All the Stuff That Makes The Internet Fun!

This week more than any other thrills me because we get to discuss image editing and photography tools on the Internet.  To me this is what makes the Internet fun.  Back when the web first began so many people's pages were text intensive with the only design excitement being colorful text and weird little html tables.  Now we have so many options for making the web all it is and more.  I think images both moving and still have been a huge part of the explosion of  web 2.0.  If one looks at the history of photography the common average person got excited about it when kodak invented film and made cameras cheap and easy to use for all.  We're experiencing the same kind of revolution now on the web with dyi video, audio and images.

I think creating your own avatar is a lot of fun on Voki. I like how you could import your own images as part of this and customize within. I have a ning network and each student has their own homepage. I could see doing this as an introductory assignment in Digital Photography and Animation, but even in some of the other classes. Setting up the ning network and having a cool photo on your profile page is something we already do at the beginning. Making it talk and move would be even better. I think the podcast sites like ipadio have a lot of possibilities for the classroom. I especially love that they involve using a cell phone. I think students could do interactive presentations for their final critique of work. I am already doing this, but we could add the audio portion that they record on ipadio.

I think the audioboo site could be used in creative ways. While I'm not much of a performer and feel self conscientious recording my voicemail greeting, much less a public boo I think the boos that are out there could be used as audio backdrops for Animation and video. I think you could weave a web of these found audio clips and really go to town with something intriguing and multi-layered. Sound as art would intrigue students and move them beyond the two-dimensional art making plane.

I could see the blogtalk radio being a great resource for classes and personal enrichment. In all honesty I don't think I have the time to start doing a talk radio show, maybe kids could? Art talks? I could see this being used in Art History as a research option. Kids could research an artist and then do a blogtalk broadcast about their findings, maybe have one student play the artist while another conducts the interview.