Final Project (13-2)

www.endthebubble.com

For my final project I taught myself how to create a website, starting with purchasing a domain name, finding a hosting site, and building up the elements of the site using Wordpress.  I customized my Wordpress site using widgets and I did a lot of troubleshooting and looking at the coding in order to get the site to be what I wanted.  When I had trouble uploading a file I was able to look at the source code and determine what was causing the issue.

The goal was to create an online community where people could respectfully share differing opinions.  I decided the best way to do this would be to create a forum with an option to either create a user name and log in, or post anonymously.  I began the project by reaching out to people that I knew would have an opinion that was different from mine.  The sad thing was that that didn't amount to very many people.  I didn't realize how much I surrounded myself with people that agreed with me until I combed through my network looking for different ideas.  Out of my 900 or so Facebook friends, I chose to contact 20 or so people, and most of them I was pretty sure would still say the same things I would, just in more interesting ways.

I decided to reach outside of my network, which meant putting myself out into the world and talking to random people.  This was the performance element of my project.  I bought 100 small bubble tubes, wrote the website address on them, made myself a t-shirt and planted myself in front of the post-it wall in Union Square.  I stayed there until I had handed out all of my stickers and bubble tubes and I talked to people about the site.  For the most part it was a great experience, but there were a few awkward interactions.  I hope it leads to new people posting on the site, but if nothing else it was interesting to be out in the world talking to people, and I made a lot of strangers smile with the tubes of bubbles.  If nothing else comes out of it that was enough for me.

'Selfie' (13-1)

Showed my process: I often overlooked this part since I wanted to prioritize spending my time working with the material.  I felt like stopping to photograph or video tape each stage of the work got in the way of creating the actual work.  Since my personal learning objective was to use my time effectively to dive as deeply into new media as possible I felt good about the choice I made.  I was able to create a lot of more advanced projects and really push myself because I was fully focused on making and learning rather than documenting.
Explained my outcome: Once I had a project done I was happy to spend a lot of time explaining the project and how I had gone about completing it.  I think I was very thorough in this and it was nice to reflect and explain the process once I was done working.  In my explanations I endeavored to describe both the process and the thoughts and ideas that went into the work.
Linked to vocabulary: In the sense that each form of new media comes with it's own set of terms and vocabulary I believe I used that vocabulary effectively in my written explanations.
Found multiple possibilities:  I used my time to really explore each new technology discussed in class.  I made a point to try several new techniques and programs, especially when working with a product that I wasn't already familiar with.  I enjoyed pushing myself beyond the ideas discussed in class and figuring out what other possibilities existed.  For example, for the video project I worked on both video creation, and editing video clips that already existed.  For stop motion, I worked with both Vine and iStop Motion, and for 3D modeling I created products in both TinkerCad and Blender and printed using both the MakerBots at school and the fancy high resolution printers at my workplace.
I persevered through the work:  Whenever I was frustrated by a particular material or program I was able to search for helpful resources online that gave me potential solutions.  I tried to learn from every problem I encountered, using it as a teaching experience rather than a reason to give up.
Eliminated carelessness:  I put a ton of effort into my work for this class, often to the detriment of my other classes.  I did this because I was personally invested in learning as much as I could about new technologies and I wanted to take full advantage of everything I had access to in the media lab and makerspace.  I was definitely not careless in my work.

I believe that I met and exceeded my personal learning objectives for this class.  I pushed myself to new levels with the new media forms I was already familiar with, and I put in a ton of extra time in to learn programs that I was not familiar with.  I worked on my teaching skills by creating thorough lesson plans for class assignments, teaching a whole class lesson as the digital steward, and if any of my colleagues asked for help I took extra time to teach them programs to the best of my ability.  I pushed my knowledge forward in a lot of ways and made a point to prioritize so I could spend as much time as possible on the work that was most important to me.

As someone who is planning to work in a high need area that probably won't have much funding for art programs, I am still trying to figure out how I will incorporate new media into my classroom practices.  Working with Kickstarter, GoFundMe, DonorsChoose, or applying for grants will be necessary.  Grant writing would be a really helpful thing to incorporate into this class.  Unless all of us are planning on going off to teach in well funded private schools we probably won't have access to these technologies without receiving some sort of outside funding and support.  It isn't even fair to assume each student will have a phone with a camera, and assigning projects using phones could leave students uncomfortable.  I plan to start at least by using my own resources.  I have an iPad and an old computer that I have no problem bringing into my classroom in order to allow my students to gain some experience with new media.  Since this isn't much, the computers will only be available at first as part of an incentive program for students who have been extra focused and shown excellent behavior.  It would be interesting to also work with interested students after class as part of a new media club.  One cheaper option that also would be easier to incorporate into whole class lessons would be the creation of simple circuits to enhance artwork.  Free programs like Scratch, Blender, and Tinkercad are great, but not if you only have one classroom computer.

Readings (12-2)

1) An art classroom is a great place to explore the potential of computers.  Rather than just having the students work with computers in the standard way, get them involved in programming and creating physical objects that respond to coding to get them more involved in the computing process.  Building simple robots that respond to intuitive commands are great projects for older kids.

2) In the Renaissance, there was no division between 'making' and art.  Artists were scientists too and their creativity helped them invent fantastic things.  By bringing making back into the art world we have to potential to educate a new generation of scientists that are well-rounded, creative thinkers.

3) By engaging students in projects involving computers and other new technologies we are training them to be future innovators rather than future followers.  If students are engaged in making and technical fabrication in school they will enter the adult world with the ability to act on machines and create culture, rather than the other way around.

Circuits (12-1)

I decided to use the electronic components I had to made a wearable piece.  I went to the hardware store and picked up a few switches and a glove.  The idea was to create an electronic glove that responds to sign language.  I decided I would focus on the signs for peace, love and yes.  For each hand motion there would be a switch that would get activated and either lights would go on or a part would spin or vibrate.