Understanding Exposure Settings on DSLR's

During the choice session on October 23rd, Felipe, with Chris and Tenzin K. supporting, taught students about the basics of exposure on Digital SLR Canon Powershot Cameras.

The first period started off with a brief introduction with a mini-ice breaker.

Following that, the instructors had the students take a quiz on Learn@UW about proper camera handling. The students were required to read a couple of paragraphs detailing the information and then had to answer six questions about what they read. If they did not achieve 100%, they had to take the test again or explain to an instructor the particular question they got wrong so that the instructors could see if the student understood the information.

After the quiz was done, the really fun stuff started! Felipe talked about the basics of exposure, emphasizing the components of the Exposure Triangle, and how the three aspects--aperture, shutter speed, and ISO--must be used in unison to obtain a correctly-exposed picture.

After going over the information, cameras were handed out. Each student got their own Canon PowerShot camera to experiment with. Felipe talked about proper handling, how the case must be sitting on a flat, sturdy surface before you unzip it and take the camera out so the camera doesn't fall to the ground.

He showed them how to hold the camera, with the strap around their necks, hands on the grip and beneath the camera for support. The different cameras modes were then covered.

Felipe talked about the M, Av, Tv, and P modes on the camera, what each one does, what you can control, etc. The students then went on a 10 minute break.

After break, everyone grabbed their cameras, Felipe grabbed two stuffed animals he brought for subjects, and the class headed out to the entrance with the ramp facing Union South.

Once at the ramp, Felipe decided that the class would start by taking pictures above the entrance, on the ledge with the plants next to the big windows. Because of the open ledge, the stairs, the hallways, and different things around the area, students got creative with their points of view and perspectives. They also had each other as subjects as well as some plants and the stuffed animals.

It happened that there were some construction workers outside, so they also became the focus of some pictures. A few students asked to go outside, since it had stopped raining, and were able to take pictures outside for a little bit, with Chris.

Inside, some of the students seemed to particularly enjoy taking pictures of the stuffed animals from unique perspectives, like from below, putting the stuffed animal on top of the entrance and taking a picture from the ground underneath. Anny and Leroy got on the same level of the stuffed animals, laying down flat on the ground to get pictures that way. Briana took some pictures with very unique perspectives, like laying the camera against the wall facing up, or putting one of the stuffed animals on the stairs and shooting it from the bottom of the stairs.

The students had a very positive reaction to the choice session. A lot of them went as far as posting some of the images they took to their personal Facebook pages!
Following are some images taken during the sessions showing the students working.






















~written 10/23/2010

America's Next Top Blogger

What better way to start off the 2010-2011 choice sessions than to become a better blogger at Information Technology Academy? This must have been the thought of the four students who signed up for the blogger workshop, right? :D At least, that's what I like to believe. But that doesn't matter because no matter how small an interest in blogging is, it will go a long way... through ITA and beyond.

As a graduate of ITA (2009), I didn't get as much of a chance, if at all to write blogs while I was in ITA (to be frank, I don't recall when AJ, the lead technology instructor, implemented or discovered blogging), but better yet, I don't just get to write blogs, I get the honor of teaching how to write blogs too!

The goal of the course was designed to make students more aware of their writing style and the way that they present it to the their readers. As you're reading this, you're probably thinking, "Wow, she's a good writer. I want to keep reading," right? I'm just playing! But please... do.. keep reading because it's all about how the workshop went.

The students started off the day with a writing a blog about what "blogging at ITA" means to them... Students wrote that it meant telling instructors how their projects went for the day. And at least in some part, it is to inform instructors on how the day went. Blogs are also useful for the students! When they return from a long break, they can read their posts and remember what they did at the last session they attended. They can also do a better job analyzing what they have learned and how they have grown while in the IT Academy program.

After a discussion on how everyone can utilize blogging at ITA, the class jumped right into "good" blogs on the internet. A lot of the good/more intriguing blogs, as the students pointed out, had a lot of pictures which kept the reader's attention among other things.

After looking at examples of good blogs, the class critiqued each others' previous blog posts. This led to a revision of their blog posts; a nice way to finish the workshop!

~written on 10/23/2010

UPDATE: Starting this year, at IT Academy's 11th Annual Holiday Luncheon event, we are now able to reward ITA's best blogger! It's called the "Blog Maven Award," and the prize this year was a "smart pen" which is a great tool for writing, drawing, taking notes, and using a computer. Congratulations to Kim!!!

Audacity Choice Session!

October 23rd was the first of ITA's new Choice Sessions, wherein the students were put into classes based on selections they made at the beginning of the school year.

I, Paul, taught a class on Audacity, and it was a lot of fun.

In my morning session, the students did very well in getting Audacity up and running on their machines, downloading being an important part of the class since Audacity is free, open-source software, which anyone can download here.

Once the students had everything installed (including the LAME plugin for .mp3 exporting) we listened to some conceptual sound projects, including a nine-person clap performance, written by minimalist Steve Reich, and a Pierre Schaeffer piece from 1948.

Some of the pieces were a little esoteric - more sound than music pieces, but the students got into them just fine, and had some interesting comments about the usage of sound and the messages conveyed.





After that, they were let loose on Audacity, using it to create their own projects, based on sound FX provided to them or anything they could find on www.freesound.org, an internet database full of free sound effects.

Audacity is a great program for just picking up and using, once you get over the inherent plainness of the UI (user interface), and I was surprised by how little help the students needed once they got into the real meat of the assignment.

Different students put together some fun stuff, and everyone asked some great questions about the tools and interface. The afternoon class had some technical issues, at least more than the morning class, which was unexpected. But, that didn't mean that no one got to work! Clara put together a really interesting piece, and Dylan came up with a great concept of background, sci-fi sort of soundscapes.

Take a listen for yourself to some of the students' creations!










~written on 10/23/2010

Glimpse into College (Virtually): Techy Perks

ITA, as a college preparatory program, offers opportunity after opportunity for students to gain skills that will allow them to succeed in the college environment. Often, though, it is still difficult to get a picture of what being a college student would actually be like. So, for our first choice weekend, I (Elizabeth) designed a session entitled Techy College Kid Perks. The class was meant to give students a new view of college student life from the lens of what resources will be available to them when they begin their journey as college freshmen!

We had a nice sized intimate group with 5 students - two of whom were dressed for the occasion! (Marylin Monroe and the Queen of Hearts - this was the ITA weekend right before Halloween) Sitting around a table together, we began to go through the many resources available to UW Madison students. There was a lot of interest! Students surfed on NAXOS, an online music library that we have free access to through the university at the Mills Music Library Website. To make it interesting, one student in particular would type in random syllables and see what music came up! We had some fun selections - from African drums, to Asian strings. Continuing with music, everyone seemed very interested in the music school calendar; they did not know before that the university has so many cool free concerts going on all the time! There is also the option of listening to some of them online.

The next resource that elicited a lot of excitement was the university timetable. It is the complete listing of all classes happening in a given semester, including location and time. The students were very excited to discover they could actually take a tour and go to college courses before they had graduated from high school! I encouraged them to do so!

Speaking of classes, we also talked about how to find and register for classes. Long gone are the days of my mother's college experience, in which she had to run across campus to different departments to register for classes - now everything is completely done online. This is, however, always a very confusing process for new students at a university; hopefully now this group will feel more confident when it comes their turn! The campus map also came in very handy as I shared with them some of my favorite study spots around campus and described where certain buildings are.

Our end of class project was that each student should choose a library on campus - there are almost 50 of them - to research. In our class, we got to look at the Special Collections library within Memorial Library, the Social Science Library, the Geography Library, the Primate Research Center, and the Chemistry Library. Each student prepared a little presentation in PowerPoint on the library they had chosen. It was enjoyable to hear about each library and especially why each student chose that library. Here are some images from Natalie's presentation:

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by how interested the students were in learning more about college and preparing themselves well now. And the students left feeling better equipped for the college experience and well informed about ways they can utilize college technology resources now, even while still in high school! And, the resources covered here are only a tiny slice of what's out there!

Film Beginnings: Viewing "Nosferatu"

Film Beginnings was a Choice Session where I, Tony Sanchez, go over the humble beginnings of film-making. We go over significant advances in film-making technology from the late 1800s to the early 1900s. Students get to watch clips of mostly short silent films, like the first video below, and some early "talkies," like the second video below. Hollywood and movie theater history were also addressed in Film Beginnings.

The students got the chance to view a film from the era which they've learned about, the 1922 horror classic, Nosferatu. This film fits in perfectly for this choice session at the end of October, because it is the very first incarnation of Dracula in a motion picture, ever. And, it's a silent film from the 1920's!

Halloween. Nosferatu. Silent films. Two classes... It was a good Saturday!

After watching the film, we had discussions that spanned a bunch of topics. We tackled questions such as, why would this be a scary film for the time? What has changed since this film was made, and what seems to be the same in Hollywood? And, students finished off the day with writing a blog entry about what they learned and what they make of all this.

We all talked about how we like to watch this type of film, but that it certainly can bring about sleepiness. We felt it too bad that our current culture is all about fast-moving films that focus more on special FX rather than straight-up acting talent. It was also pointed out that most of us only encounter older films in the classroom, rather than at home, or in the theaters.

Morning Highlights:

The Film Beginnings Saturday double-header started out with the sleepy freshmen and juniors. Though groggy and silent, they showed that they were interested by being attentive. They also asked great questions during the lecture.

Nosferatu racked up half the class, but was worth every minute. The post-screening discussion was riveting. There was a mixed response to the film, but in the end, students appreciated its importance. Carrie brought up Nosferatu's ears, Jon made good observations about some of the effects and techniques that were used in the film. Everyone was riffing off each other and holding an intriguing discussion. Arissa was the only one who dozed off for a few minutes during the film.

Afternoon Highlights:

The sophomores and seniors were in class the second half of the day. Their attentiveness during lecture was not as high as the morning class, but they were picking up on most of the same points (similar questions on similar material).

Nosferatu was widely accepted by the students, but they were more on the negative side. I heard Thuy Dan say "wow, that was a LONG movie!" but really it was only an hour and a half long... There were a bunch of late arrivals today, due to many Seniors taking the ACT in the morning, but the discussion went pretty well. In the afternoon, we had two dozers, but everyone got the point of the movie.

-Tony Sanchez

PS - If you have a netflix account, you can stream a version of Nosferatu to watch for yourself!

The Skype Protocol

Dear Reader:

On October 23rd, two classrooms of select ITA students learned the basics of Skype, a multi-faceted piece of software capable of connecting people in tons of ways! Our students learned how to screen share, text, chat, play games, voice chat, video chat, change avatars, invite friends, download the client, and call phones, all using the Skype software and protocol.

They also learned the background to the internet -- how bits are transferred, how to use "speedtest.net" to see your how fast your internet connection uploads and downloads, examples of the different applications (e.g. Skype and WWW).

The afternoon group also learned about "Yuuguu", a collaboration tool that allows multiple screens (unlike Skype) to view a single shared screen. Collin showed a youtube video recorded at lunch of a Barack Obama halloween costume. Illa was so amazed, he took out his iPhone and recorded a video of the screen sharing of the video that was recorded at lunch. He also was unimpressed when someone pointed out the video could have just been forwarded as a link, and the screen sharing business avoided altogether. But, I think we all get the point :)

Skype was quite fun at times: everyone calling each other from across the room, having to end calls to accept others, starting group chats with the whole room, reeling from the microphone feedback. The morning group especially took a very hands on approach; instead of asking "how do I do this?" they looked almost everything up themselves -- from configuring their microphones to how many bits are in ASCII code.

All in all, the Sky Protocol was a nerdy success!

Google Earth... Moon, Mars, and Stars

The day started out rainy, I think the majority of Saturdays for ITA classes has been rainy, windy or cloudy. But that doesn’t stop the ITA students from attending classes. Today was a treat for the students since they had the option of choosing a class they were interested in. The classes ITA offered were Exposure, Skype, Audacity, Google Earth (mine), "Techy Kollege Kid Perks," Film Beginnings, and "America's Next Best Blogger."

The students came in like gang busters as usual ready to learn and try new adventures in the computer world hosted by ITA. I had a few lost souls in my class that should have been in another class but we ironed out the wrinkles and we were on course and engaged in our studies on time.

I had two classes for my Google Earth lesson; one in the morning and one in the afternoon with approximately ten students in each. I started off by introducing the students to what the Google Earth program is and how it receives the information we see from the satellites around our planet.

After pointing out the location of  the tools, the “place” window, the "layers” window and the “3D viewer” screen, we took an auto-tour of the world provided by Google Earth. Afterwards, I asked the students to see if they could find their house and some of them did find their house, while others were interested in finding a place they moved from. Some other students then started to find where they were born.


I presented the students with Google Earth’s “place” window again and instructed them on how to create a folder in the “place” window and how to create place markers to any place on the globe in Google Earth. Then, students were to add at least five place markers into the folder. These marked places could have been places they would like to visit or places they were interested in.

After all the formal instructions were over,  the students were allowed to go anywhere in the world they wanted to go in Google Earth and to try out some of the tools, layers and options available to them in the program.

The students clearly enjoyed this session. Once I set them free, they sure went to diverse places... While some stayed on earth and went exploring the globe, some went to the moon, some went to Mars, and others still were looking at the stars. Did you know that you can just keep zooming deeper and deeper into space!? In the end of each class, morning and afternoon, we all had come back to earth in Madison, Wisconsin then to the Computer Science building.

I’m not sure if the students felt the same way I did after I walked out of the building but it felt a little odd walking on the ground since a few minutes before I could be in Japan in less than a minute in Google Earth. Now, it was going to take me 20 minutes just to walk to my apartment in Madison!