think, I've found it, it's called, Scribus.app, it is free cross platform and open source. All the things I've wanted to have in my desktop application. It will of course take some time to put it through it's paces, but at first glance it looks like it will fulfill my humble needs.

EXHIBITING YOUR WORK workshop with Les Walkling

2009-08-31T13:17:00.000+10:00

Duration: 3 hours
Location: Lab-X St.Kilda.
Date: 26/08/2009

Prosiac V Poetic communication. No schism between own work and 'client' now for digital natives. Helen Ennis, why are 'we' not in her recent book. Cultural discussion and context of Helen Ennis at odds with AIPP etc. Revist old colour negs of Melbourne and make a series. Title? That alludes to time? What makes your work Art?What are the differences between commercial art and the plastic and applied arts. The line in the sand is allegedly drawn around 1970 and the start of POMO.Victor Burgin 'Thinking Photography'. Art photography is about schoarly 'ideas'.

Content Context The Art Industry driving the needs of itself. Corporate, only, interested money. Right down to the sales. 5 Types of Galleries

National ie, NGV2.
Publicly funded ie CCP
Commercial

Tolarno
Broader Demograhic ie mid-career artists.
Artist run collectives etc. Span, etc.

Why do you exhibit? therfere to whom and how?Material Thinking Paul Carter. 'Thinking Through Practice, Art as Research in the Academy' Pub, RMIT? Put yourself in your viewers shoes? Galleries as thinking spaces. Cultural conversations, is part of experience. Schism is closing between commercial & art. Pricing based on reputation and edition can charge per print/edition, up to the $2500.

NGVI show, about lenses. Find your audience. Decorative work sold under an extra name. Such as interior decorators e.g.

Gallery Contract?

How to prove your own pedigree? Can you see the gallery's pedigree. Always examine the galleries contract, beware if none exist. Hire spaces for example. 'The Artist & The Law' Shane Simpson 2nd Edition. All in the eyes of beholder.

CONTENT & CONTEXT for art.

Use NGV's labelling system.

Stills Gallery, Sydney.

Ricky Manyard.

Art Almanac start collecting. What is my content, give a little away at the gallery space. Who can add value to our work, wrtiers publishers etc. David Oliver commercial photographer. Sydney based. Moved by the Henson show in Sydney refurbished gallery then showed personal work on the walls.

Cost of materials plus 10% starting point.

Look closely at ALL aspects of the contract. How do you approach agallery?Pre-visualize the space, will your work be at home? Know your collector/curator. Understand the organisation get all info you can on it. Ask "do you view portfolios"? If there are they sholud be readily available on their website for example, if not just ask. "Can I make an appointment"? What to take? Come as you are, the real you. Present your work as preciously as you can afford, professionally. In my case use a solander box. Make you work stand out, and own it, profesionally.Re-copy the work, in-situ, the big work.

Proposals should also stand out. Tailor the proposal to each gallery. CV should reflect this. Cultural position? What is mine? Attached to a larger cultural context. 'Singular Images' by Sophie Howarth. Re-jig CV for exhibition propasals, put cultural position first. Artist's statement forms part of folio interview. Get one written for you if you can. Can I write my own? Find some one who can? Photofile, subcribe to some journals, and find the writer you connect with the most. Approach them what ever way you can. Keep trying don't give up, choose the writer that sits with you most comfortably.

What are your means of production where are your prints. Follow up on your initial contact. Displacement and culture. Collaborators find they may be able to help you find your own context/content. Leave your statement behind, at the gallery. Practice on others, with your statement etc. Find someone who is on your level, to write about your work. Get your work inserted in the broader cultural discussion.How to Hang a show?Research the space, make a scaled model and set up the show, or use 3d software. Be site specific in your application. Get into the details, includingthe lighting. Scale. Lighting, quality.

Cool colors recede, warm colours come forward. Study some shows at NGV, including the lighting. Spot or spread, colour all help to bring prints alive. Light grey helps images glow. Consider painting the walls a better colour ie grey light grey. Online Journals exist. E-mail LW for names. Collectors, Art collector. Magazine find the collectors that are aligned with your work and ideas.

Edge Of The Outback Roundup

2009-08-09T19:35:00.000+10:00

Finished a comprehensive write up on my experience on The Edge of The Outback 2009 program, it is a static page on my website.

I have uploaded most of the pictures from the trip to facebook, where I am slowly connecting with the handful of students from the trip who use it. I broke the images into to two groups, the people and the land.

Edge of The Outback

2009-08-03T11:15:00.000+10:00

I have just returned from a 3 week sabbatical.

I taught 22 North American Students some aspects of digital photography, after a brief introduction, to photography in general. We then spent time in several National Parks in Northern Victoria and South Western N.S.W. The program ran for 3 weeks, and I was often spending upwards of 12 hours a day in the filed with students and 10 hours a day in the labs helping them finish their folios.

I plan on writing a lengthy reflection and posting it to my website, in the coming days.

Teaching On the Edge

2009-07-16T17:58:00.005+10:00

So; here I am teaching on another at a TAFE 500 kilometers away Mildura's SuniTAFE; dealing with all kinds of issues, it's been refreshing and full on I've hardly had time to scratch myself.

The IT department on the campus of SuniTafe here ~~seem to be~~ are ~~cock-heads~~ uncooperative, suffer from tunnel vision and, only interested in running IT the way they see fit. as a consequence, I can barely access anything I need to access, not even mail!

1st Yr Mid Year Folio

2009-06-26T08:19:00.001+10:00

Yesterday saw the end of the reviews for the 1st years. Twelve students per day, over 2 days went really well. This year I've feel I pulled through really well compared to the past. No major paux pas, and no extended silences, or rather not feeling guilty about, not saying anything.

Used Bento to track records and I think this will be my new tool of choice for this kind of admin work. Still need to learn more to get tables in to use the auto-sum feature of most spreadsheet apps.

Early next term, I am off on a sabbatical, with Latrobe University. Almost 3 weeks up North around Mildura and the edge of the desert, teaching & shooting with some International Students, some of whom will, have little photography and art experience.

Organising Data

2009-06-21T23:13:00.001+10:00

Just spent 4 hours working with Bento and Numbers, two software applications made by Apple for keeping track of numbers and data. I am planning on using these tools, to track results for the rest of the year, and in the future for attendance as well assignment marking.

iTunes University

2009-06-16T08:07:00.001+10:00

Now here's an idea!

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Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Ian Lobb PD

2009-06-15T15:55:00.000+10:00

Spent 3 hours today exploring colour and Photoshop's inability to deal with it correctly. As always and inspiring and enlightening session.

Ian is a former University lecturer from RMIT, who created Lobster, a tool/plugin designed to overcome Photoshops poor handling of perceptual colour. He sells his plugin from his website, and at the very least you need to, read his introductory notes to appreciate the issues involved.

The 2 main things that I took from the session were,

There is a plugin available on the CS3 install disk that helps get around the issues, provided yo know what and how to do it, it is called HSBHSL.
That people, "generally" are not investing the energy and interest in their won images because tools like Photohsop have democratised the process, and made it too simple.

Reading?

2009-06-14T17:23:00.000+10:00

Just finished reading:- "After Photography" (Fred Ritchin)

This was a fantastic read, and will be very useful, in future classes.

Naomi Rosenblum, author of A World History of Photography, is quoted on the back cover as saying:-

"Ritchin is probably more optimistic than I about the effects of 'digital' capabilities, but I certainly would recommend the book to anyone who wishes to understand what has transpired in the image world in the past ten or so years. It is well written and covers many ramifications of the new means, going well beyond what we now think of as 'digital photography.'"

This small passage highlights the potential of the medium, something I've been pondering since my first digital camera in the late 1990's

"This, finaly, will be "digital photgraphy," synthesizing and analyzing aspects of the universe in interesting and unusual ways, rather than beginining with a mythic wholenss and freezing small sections as two dimensional rectangles—the problem of the blind man befuddled by the elephant."¹

¹pg 181, 'After Photography', Fred Ritchin 2009, pub. W.W. Norton & Company ISBN 9780393050240

Keynote mote than....

2009-06-03T10:44:00.000+10:00

....a powerpoint replacement

Mail lists?

2009-05-31T23:02:00.000+10:00

I am on two e-mail lists for educators, [Macs in Education, & echalk] both are proving to me that e-mail is not dead as a medium for sharing information, witness this gem, that surfaced on the maced list today

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

More online content to explore and digest, speaking of online content, the abc's iview is a great way to watch programs of all sorts.

Wolfram Alpha Look, it’s a plane, it’s a search engine it’s a … - Beyond Chalk Blog

2009-05-25T08:56:00.000+10:00

In principle a great tool for lower years in education, but I had trouble getting ANY results relevant to photography.

Still Brad's post has some salient points, regarding the use of the internet in education:-

If we are going to truly educate this next generation about the educational value of the internet, awareness of such brilliant tools such as Wolfram is essential. I’m no statistics nerd, but I couldn’t help but become engrossed in the wealth of data Wolfram was able to offer.
[From Look, it’s a plane, it’s a search engine it’s a … - Beyond Chalk Blog]

Will be watching this with keen eyes, for sure.

New Software

2009-05-18T06:48:00.000+10:00

Not only have I been learning Adobe Photoshop CS4, and Aperture and Lightroom, I've also been working with Dreamweaver CS4.

Dreamweaver has matured substantially in this version, so much so I am struggling to work out a fast way to get my students at Victoria University up to speed quickly.

It's kinda hard to track hours of PD in this situation, an hour here 1/2 a day there, so, difficult, to quantify.

Wolfram Alpha

2009-05-17T20:15:00.000+10:00

A nice tool indeed

[Wolfram|Alpha]

just try adding your birth date.

Day 2 ITSC '09

2009-05-16T12:53:00.000+10:00

AM Session #1

Brought my laptop today and am able to blog during each break.

This morning's session began with, an intro to iWeb, a great application. I'm still contemplating using this in class, not sure it gives me and the student's enough control, to understand images and image size; the whole driving factor behind the class itself?

AM Session #2

Edcube; as a tool for students to create digital portfolios. Very interesting idea, needs further exploration.

PM Sessions, focused on Web 2.0, and it was good to hear other folks attempting to subvert the "system" and use technology in ways that would improve and enhance learning. Ultimately though; good teaching is good teaching.

Total hours of Professional Development eight.

Edit 17.5

here's my 'notes' taken as the day progressed

Digital portfolios, is a department buzzword.
ed-cube cross platform
http://web.mac.com/deanclements3/site/Conference_Info....html
"sage on the stage"
"meddler in the middle"
"the guide on the side"

Saturday, 16 May 2009 2:10:20 PM Australia/Melbourne

ethanzuckerman.com
good teaching still requires teaching
Learning Management Systems
add a forward slash, to the end of your delicious account page and a tag you've used, to create a unique collection of links
Rudd money?
Rudd pricing?
web.me.com/garybass/Web2ITSC2009/
chatzy.com
iphone ichat/sms
me we see
edconnect, LMS
try pilot/s or try outs instead for 'grand plans'
shard accounts on facebook for groups or classes
internal server we can create our own wikki then?
edublogs?
teacher tube
tube tv captures youtube video
nings can we use them?

Day 1 ITSC '09

2009-05-15T22:28:00.000+10:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Friday; I spent the whole day at the ITSC conference, at CSHS.

I signed up for the, Digital Literacy Workshop.

Day 1 was focused on podcasting.

I came away with several ideas for lectures and sharing of information. The best was one I learnt, was using a function in keynote to record a voice over on top of the slides. I also learnt you can add pictures and videos to podcasts, again the possibilities are endless.

The last session was a bit of a fizzer, it seeemd to be about making slide shows, and of course it was a little a tad too low for the year levels I'm teaching. I therefore left early and missed the dinner as well, I guess that I'll see some of the images and stuff on the the ali site.

Something that I gained from the keynote was the stats about the way people learn, and of course listening forms less than 10%.

Total hours of professional development eight.

Internet Safer; for Children, Than Most think

2009-05-03T10:18:00.000+10:00

This article from eschoolnews.com may help to alleviate fears of internet use by today's youth, and hopefully the blinkered bureaucrats who are holding back much innovavtive work in many class rooms

In a report released March 31, the researchers saw a nearly fivefold jump in arrests for soliciting undercover investigators who posed as juveniles--to 3,100 in 2006, up from 644 in 2000, the last time the study was conducted.
.......
The New Hampshire center's data from 2000 have been widely cited in internet safety circles, but they predate the popularity of social networks such as News Corp.'s MySpace. In providing the update, the researchers are hoping to assuage fears that parents might have about their children spending time in such online hangouts.

Crystal Ball Gazing

2009-04-03T06:00:00.001+11:00

I'm no seer but this article from eschool news is interesting.

Six technologies soon to affect education

New report describes the emerging technologies that will shape K-12 education in the near future
By Meris Stansbury, Associate Editor

Primary Topic Channel: Research

Collaborative environments, cloud computing, and "smart" objects are among the technologies that a group of experts believes will have a profound impact on K-12 education within the next five years or sooner.

The group, called the New Media Consortium (NMC), has come out with an annual report on emerging technologies in higher education for the last several years. This year, for the first time, NMC has issued a K-12 version of its "Horizon Report" as well.

The Horizon Report: 2009 K-12 Edition, released earlier this month, identifies and describes six emerging technologies that will have a huge impact on K-12 education within the next one to five years.

The report groups these technologies according to their time-to-adoption horizon--one year or less, two to three years, or four to five years. It also outlines key trends and challenges associated with the their adoption

Made possible through a grant from Microsoft Corp., the report draws on published resources, current research and practices, and expertise from an advisory board of experts in education and technology. Members include representatives from the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN), technology vendors, EDUCAUSE, and U.S. school districts and universities.

"This is the first report we have developed with a focus on emerging technologies for elementary and secondary schools, and we hope that K-12 educators will use it as a resource for robust dialog and technology planning," said Larry Johnson, NMC's chief executive. "The technologies we identified have the power to transform teaching and learning both in the short and long term."

The six technologies detailed in the report are...

One year or less: collaborative environments and online communication tools
Two to three years: mobile devices and cloud computing
Four to five years: smart objects and the personal web

Collaborative environments

The report defines this as anything from simple web-based tools for collaborative work to multiplayer gaming environments, and from social-networking platforms to virtual worlds.

Examples of the tools used to create these environments include Voicethread, which allows users to collect multiple voices and viewpoints in a single package, and Ning, which lets teachers set up workspaces that include web feeds to pull in relevant resources, chat spaces (synchronous or asynchronous), forums, profiles, shared documents, calendars, music, and many other tools--all with a few clicks.

The benefit of using these tools, the report states, is to foster teamwork and critical thinking skills. The challenge is for educators to be able to assess these types of skills in real time.

Online communication tools

According to the report, these tools make it easy for students to move past the classroom walls and connect with their peers around the world, as well as with experts in the fields they are studying. Access to these tools gives students an opportunity to experience learning in multiple ways, develop a public voice, and compare their own ideas with those of their peers.

Tools mentioned in the report include Twitter, Skype, and Edmodo, a private micro-blogging platform that gives teachers and students a sheltered place to manage classroom assignments and activities as well as engage in protected conversations.

Mobile devices

Over the past few years, the report notes, smart phones and other mobile devices have become able to record audio and video, store more information, and access the web--making mobiles function like laptops.

"The combination of available applications and a device that [students] can carry provides an opportunity to introduce students to tools for study and time management that will help them later in life," says the report. "The implications for K-12 education are dramatic: the potential for mobile gaming and simulation, research aids, field work, and tools for learning of all kinds is there, awaiting development."

Cloud computing

This is a term for networked computers that distribute processing power and applications among many machines. Applications such as Flickr, Google Docs, and YouTube use a cloud as their platform, just as programs on a desktop computer use that single computer as a platform.

According to the report, cloud-based applications can provide students and teachers with free or low-cost alternatives to expensive, proprietary productivity tools. eMail, word processing, spreadsheets, presentations, collaboration, media editing, and more can be done from a web browser, while the software and files reside in the cloud.

Smart objects

A smart object, as defined by the report, is "any physical object that includes a unique identifier that can track information about the object." The object can connect the physical world with the world of information. Smart objects can be used to manage physical things digitally, track them throughout their lifespan, and annotate them with descriptions, opinions, instructions, warranties, tutorials, photographs, and so on.

School libraries, for example, can use smart objects for tracking their collections and checking materials in and out. According to the report, some libraries are investigating further applications for smart objects: A project called ThinkeringSpaces, from the Illinois Institute of Technology's Institute of Design, "combines physical and virtual components to produce an environment where physical objects, like books, can be annotated with contextual information that is added manually or retrieved automatically."

Smart objects have recently become cheap for students and teachers to create, using Quick Response (QR) tags and smart-code stickers. Web services such as Shotcode and Kaywa let anyone encode QR tags and print them out. Products like Tikitag and Violet's Mir:ror allow users to attach scannable stickers to household objects.

The personal web

This is a term to describe a collection of technologies "that confer the ability to recognize, configure, and manage online content, rather than just viewing it," the report says. Personal-web technologies give users the ability to sort, display, and even build upon web content according to their personal needs and interests.

According to the report, simple tools to create customized, web-based environments to support social and academic activities are easily available today, but their use in schools is severely hampered by access and filtering policies.

Along with a more fully developed discussion of the relevance of each technology to education, the report also gives examples of how the technology is being--or could be--applied in education. And it notes that two themes arose repeatedly during discussions of these technologies: assessment and filtering.

"Assessment continues to present a challenge to educators at all levels, particularly in the context of new media and collaborative work; evaluating student work that includes blogs, podcasts, and videos, or establishing how much an individual student contributed to or learned from a collaborative project, is difficult," the report explains. "Further, translating assessments of this nature into the metrics measured by standardized tests is not at all straightforward."

Continued the report: "Likewise, the practice of filtering is intimately related to each of these topics. At many schools today, the technologies named here cannot be used because they are blocked by content filters. The advisory board recognized the need for new [filtering tools] that do a better job of keeping objectionable content out of the way, while allowing useful tools and content to be accessed."

Other challenges to the adoption of these technologies in schools include the fundamental structure of the K-12 establishment, which is slow to adapt to new trends.

The full report is available on the NMC web site. The CoSN web site also features an online forum dedicated to an ongoing discussion about the report.

"For education leaders, this report is extremely valuable and critical to making sure that school districts are integrating technological tools that will have maximum impact," said Karen Greenwood Henke, CoSN board liaison. "Having a grasp on up-and-coming technologies empowers technology leaders to plan for the future and keep their students, educators, and administrators on the cutting edge."

Evil Empire

2009-04-02T08:27:00.000+11:00

This is the most eloquent, and succinct argument AGAINST Microsoft products I've ever read.

Only Microsoft's unending control-oriented approach is able to lend their free offers any novelty, rather than concrete advantages which provide direct benefits to the recipients.

It came from the e-chalk list I'm on. And was in response to what was tentatively a spam e-mail pushing Microsoft products.

Resources

2009-03-22T17:45:00.001+11:00

Web 2.0 & Education

Good to see that somebody is fighting the good fight.

More New Software

PIC recently purchased a new license of Photoshop, given the dramatic changes to the interface, we decided against teaching it this year. I am endeavouring to get up to speed as quickly as possible, on it all. to date, I've probably given it, 3 or 4 hours of my time.

Keynote & Wakoopa

2009-03-08T13:55:00.001+11:00

As I'm teaching subjects this year that, I've not taught for a while, and as these same subject/s have moved technologically, I've begun writing lessons and course materials using Apple's excellent presentation tool; Keynote.

As I'm doing them mostly from scratch, it is taking a long time for one 20 minute presentation. The workload is spread between source resources and writing the content. i think that I should write the content first in a word processor then put it all together at the end with the final stage being adding the fancy effects.

On another note, this website wakoopa.com has a handy way of tracking what software you use, giving some insight into what and how long you spend on projects on your computer, not the first I'm sure, but as it's online and has a web 2.0 social flavour definitely interesting.

Indesign

2009-02-12T08:21:00.000+11:00

Indesign, my current DTP app of choice, has many hidden secrets I'm still trying to uncover. The majority of our documentation is produced using this tool, then exported as a pdf for any one else who needs to see or read it. Our major publication that, we publish each year, is distributed this way to our students. It is a "book" with several chapters, and a contents page. It is possible somehow, to produce the final pdf table of contents with links to each chapter with in the book. Yesterday I spent 4 hours trying to get this to work. No luck, what so ever. Time to buy a book or find a tutorial online, methinks?

Internet generation leave parents behind Media | The Guardian

2009-02-06T07:50:00.002+11:00

Says the guardian

[From Internet generation leave parents behind | Media | The Guardian]

While i have no children myself, it is to my mind quite apparent that this is what children would do, to the point where I am surprised, when the students i teach, in the 17-22 year old bracket DON'T use the internet much? Or worse consider ME a geek.

Apple ITSc Conference 2009

2009-02-03T20:56:00.000+11:00

I AM GOING! w00t!

You should too

More Teachers NOW!

2009-02-01T16:06:00.000+11:00

While we're at it, smaller classes too!

The government says it is, we know they're not!

New Year New Beginings?

2009-01-21T11:41:00.001+11:00

Time

This summer time ran out as usual. So far all I've managed to teach myself a little javascript, by putting together an image gallery on another site, altfotonet.org using a javascript tool. I guess this means though I will need to explore this computer language in more detail so as to be able to build my own and help others.

Time taken 12 hours.

Administration

I've spent a lot of time this year on the VTAC site, exploring, the ins and outs of the system. While I still cannot completely comprehend the way it works and how to best use it for our purposes at pic, I feel more confident now that my mistakes are going to be minimal. Still; a huge learning curve though.

Late last year we also had a pd session with Les Walkling on Colour Management.

Time taken 3 hours.

Certificate IV TAA

2008-12-15T21:10:00.000+11:00

Today I received e-mail confirmation that I had completed the RPL needed to be awarded my Certificate IV Trainer & Assessor.

Things are indeed looking up.

Post PD session notes

2008-12-10T09:30:00.001+11:00

Monday was a pd session on location @ PIC with Les Walkling.

The topic was colour management, it ran for over 2 hours.

From a personal level, I understand enough about colour management to know it's important and to employ it when needed. However, to create a series of task and projects that were fun yet challenging for the students to come to terms with the ideas involved is going to be a real challenge.

Anyway after 2 hours we had worked through a Unit of the new Diploma of Photoimaging, and put together a suite of tasks that would help the students come to terms, with the ideas surrounding colour management.

Colorthink 2 is a great application to use as a teaching aid to demonstrate how different colour spaces and profiles look, when compared to each other on a computer screen.

We got brief intro to the history of colour theory and human perception of colour. But the focus was mainly on a colour managed workflow, and what tools or tasks could be used to teach it.

Marcus our resident link hunter found a huge list of links that will be useful for us and the students.

http://www.hahnemuehle.com/A great paper for printing
http://www.permajet.com/Another printing paper
http://www.labx.com.au/ One of Melbourne's boutique labs that employs colour management.
http://www.nulab.com.au/ Nulab has a generic approach to colour and employs the sRGB colour space
http://www.silverfast.com/ Silverfast fantastic scanning software, with high end professional colour management.
http://www.color.org/index.xalter ICC website.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Color_Consortium Wikkipedia's entry on the ICC.
http://iridientdigital.com/products/rawdeveloper.html Raw developer a high end raw processing tool, cheap too.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/ Lightroom the rising star of digital photo manipulation.
http://www.univie.ac.at/Vergl-Physiologie/colortest/colortestF-en.html#test Take the test on colour, how will you go?
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/prophoto-rgb.shtml Lumnious landscape has some great tutorials.
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=9117 ISO 3664:2000
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnumber=44468 ISO standrads on colour managemnet, ISO 12646:2008.

Les also briefly talked about the new Photoshop interface, apparently the uptake has been slow, and the changes to the gui* huge, The changes are so much he advised against introducing it to the curriculum in 2009! What he did recommend was however, using Light room version 2. This package has improved dramatically, apparently and now has some local brushes. I've been trying to decide, which software to demonstrate to the students for sometime and it looks like Lightroom might be winning out over Aperture?

*gui is an acronym for Graphical User Interface.

PD Session, at NGV Monday, 1st December 2008

2008-12-03T13:17:00.000+11:00

What we learnt

NGV photography section now have a permanent space, also now has funding for publications.

The permanent space has broadened to include more mediums.

The NGV primarily purchase Australian works?

Rennie Ellis estate owns his work.

Rennie Ellis left 500,000 images lots of work is negatives. Contains lots of commercial work including commissioned work.

Study Room, is open to the public and they are more than prepared to allow tertiary students access to it.

Image & Content paramount, whereas HOW the image was made is of a lesser importance

In-house photograpers copy work for publication.

Careers in curatorial work requires Arts Degree & post grad quals at least up to Masters, even then unpaid work as an intern is NOT guaranteed.

Career paths require involvement with the arts as an observer rather than as practitioner.

Collection policy focuses on artists, whereas institutions like the SLV are more interested in 'VICTORIA'.

The process to view work is to contact gallery, give them a list of works/artists, you want to see first then a 'discussion will follow about the details.

Storage area can also be used to show students art works, in conjunction with the print room.

As an idea, we can get artists to address prints, directly at the NGV.

Next came a walk through talk from an educational officer from the gallery.

NGV has educational service for 60 years, all are trained teachers. Twelve staff funds programs.

NGV publishes a Quarterly magazine that outlines exhibitions. Access to the collection is part of mission. They have special spaces for light sensitive materials. Their largest audience is VCE students.

Order & Choas an exhibition

Ruscha, every building on the sunset strip. As a book on display.

Order & Chaos, the camera as a collector, archivist.

What is an archive what do students collect?

Folio Idea/s

Time assignment for folio? List uses of photography as assignment.

La Voix, very meta as it was photographed to be hung correctly, after the artists re-assembled the work.

These are truncated notes sent from my iPod. We were at the gallery for 2 hours.

PD tally for 2008

2008-12-02T14:26:00.000+11:00

After completing my RPL application, for CERT IV Trainer and Assessor, I have calculated that I have undertaken 100 hours of professional development this year alone.

Let me say I am looking forward to having a complete weekend to myself from now on. Given I am 0.8 for my job at pic, I just wonder how anyone would cope with a full time teaching position?

A Story..

2008-11-13T11:00:00.000+11:00

...a digital story

meta-digital-story

Eportfolios and Digital stories

2008-11-13T08:09:00.000+11:00

Eportfolios and Digital stories, are they mere buzzwords?

A search for these terms on the VIT site produces nothing [no surprises really], a search on the DEAT site, produces one result, not sure if I should be surprised or not?

Just trying to an abstract for a course in these areas I am delivering in 2009, anyone got any suggestions?

Time Just Keeps Ticking Away

2008-10-19T20:07:00.001+11:00

Again this weekend more work on my rpl application, for my CERT IV TAA40104.

Of the 14 units in total, I have 5 rpls and this weekend covered another 5, total time taken? Twelve hours!

Units covered this weekend:-

TAADES4018 Use Training Packages to meet client needs
TAAENV403B Foster & Promote an inclusive learning culture
TAAENV403B Ensure a healthy and safe learning environment
TAADEL403B Facilitate individual learning
TAADEL301B Provide training through instruction & demonstration of work skills

Take that V.I.T!

Another one for under the belt

2008-10-16T09:14:00.000+11:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Meet the new software package, I'm going to have a go at learning

Meetings

2008-10-15T11:57:00.001+11:00

It's been a week of meetings/PD and it's only Wednesday, so to keep the overlords at VIT happy, here's what I've done.

VTAC, Draft Advertising proposal, 10:00 - 11:30, 1.5 hours
Monday staff meeting/PD session, 8 hours, preparing documentation for AQTF audit next month
Tuesday, RPL meting at Victoria University for Cert IV TAA40104 3:00- 5:00 pm, 2 hours.
This makes 11.5 hours of PD this week alone!

Weekend? What Weekend?

2008-10-13T19:36:00.000+11:00

This weekend saw me spend 4 hours of writing and preparing my RPL for my Certificate IV, TAA40104.

Then today another full day of eetings and administration preparing documentation for AQTF, as we have an audit next month.

That makes 12 hours more of PD in my books.

A small succes, as a result today, myself and another colleague, worked out how to add version/tracking control to a document in Indesign, stick that in your pipe and smoke it Microsoft Word.

To ad version/tracking control to your documents in Indesign, do this:-

go to type>text variable>define...

This dialog appears

Click New, call it something obvious, like oo I dunno version control.

Then, check the boxes, that say show file path and include file extension

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Click ok. Now add this to a text box on a master page, format the characters and paragraphs to your aesthetic, and add any other pieces of information your organisation requires. This means you are not constantly editing it, hey presto, automated version control.

Acronym City

2008-10-09T20:15:00.000+11:00

I attended a meeting on Tuesday this week at the head office of VTAC. It wasn't a total waste of time, I learnt a couple things, the main one being there are many other members of the ITC's out there, who feel neglected and frustrated.

But what I really realised after the meeting was sheer volume Organisations I deal with at a professional level.

DET [Department of Education and Training]
VIT [Victorian Institute of Teaching]
AQTF [Australian Qualification Training Framework]
NCIS [National Training Information Service]
VTAC [Victoria Tertiary Admissions Centre]
VU [Victoria University]

All have copious amounts of paperwork to read and respond to, some even have difficult and incomprehensible systems in place, that leave me wondering, am I doing anything right?

Blender [2 hours of PD]

2008-10-01T08:38:00.001+10:00

Spent 2 hours yesterday dabbling in Blender. I found this video tutorial very useful.

I also learnt that my mouse configuration need to be set up with 3 buttons to use the software the best way it can.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

The numeric keypad has shortcuts for changing views, the actual values of which I need to write down.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

And finally, the default layout has a 'hidden' area where you need to drag down an area on the interface to access it.

Like many software applications of this ilk, it is very processor heavy, so I closed down all but the most needed applications running in the background, and ALSO minimised the numbers of tabs I had open in Safari.

Useful Links for learning Blender

Video Tutorial
PDF books and manuals, free.
Blender's e-shop, with manuals and training DVD's for learning Blender.

This not going to be to easy, at least however as it's free I can install it anywhere and learn it in my spare time.

My Online Presence

2008-09-26T10:20:00.000+10:00

Has been expanded yet again, but a quick look at the keyword tag cloud suggests I might be in the wrong place?

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

edna has released a new and exciting service for educators called me.edu.au
The new system provides an online professional network where educators can identify their professional interests, join communities with similar interests, and view and respond to the activities of their online colleagues. It incorporates features of social networking sites to build professional communities. With further releases during 2008, me.edu.au will become a personal network and resource for Australian educators

PD to date for 2008

2008-09-25T10:04:00.000+10:00

As part the VIT registration process, we are required to fulfill a minimum requirement of hours of PD here's their wordy statement.

From their VIT website:-

The Standards Framework
The standards of professional practice for full registration for teachers in Victoria were approved by the then Minister for Education and Training, Lynne Kosky in November 2003. The standards, which describe the characteristics of effective teaching and establish the essential components of teachers' knowledge and practice, were developed by teachers, for teachers.

Here's my list to date for 2008

Regular visits to the NGVapproximately 16 hours
Regular visits to MGA approximately 8 hours
Les Walkling Inservice 3 hrs.
Ian Lobb Inservice 3 hrs.
Bendigo Gallery of Art Tour and Talk - 8 hrs.
Self taught software, Aperture, Lightroom, Blender, iGTD, 50 hours.

Other activities for the college I've participated in up to this point in 2008.

Participate in PIC Photographic Imaging College Staff Meetings
Minute Taking in PIC Photographic Imaging College Staff Meetings
Removal Of Staff Room, before renovations, during school holidays.
Staff Corridor Photography Exhibition
Annual Photographic Camp to the Otways
Student counseling
Orientation Day Excursion and BBQ
VTAC, liaison and data coordination
Designed the End of Year Exhibition invite, for the 2008 Student Photography Exhibition.
Coordinated the printing of the 2008 Student Photography Exhibition invite.
Open day, tours and talks
Editing and Publishing course handbook
Setting up of School Blog
Writing School blog
Design, construct, maintain, School website.
Research tools and facilities to design, construct, & maintain, School website

Post Photoshop Workshop Ponderings

2008-09-14T10:55:00.000+10:00

So the last 2 Saturdays, I spent teaching two people photoshop.

One of the people who attended had a background, in IT. Their difficulty in dealing with the Macintosh interface has me once again wondering about how people learn using computers. The way they used the mouse seemed to go against the way the operating system worked, they were constantly loosing their place on the screen. What is it that people do so differently on a P.C. that makes their experience with a Mac different?

Over the years the course I teach has not only shrunk from 4 days, but the content has crept away from the original idea. Now most people have access to a digital camera, this essentially changes the way we explore the idea of image size in the class for example. The idea of a workflow now predominates the workshop, rather than how to use the tool that is 'Photoshop' amongst other things.

New Software

2008-09-12T16:25:00.000+10:00

Two New Packages, I'm throwing myself at at the moment.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Blender an open source 3d Application.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Aperture a photo manipulation and management tool.

Stay tuned for the responses.

RPL Portfolio

2008-09-03T10:29:00.003+10:00

Have spent some time putting together a portfolio of requirements to aid in my application for recognition of prior learning for my Certificate IV in TAA 40104. At one level it is refreshing to re-vist ideas about lesson planning and assessment. On the other, all this takes some time out of my life, so far about 32 hours of work including a full day course last week.

Reflections Day 1 Cert IV Training

2008-08-27T22:14:00.000+10:00

I learnt lots today, the teacher was excellent, the resources handed out where useful, but a bit more organisation applied to them would be nice for future reference.

My delicous.com account has lots of new links for further reference.

Day 1 Cert IV Training & Assessment

2008-08-27T07:26:00.000+10:00

Starting a course in Training & Assessment, at Newport TAFE today. Please, Please, don't torture me with boring powerpoint presentations!

Reflection

2008-08-25T19:17:00.000+10:00

After returning from a PD session with the other staff today from pic photographic imaging college, to Bendigo Gallery of Art, I've had time to think, about many things.

Fostering team spirit is one of those things. I am reminded once again how important it is to treat it, team spirit, with care and foster it as much as possible. After all the government does not give a fig about us, in the end we need to support each other. get involved and participate and generally look after each other.

Other things I thought about, were the amount I have learned over the years about computers, software, and digital tools to create objects with. Here is a list of the software tools I have taught myself or taken workshops in over the last 13 years.

Apple Computers, the Apple Operating system and troubleshooting Apple computers generally.
Photoshop, a large photo editing application, that has major upgrades every 18 months or so.
Expression Media Pro a digital asset management generally.
I've begun exploring. Lightroom, Aperture, Raw Developer:- photo processing and organising tools, and how they function as digital tools generally in a photographers workflow.
Dreamweaver, a powerful website creation tool.
Stylemaster a tool that makes writing CSS a complimentary web language easier to learn and write.
HTML, the underlying computer language for web pages.
CSS, a complimentary computer language that helps design websites.
Indesign, a powerful Desktop Publishing Tool
Online Electronic Desktop Publishing, printing and distributing publications online.
FTP tools file transfer protocol tools for uploading and maintaining websites
Skitch a handy graphics tool useful for sharing graphic ideas quickly and easily.
Lightwave, a powerful 3d modeling and animation tool.
Ecto a tool for quickly and easily writing blog entries.
Mophones, Phonecams whatever you want to call them I've been experimenting with these devices to get an idea what they are and aren't capable of since 1998, this is ongoing research, which changes focus every time I get a new phone.
Keynote Apple's answer to Powerpoint
Blogging, generally, this is one of several blogs I now write and contribute to, the whole 'notion' of what a blog is and isn't has been a great learning curve.

As well as learning these tools I've immersed myself in the culture and use of many aspects of the internet and the idea of using it, the internet, as a tool to share and disseminate information. Just writing these blogs has made my writing better and I hope my analytical thinking as well.

All of these things I've introduced into the curriculum in various ways or used to increase my productivity and organisation at work.

Here's a list of places I use in an effort to use this idea in my professional practice

pic.australia a resource for all staff to add links and other resources for the students/
pic's daily blog setup by me with several staff contributing
cmaarts, an extra means of communication for my CMA students
pic's flickr account, part of a broader social use of photography encouraging students to get involved.

Compromises

2008-08-21T09:01:00.000+10:00

In the end I settled for pdf versions of help menus, rather than printing to hardcopy, I just printed/exported selected sections of the program's help files to pdf.

Turning Point

2008-08-20T16:22:00.000+10:00

I've reached a turning point, generate, paper handouts or create web [sites/pages] instead?

Brace for a steep re-learning curve - Opinion - theage.com.au

2008-08-20T06:27:00.000+10:00

Rumblings at mill

[From Brace for a steep re-learning curve - Opinion - theage.com.au]

Is technology THAT pervasive in teenagers lives?

Pedagogical Musings

2008-08-18T19:07:00.000+10:00

How do people learn, especially using computers?

I plan on blogging my own professional development here.

This will involve all kinds of explorations revolving around teaching, photography and in particular using computers and the Internet to do so.