Check out - ART WORK: A National Conversation about Art, Labor, and Economics

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ART WORK: A National Conversation about Art, Labor, and Economics is a very cool project developed by the Chicago-based organization Temporary Services. It's not super-closely related to this class (maybe more for Social Theory?), but I'm totally intrigued.

Here's their About Us description: Art Work is a newspaper and accompanying website that consists of writings and images from artists, activists, writers, critics, and others on the topic of working within depressed economies and how that impacts artistic process, compensation and artistic property.

I'm really interested about what other people (non artist types) think about the work of making art and if they consider it a job, or work, or what (neither?). I did a performance piece last year in Dialectical Practices based on a survey I created about this. Surprisingly, more people responded yes to artmaking being a job than to it being work. I find that totally fascinating (would have predicted the opposite).

Now with the economy going to pot, that throws things into an even harsher light. I look forward to reading through this newspaper/website in detail.

Mindmaps and more

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If you're not familiar with mindmapping applications, check this one out at MindMeister. If you have John Ploof for thesis next semester, you may see that he's a big fan of mindmapping (though he tends to do his with post-it notes). It's a great process for plotting out ideas and brainstorming, particularly at the beginning of a research process like a thesis! :)

This particular mindmap has an extra Cyberped bonus because it's a mindmap of online collaboration tools (and appears to be quite comprehensive!). Check it out for some other great categories of collaborative resources (file sharing, wikis, social networks, video conferencing, event scheduling, etc...).

Mobile Learning in Education

I thought some of you might be interested in this paper (or e-book I guess?) about using mobile technologies to develop new ways of teaching and learning. It reminded me of some of the early ideas the MAS group was throwing around about using cell phones as part of a group art project. At the end, it also lists some other related works (ipods , camera phones, digital storytelling, etc.). Anyways, this might be a useful thesis resource for someone next semester...

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Directions to HPAC

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Don't forget that class is at the Hyde Park Art Center tonight. Since I will miss class (I promise this is my last night of thesis observations!), I thought I could at least help out with directions for you. :)

Here's the Art Center's Getting Here page. You'll find good driving directions there if you plan to drive.

By Bus
This is probably easiest! The #6 Jackson Park Express bus has a stop in the loop right near campus at State and Monroe. CTA trip planner says there's a bus departing the State/Monroe stop at 5:27 pm, arriving at Cornell and E. Hyde Park at 5:53 pm. Here's the Google map/trip planner for this route.

Just a tip: when the bus gets off Lake Shore Drive, you'll soon go under some train tracks and then run parallel to them for a little while; then, just after the bus goes BACK UNDER the train tracks, that's your stop - Cornell. There's a BP gas station on the left, and just beyond that is the Art Center (brick building with the word ART painted real huge on the side).

By Metra
The Metra Electric Line is also fairly easy. You'd get on at the Millennium Station - the entrance is just outside the Cultural Center's steps (on the Randolph side). You go underground to get there (follow the signs). Board the train, and you pay a Metra guy that comes around once the train starts moving. There's a train that departs Millennium Station at 5:30 pm and arrives at the 51st/53rd Street (Hyde Park) stop at 5:44 pm. When you exit the station, turn right, and across the street you'll see the BP gas station... HPAC is just beyond that! Here's the Metra itinerary for this route.

Google's Wonder Wheel

Ooh la la! I hadn't heard of this google search feature - had you? What do you think?

Time for VIDEO!

Tonight in class we'll be talking about iMovie and learning about the next project assignment. I've collected some iMovie tutorials and online video resources here to help you.

General Video Resource

My favorite resource, Mashable, has this article: Video Toolbox: 150+ Online Video Tools and Resources.

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With sections on Live Video Communications, Online Video Editors, Online Video Converters, Video Sharing, Video Hosting, Video Organization and Management, Vidcasts and Vlogging, Video Mashups, Mobile video apps, Video Search, Online Video Downloading Services, and Miscellaneous Tools, there's lots of useful sites and links.

iMovie Tutorials

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The latest version of iMovie is iMovie09; this is the version on the school computers. But a lot of people like the older iMovie HD version better. I've tried to collect some resources for both.

From Apple:
http://www.apple.com/ilife/tutorials/#imovie - iMovie 09
http://www.apple.com/support/ilife/tutorials/imovie/ - iMovieHD

From UTAustin:
http://sentra.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/imovie08/ - iMovie08
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/graphics/imoviehd/ - iMovieHD
http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/technology/tutorials/graphics/imovie/1create.html - iMovie (general?)

Manuals you can download:
http://communitystories.pbworks.com/f/iMovie+HD_tutorial.pdf - iMovieHD manual
http://www.bgsu.edu/downloads/cio/file17748.pdf - iMovie09 manual

For more, just google "imovie 09 tutorial" or "imovie hd tutorial."

Download iMovie HD
http://support.apple.com/kb/DL319

Teaching Portfolios (and Website Builders)

Rachel emailed me a few days ago to ask if I knew of any good resources for making teaching portfolios online. I didn't, but I did some research to see what's out there. While there really doesn't seem to be any vendors offering a website/ePortfolio builder specifically for teachers, I found some other tools that could be modified for the purposes of a teaching portfolio.

First, here's an example of a teaching portfolio combined with an art portfolio. Basia is an SAIC ArtEd Alum.

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General Resources on Teaching Portfolios:

http://www.uwstout.edu/art/artedportfolios/
This site offers strategies and content suggestions. But NO online builder!

http://www.viu.ca/teaching/TeachingwithTechnology-ePortfolios.asp
This site also offers an good overview and content suggestions. I think some of its planning tools and templates (even for just PowerPoint) could be quite useful. But NO online builder!

http://teachingandlearningissues.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2009/10/02/creating-an-eportfolio/
This site has a video of a guy describing the use of Wordpress for a teaching portfolio. It's a bit long and gets somewhat technical, but I like the idea of modifying another tool (in this case a blog platform) for the purpose of an ePortfolio. And Wordpress is FREE!

http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/overview
Here's an intense overview of ePortfolios using Google sites. Again, I like the concept of appropriating the Google Sites tool for another purpose. I don't find Google Sites to be the most beautiful sites in the world, but they're pretty user friendly.

Website Tools We Can Appropriate for Making Teaching Portfolios

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The first place I looked for a list of website building resources was on Mashable (see earlier post about all its glory). I found an article called Web Design Toolbox: 50+ Tools for Web Design. This is a great list to refer to for any number of website projects, so check it out.

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I also found this list of 130+ Web Design Tools, with even more resources for not only web builders, but also code resources and graphic/page element/design tools. Check out the first section on Beginner Resources in particular for some free website builders.

These are the website builders from the Mashable lists that I think have some potential (I tried to pull out the vendors that were free or offered free options):

• Weebly - I've used this before and it's VERY easy. I definitely recommend this one.
  
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• Weebly for Education - looks like they also have a education version of their product, though it appears to be geared more for classroom use than for teaching portfolios per se. It would be interesting to see how it could be manipulated for our purposes.
• Webs - free! looks pretty, but haven't personally tried this one.
• Doodlekit - offers a free option, but hard to say if it really offers enough. Check it out.
• Viviti - again, has a free option, but that might not be robust enough for what you'd need. Next level is only $5/month though - not so bad.
• Jimdo - again, free version might not be enough, but next levels are only $5 and $10/month. Worth exploring.

And here are a few others:

• Other People's Pixels - it's not free, but it's reasonable. It's geared towards artists' ePortfolios, but this is what Basia (above) used for her combined art/teaching portfolio. We also used this for the Chicago Artists Month website; while I didn't work on the back end, I heard that the templates were somewhat limiting (little ability to customize).
• Wordpress - mentioned above. There's the hosted blog option, but they also have a downloadable publishing platform where you need your own host. Wordpress is known for being of high quality, offers lots of customizing options, but can also be a little complicated if you don't have any html knowledge. You don't have to write code from scratch, but it helps if you know enough to be able to modify code here and there.
• Google Sites - also mentioned above. If you have a gmail account, you could start making a google site right now. It's fairly easy, but limited its customizing options.
• Webnode - this one was recommended by Craig Roland on his Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet blog.
  

I hope this helps get you started with some resources and tools for building a teaching portfolio. It would be interesting to talk about how the teaching portfolio of an MAAE might look different from that of an MAT (how does working in a museum, art center, nonprofit, etc. change how we present ourselves from if we were working in a school?).