On Tuesday – you will receive feedback on your latest Paper 2 assignment, we will go through some Graphics content and also a main discussion on Authenticity of photographic media in the digital age! After this the following four classes I am either away on the Drama trip or involved in Options Meetings. So this puts alot of responsibility on yourselves to independently work through the following assignments at your own pace. Note as always you can follow through in which ever order you would like:-

Mini-Assignment 1

You have been using iPAD’s for a couple of weeks now – so time to return to blog what you have learnt and evaluate how things are going so far. So as before use your WordPress app and in  “…iPAD or not to iPAD…” blog – write a post that discusses your experiences in the following areas :- explain where you have used the iPAD within a classroom setting, evaluate two of your favourites productivity/educational apps so far and why they are so, discuss your views on participating in the training of both students and teachers thinking through IT terminology and social and ethical issues. Make sure to include a photo/picture and correct paragraphs and grammar – this weblog is read by the world!

Mini-Assignment 2

Finish notes on the Graphics chapter of  “Tomorrow’s Technology and You” using Notability or similar and share with me through a GDOC. Then translate this into a simple mindmap including the main definitions using Popplet Pro. Yes another app you will need to download – note if you are clever you should be able to colloborate on one mindmap between the four of you?

Biggie-Assignment 3

Well you have read about graphics in your computer confluence so now its time to play around with the well known Photoshop CS3 to see practically what can be done and what you might think is ethical and unethical in terms of digital manipulation. First you need to practice and understand many of the processes and tools that you have access to that enable you to alter photographs in CS5. Yes you will need a laptop to practice these I will provide some tutorials (please see the Firstclass conference setup for you – yes I know it is a bit old school but the this still works for the time being)  – of which you must do these three at least – Wound Tutorial, Balloon Tutorial, Aging Tutorial. But most of you will need to use your own video tutorials as well etc that you find.  These should include the use of the following tools:-

  1. Clone Stamp Tool
  2. Masks
  3. Layers / Layer Masks
  4. Lasso Tools
  5. Blur Filter
  6. Layer Blending Modes
  7. Free Transform
  8. Healing Brush
  9. Brush Selection
  10. Defining/Creating a Brush
  11. Dodge Tool

More tools than you thought..huh. Well now you have practiced with them it is time to use them to change some photos to see what you believe is the difference between ethical and unethical. You must first take your own digital pictures of as many teachers around the campus as possible. This could be group photos, portraits, action in fact whatever you would like to take. As a group from the photographs, choose which two you will all use to manipulate. From these photos you need to change and manipulate the two photos in two ways:-

  • Place the teachers selected within a setting, scam, position etc that would be considered unethical in terms of how you have manipulated them.
  • Manipulate a photo subtly so that it changes mood, style etc which you would consider enhances a photo but does not impinge on the integrity of the photo.
  • Write an explanation of the photoshop manipulations explaining how they sit within the ethics of photo editing, and then link this to your rules for how to control or provide policies and standards for digital photography. To help you please read Ethics in the Age of Digital Photography and Digital Imaging Ethics along with NPAA Code of Ethic.
  • Present your work as a long weblog post, showing before and after photographs, along with a discussion of the ethics with conclusions. All works used should be cited correctly.

You will need to use as many of the skills that you have practiced that are listed above ad maybe need to practice or improve with new skills. Remember Photoshop has untold features and power. Both the photos should on initial glance look untouched, the more professional the better grade you will receive. Be original and creative…and have fun!

P.S. To get you thinking further take the hoax test, and then think about which stakeholders of these photographs might have found the fakes as unethical (thanks to Coolness 16 for the website)?

Mini-Assignment 4

It is finally time to introduce you to the Major project so first of all go to the Project part of Wiki and Eghs – this is the wiki you will also be using for your Paper 3 Case Study – so you might as well shortcut this to your desktop. Then read through all the documentation so you get a good idea of what you will need to do.

Then construct your pitch – 2) Going to the Construct ICT Board to Pitch the Main Project Ideas as a Keynote presentation that you can show on your iPAD. We will talk a little about iCloud beforehand so you can either construct on your iPAD or on OSX.

Assignment 5

Finally – now (we will do this on Tuesday) that you are sorted with your feedreader app – Mr. Reader and Diigo – you must socially bookmark at least five websites that you either tag with ITGS or with iPAD that you believe are relevant to either weblog you are part of. Remember these will automatically become part of a blog post so choose well!

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