Yamil

Originally uploaded by msradden

It’s a great time to be a sports fan in Boston these days…The Sox play game 2 tonight of the ALCS, the undefeated PATS take on the Cowboys tomorrow, and there’s even some hope for the Celtics…So I’ve posted this retouched photo made by one of my media students in honor of one of my favorite Sox, David Ortiz!

Students in Media Seminar used industry standard retouching techniques in Photoshop to create “realistic” photos of themselves in a future job or place that connects with their social, academic, and professional goals. These images are part of a larger animated identity piece in which students reflect on where they are from, who they are, and where they are going, incorporating voice overs and imagery to reflect their identity.

Additionally, we studied the ethics of retouching images and the kinds of messages that manipulated media send. As part of a reflection on this project, the students were asked how to identify manipulated imagery based on a reading I provided, and reflected on when it is acceptable to manipulate imagery and when it is not. We had some great discussions in class, and hopefully after the reflections are posted in the class blog, we can have some online discussions as well.

Oh about that class blog…BPS blocks Blogger.com inconsistently, so my original collaborative blog on blogspot.com won’t work. Plus the school’s email server blocks the invitation emails to the students. Kids need a GMAIL account to even post. I have since figured I need to install a word press blog on my own or the school’s server. I did correspond with a BPS OIIT member who was unsure what teachers were using across the board. He did recommend edublogs.org which I will check out too. Bottom line is, once again, a great online tool is “banned” from usage in the classroom, and teachers like me who see the educational value in it, have to find a workaround. Like using shareware to grab FLVs off of youtube to show in school since Youtube is blocked as well!

Google has added icons to its Google Earth map of Darfur in Sudan which highlight detroyed villages and displaced people.

Related article : tectree.org

I just wrapped up a semester of my Advanced Web Development & Work-based Learning course, and for the first time, the students made web sites for actual clients and earned community service hours! They worked in teams and built web sites for non-profit organizations in the Dorchester community, and presented their sites and experiences at the New England Institute of Art in Brookline on January 17, who so graciously hosted us.

Many thanks to TechBoston for supporting the curriculum, recruiting the clients, and providing prizes for the top 3 teams. The teams were judged according to site design, teamwork, communication, and client satisfaction. By the end of the course, the students not only gained new web development skills, but improved their employability skills. The NWCET and SCANS standards are mapped to the activity.

I am looking forward to another semester and a new group of students and clients!

My juniors made PSA videos last spring and I published them to Google Video after my department hosted an in-school Film Festival. One of the Google videos about teen dating violence was recently viewed by the police force of El Paso, Texas, and they wanted a copy to incorporate into their teen violence training sessions. Cool!

My seniors created an audio time capsule for their class and I posted their MP3s into an “alumni” channel on Garageband.com. You can subscribe to it and have a listen via iTunes but I’ll embed it once I Gcast it. Oh yeah!

Highschooljournalism.org, which hosts school newspapers online (a GREAT tool I set up and introduced to our English department years ago), is now broadcasting school radio shows! A curriculum is provided as well.

I attended the second working session of my collaboration with BATEC on an exciting project funded by the National Science Foundation. The NSF has a series of Advanced Technological Education centers throughout the nation, and I am involved in one here in Boston. ATE centers partner with IT industries to develop best practices, instructional materials, and professional development to better prepare high school and college graduates to excel in high-tech jobs.

I am building a syllabus and a project for my 10th grade Advanced Web Development class which explicitly integrates the NWCET and SCANS standards. It is very useful to be able to document the employability skills and technical skills my students are learning, and to envision synergy between the high school, community college, 4-year college levels and IT industries.

More background info…
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the federal government’s only agency dedicated to the support of education and fundamental research in all scientific and engineering disciplines. Their mission is to ensure that the United States maintains leadership in scientific discovery and the development of new technologies.

The Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, under which BATEC is funded, specifically focuses on improving the education of technicians in the areas of science, technology and engineering at the undergraduate and the secondary school levels.

Related Links :
BATEC : Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connections (http://www.batec.org/)
NSF : The National Science Foundation (http://www.nsf.gov/)
NWCET : The National Workforce Center for Emerging Technologies (http://www.nwcet.org/)

I provided curriculum development and training to TEEN Voices, the magazine published for and by teenage girls. Women Express, Inc. offers a variety of programs, works with girls world-wide, and publishes Teen Voices print and online magazines. I was hired to develop a curriculum which helped teach teen girls how to make an online version of their magazine. I delivered a schedule of weekly objectives, detailed lesson plans, and sample projects to Teen Voices and they were very pleased!

The program is being taught to approximately 50 teen girls in downtown Boston as we speak!