Here are my top ten ideas from the course. Being a teacher (and in a teaching curriculum) I listed and talked about most of these in terms of how I could or did relate them to education. Listed from least to most amazing.
10. Compelling Videos. This sit at the bottom of my list. Not to talk down on any of my classmates but I think I interpreted our Work of Art assignment very differently. The project was to make a video about something compelling. My classmates did just that. I read the assignment as "make a compelling video about something that is normally not compelling". Which meant at the end of the day most of the videos produced were about something compelling but not compelling on their own. For this fact the WofA video project is at the bottom.
9. Fashion. I am not a fashion forward thinker. My blog for this week took a very literal look into fashion and talked about school uniforms. I think after discussing with my group it opened my eyes to the idea that fashion can be compelling beyond the literal what are you wearing. But to me I will always see fashion as something to photograph (and that makes the top) but not as a piece of art in itself.
8. Music. Like fashion I find myself not a music lover either. I prefer to think rather than listen. Although I did very much enjoy learning about breaking down music and looking for a 'hook'. Mainly because I like how one could relate this to writing/reading which I find much more compelling.
7. Movies. To me the movie industry is too broad to fit a category or a place on this list. Just because there are movies for everything. You can find slow-paced art movies with little talking, comedies where they never stop talking, or all the way to fast-paced action flicks with little talking. It seems that movie makers make one of each type every few months. I am not as compelled by the movie industry because they don't try to make a compelling film for everyone they just make different types and people will see what they want.
6. Commercials. I find the fast paced nature of commercials very disheartening. Although a very compelling topic (thus it is in the middle of this list). In relation to students it seems that advertisers have picked up on the frantic nature of young minds. Commercials are one of the best indicators of what their target audience is thinking and wanting and how they are acting. If you teach young kids but haven't watched commercials on Nickelodeon lately then you'd be in for a shock on how different they are from when you were a kid.
5. Architecture. The top of the top were mainly still images. I find quieter and less "in your face" components to be the more compelling. And it starts with where you are sitting and where are looking when creating things. Most students sit in boring rooms with dull interiors. I think chaining that up and bringing aspects of compelling architecture to school buildings would add to the learning environment.
4. Graphic Design. I very much enjoyed picking apart print ads for this unit. Getting opinions from all the group members also gave me a good sense of what and where people are looking when they see a flyer. We discussed ideas of color and fonts. And the strange concept that bigger and bolder doesn't always gather more attention was interesting. Then being able to take those ideas for classroom handouts was excellent.
3. Editing. While most of my top picks are still images I found great interest in video editing. Being able to combine pictures (whether moving or not) with music to create a new experience to be extremely compelling. Being able to create educational materials this way (taking bland images and editing them with sound to increase the appeal for students) also intrigues me.
2. Architecture. I really enjoyed the discussion from this week's unit about work spaces. I have never held a cubical job but found the motivation behind many desk arrangements to be fascinating. The psychology of getting people to work productively and happily is fascinating.
1. Photography. And the top. I was a photography student in undergrad and loved it. While my flatmates were sitting down to their piles of engineering math homework I was running around with a camera. And the best part to me is that it was all film. The compelling part of photography came from finding and working for the perfect shot. Digital has taken most of that away as you can take thousands of shots and see them right then. And if you still don't like them you can edit it all in photoshop. True photography is routed in getting the right shot the first time. Having to know what makes that shot compelling before you even take it is what attracts me.
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