Thursday, November 27, 2014

Blog on Respectful and Ethical Minds

http://educationismylife.com/flattening-classrooms-and-engaging-minds-with-global-education-an-interview-with-vicki-davis-and-julie-lindsay/
Reflect on the interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay and post a blog entry that shares an idea you have implemented, or recently discovered, that fosters collaboration and helps to develop students’ respectful and ethical minds. 

         After watching the interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay, I learned about how to implement and create a global classroom and flat classroom project. I never heard of this kind of project before and it was very interesting to see the structure of the project, the benefits of it, and the connections it makes with many standards across all grade levels. I specifically was interested in the K-2nd grade flat classroom project that the co-founders were discussing since I’m an elementary art teacher. The only problem I have with this kind of project is the time frame. Unfortunately, I see my classes once a week for 40 minutes and to spend 10-12 weeks, as the co-creators have mentioned in the interview, on one flat classroom project might be way too long.
        Instead, something that I think is very similar to flat classroom project and takes less time that I recently discovered and started to implement is the Skype education program with my art classes. For example, when I introduced my unit of weaving and fiber arts this year to second grade classroom, I connected with a classroom in Peru where students were able to interact though video Skype and ask unit questions about weaving and fiber arts.  Both classrooms not only learned from each other but also were able to gain respect for each others cultures and traditions. They were also able to have an ethical mind due to seeing the value and importance of hard work and labor for weaving in Peru and other South American countries. I think projects like the Skype and Flat classroom project are so important and enriching for our students because it not only helps them have that respectful and ethical mind but also see and learn from the world around them who may never be able to travel or see it on their own.  

      As teachers, it is our job and duty to be the leaders to provide, teach, and inspire our students with these kinds of digital media tools so they can become well-rounded students and not egocentric citizens of America.

Citations: 
"Flattening Classrooms and Engaging Minds" with Global Education: An interview with Vicki Davis and Julie Lindsay (Education Is My Life) Retrieved from http://educationismylife.com/flattening-classrooms-and-engaging-minds-with-global-education-an-interview-with-vicki-davis-and-julie-lindsay/
Skype in the classroom (Projects) Retrieved from https://education.skype.com/
 



Thursday, March 1, 2012

Placehold.it

Placehold.it is a very useful tool for wire-framing, layout design, and early development.
All you have to do is use "http://placehold.it/" as the src in the img html tag, and enter a size at the end of the URL, for example 350x150. See example below.

<img src="http://placehold.it/350x150" />

Placehold.it is a quick and simple image placeholder service.
Placehold.it

Monday, February 27, 2012

What are we designing? A call to action

It was just last week,I was attending a demonstration of Blackboard Mobile.

Blackboard..the interface that we love to hate. In classes, over informal conversations, on trains, I have had roughly the same sort of conversation.

Me: Isn't this Blackboard program horrible? I mean, the interface is just..
Other person: Wretched?
Me: Yes, I mean who can navigate this thing?

...

So, sitting in a presentation of Blackboard Mobile, my heart sinks, just a little, as it is revealed that students from Stanford, working as a team, designed a new Blackboard experience. Blackboard hired a set of the students, who formed their own company.

Blackboard was just out there, waiting to be redesigned...waiting for some new experience to be set forth. Everyone knew it; it was glaringly obvious.

There are many other interactive spaces, used daily, that are glaringly obvious in their need for redesign, or for new platforms to be created.

The course description for this course, the official one, has something about collaborating in teams to create a product. How exciting!

What it is, instead, is something more wrote.

Why not the wrote within the framework of collaborative environment? Why not take on real-world problems?

Are we robots, churning out the next thing ("responsive design"), or are we doing more than that? Are we identifying problems to solve, thinking critically about products in our social world?

Where is that component in the course? Can we have it? Can we make it? Let's figure out, together, how to make the world a more friendly, usable, beautiful place, together...

Monday, February 20, 2012

Passion Code

Rob,
Here's a link to my "Passion" code.
Just right-click "View Source"
http://adamholstendesign.com/passion_small/

Friday, February 10, 2012

Bootstrap

"Bootstrap is a simple and flexible HTML, CSS, and Javascript for popular user interface components and interactions." This CSS framework is loaded with components, modules, scripts, its responsive, etc, etc. Project was built in Twitter and is open source. Code available on github. http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/index.html