The seniors in the DIY/Maker class spent the past week working on randomly selected DS106 assignments. The students will present their assignments and some reflection on the process Monday and Tuesday. Based on what I’ve seen this past week, I’m looking forward to hearing what they have to say and what they’ve created.
I printed out 16 assignments on cards and had the students select an assignment in the spirit of the white elephant gift exchanges. The students in my class are extremely nice. No one wanted to take another person’s assignment. There were two students who absolutely hated their first choice, and since I have no spine, I let them select another assignment. One student selected Logos for the Zombie Apocalypse. Another student picked How to _______. Both asked me if it was ok if the hand drew the pieces for the assignments, and since I have no spine, I said yes. That’s been rolling around in my head for a couple of days, and I’m interested in knowing why they didn’t want to use Photoshop or Gimp.
Since it’s pretty important to model what one asks of their students, and since I got all nostalgic by visiting the DS106 assignment bank again, I decided that I should something too. So I did.
One of the students drew the Dancing Jim All Over the World assignment, but traded it in for something else when she discovered PhotoShop to be a little intimidating*.
Every now and again there’s a tweet, an article, a thread on a message board, a internet something that makes one stop and say, “…. the hell?”
That’s how I reacted to this tweet from Jim Groom.
It just seemed natural to dance Jim right into the UVA boardroom for this assignment.
Bava in the boardroom
Like most DS106 assignments, this one didn’t match my vision. But that’s ok, because it’s still pretty rad. Also like most DS106 assignments, this one took a lot longer than I had planned. And that’s ok too. A few Gimp and PhotoShop tutorials from the Interwebz assumed more knowledge than I had. They were also several years old. I some how ended up figuring things out myself with the help of a short, two-year old forum post (from something that I now cannot find) and the little PhotoShop knowledge that I acquired last summer.
Done. For now.
* She did end up using PhotoShop for her other assignment.
Indie School Librarian 