Tag Archives: creativity

creativity, Education, media, Web 2.0

Capzles: time captured in a story

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Capzles is a new way to combine videos, photos and mp3s into rich, multimedia storytelling.

capzleobama

Until I’m successful in embedding the widget, here’s the link to a capzle on Obama. 

Capzles promises to ‘claim your memories; tell your stories; travel through time’, and they do that eloquently. The Obama capzle traces Obama’s life sequentially, and includes photos, and video and transcripts of speeches. I can definitely see the value of capzles for teaching subject matter, but more than that, kids would enjoy creating capzles to present research. This application really does have the potential to capture what’s essential and interesting, and package it neatly for viewing.

It’s free and simple to join. You can browse capzles created in popular categories, eg. history, art and design, film and movies, people and life, vacation and travel, etc. Under history, for example, you’ll find ‘history of Apple computer’ and ’75 years of the popemobile’. It’s a great way to share travel experiences, or present biographies in an engaging format. Or encapzlate your old photographs. Oh, and of course, it’s another great sharing tool. Although there isn’t a huge amount there at the moment, I expect it will expand its archive very quickly.

Thanks to @grosseck for this.

art, Education, photos, Web 2.0

Open mind

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I thought I’d try Phrasr using the phrase ‘ Minds are like parachutes; they only function when they are open’.

Phrasr allows you to choose flickr images for each word in a phrase.

See it here.

parachutes

Photo by Fikirbaz

It’s probably not the best phrase to use, since some of the words don’t really match the pictures. Still, I can see students having fun with the image choices here. I like the idea of playing with a quote, and dressing it up with images. Students could use quotes from Shakespeare, for example. It would be a good way to remember difficult quotes.

Actually, it works much better if you omit pictures for the insignificant words, eg. prepositions and articles.

Some ideas for the phrase are: proverb, quotation (eg. from a poem, song, Shakespeare), alliterative phrase, colour-coded phrase, nonsense phrase. Limitless possibilities, really.

Here’s an example of a nonsense phrase.

Here’s an alliterative one.

Here’s one from Shakespeare (Macbeth, I think)

If you have made any Phrasr examples, I’d love you to share them.

21st century learning, creativity, Education, learning, Web 2.0

New young blogger and writer

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Her post is called Scribbles, and she has a way with words.I love Varia’s blog, Siberian Pepper.  

“Education is not about getting the piece of paper at the end; it is hopefully, a community and an exchange between people all yearning for knowledge and new skills. I plan to suck it up as much as I can, put everything in, run my hands ragged over the keyboard and look in strange places for inspiration.”

animation, art, play

Flip! literacies in animation

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[youtube=http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=AYeTwfyx0nw]

Here’s a quirky and creative little flipbook animation called Kraak & Smaak: Squeeze me (source: Drawn).

Another example of the endless possibilities for creativity with technology. Literacies? The kinds of things that include storytelling, sequencing, playful possibilities, imagination, what-ifs and the like.

animation, art, film

Pinscreen animation and Gogol’s “The Nose”

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[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7p9p0x4c8Yc&hl=en&fs=1]

I’m long overdue for variety in post content, and I apologize. I feel I’ve been ranting and raving on my educational soap box for too long, but the problem is, for all my reading, I haven’t come across anything worth sharing. Until now. I’ve just discovered pinscreen animation, and I think it’s one of the most remarkable unions of technology and hands-on creativity. Mind you, it’s a form of animation from the early twentieth century, but nobody said you had to discover things in chronological time.

On the website Focus on animation techniques, Marcel Jean explains pinscreen techniques:

In the early 1930s, engraver Alexandre Alexeïeff, a Russian émigré living in France, decided to go into filmmaking. Wishing to make films with an aesthetic faithful to the line and shading of his engravings, he invented a new type of device: the pinscreen.

The pinscreen consists of a white screen pierced by hundreds of thousands of pins that can slide back and forth, each in its own hole. When lit from the side, each pin casts a shadow, and when all the pins are pushed out, there is total darkness. But when pins are pushed in, their shadows are shorter, and the black become grey. When pins are pushed all the way in, they do not cast shadows and the white screen can be seen.

If you are interested in a detailed, illustrated account of the technique and equipment, you can read about it here.

Being extremely time-consuming, this was not a popular or widespread form of animation, but its uniquely tonal quality created with shadows of various intensity created by the pins, gives it a dramatic and even poetic quality not unlike chiaroscuro.

Several pinscreen films were made, including the Alexeieff’s Night on bald mountain (1933) and En passant (1943), and Jacques Drouin’s Mindscape (1976).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUrvtpkxxoc&hl=en&fs=1]

I’m always impressed by the time and effort people will devote to creative projects.

creativity, photos, Web 2.0

What can you do with a mobile phone and creativity?

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This is what Jason van Genderen did:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrDxe9gK8Gk]

The 3 minute film cost $57 to make, was shot in New York and Sydney, and won first place at the New York Tropfest. Tropfest is the largest short film festival in the world, with the aim of bringing exposure to talented, young filmmakers from around New York and the world.

Can you imagine the fun and creativity for students with such a project?

Education, Remarkable

Who says you can’t get a camel through the eye of a needle?

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who says you can't get a camel through the eye of a needle
who says you can't get a camel through the eye of a needle

I found this amazing microminiature work of art on the blog, Uncertain times.
This is the astonishing work of Nikolai Aldunin.

You can’t help thinking, as one commenter observed, it’s really a big world full of many wonders. I’m wondering, as I trawl through so many examples of creativity, thanks to internet exposure – are these people creative because of their education or despite it?

Children's books, Teacher librarians

Book Week

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Reading book…

How can we define Book Week? Frankly, I think we need to rename it, broaden it a little. Maybe brainstorm the implications of ‘books’. Let me see: reading; writing; responding; discussing; thinking; analysing; imagining; challenging. Then there’s: using stories and themes as a springboard; using imagery as an inspiration for further creativity; pondering the importance of free expression in our lives; appreciating depth and difference in culturally differentiated texts; forgetting your worries through humour; finding soul mates in shared responses. I think it could be called ‘sharing responses to people’s stories’ week – but that’s too long. Why don’t we just leave it as ‘Book Week’?
Originally uploaded by Tapio Hurme

Web 2.0

The elephant and the balloon

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I know that many people are kicking against this Web 2.0 learning curve. I’m not saying everyone, but I have spoken to several (more than 3) people who are finding this experience more pain than gain. Well, I just want to say , don’t give up! Once you pass a certain threshold, you suddenly get stuck into it, and you know what, you can’t stop.

Personally, I’m  finding  that I have an opportunity to learn which I feel is always a privilege. As a child I enjoyed learning at school, always something to look forward to. There was a time in my life (quite a prolonged time ) when I didn’t have the opportunity to learn as much as I was used to. I’d say that these were the years when my children were very young. Sure, I had to learn stuff, but you know what I mean, there was no time for me.

This program has given me the opportunity for exploration and creativity. I thrive on that. Without it, I’m not in a good state. As I read others’ blogs, the links in these, look at possibilities offered by Web 2.0 applications, I feel like I could do anything. Lately, I’ve decided I could write a children’s book. Do you ever think that? How hard could it be?  Well, here’s a YouTube video from the British comedy show Black Books that I think illustrates what would happen if I ever tried to write a children’s book.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/mAM-ceTC1io" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]