At the moment, I am interning at an upper school where I am working with kids in the art room. There are two computers in the back of the room where kids can pull up images that they want to work with. Every time class begins, half of the kids would be racing to these machines, climbing on top of each other trying to look things up and stuff. I find it so odd though, that personally, this is the side of the room that I usually avoid. Aside from checking my email, listening to music, and storing my digital pictures, I do not really have another use for the computer. When it comes to drawing and painting and other knick-knacks, I love throwing around all kinds of ideas to the students. I love seeing how students interact with materials, whether it be with oil pastels or with duck tape. Now when it comes to digital part of art-making, I find that to be my weakest point. I do not want to deal with that at all. I once had an intro class to all of that digital stuff, and by a miracle of God, I managed to pass it. Now (two years later), I find that I can not remember any of the things that I have learned in that class. So when a kid confronts me with a question about Photoshop, I refer them to the teacher I am working with (Mr. Cuevas) and tell them that he can answer ALL of their questions. I hate that I can not help much in that area. It is almost a helpless feeling. It is amazing at how much technology has fused with this new generation. I see kids making some amazing stuff with Photoshop. It is definitely a great tool to have. You can do all kinds of tricks with the program and come up with some pretty trippy stuff. There is definitely a great advantage in having this type of knowledge. However, it is not that simple to grasp. All those commands and combinations that you have to learn…I would rather go blog about something (refer to my prior blog about blogging lol). I ask people sometimes, how do you do it? how do you make these spectacular images in like thirty seconds? and they usually say, “well, when you practice on it almost everyday, it just happens.” I usually grasp things once I do them, but when it comes to Photoshop, it seems hopeless. Mixing Photoshop with my brain is like trying to mix oil with water. But then again, if I practiced with it almost everyday, I think I could get it too. Now I am confronted by a challenge…to make three images for a digital media class that I am in, and I am wondering on how I am going to make this happen. This is the part where I breathe in deep…this is gonna take a prayer…
photo-wa?
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December 19, 2009 at 2:46 am |
Well, I felt a lot like you did until very recently – like, until about four days ago. I came around, at least at the baby Photoshop level that I’m still at, after sitting and flailing away at Ps for the better part of two days, and having a lot of really basic questions answered and then answered again. (Hey, that’s why Selila gets paid the big bucks.) Writing to you about it just now, in response to your post, I realized I had a ton to say on this subject, so I actually turned my original reply into a blogpost on my own blog. But I’m back here now to tell you that I share your feelings, but I”m a tiny bit more optimistic than I once was on the whole business of entering the digital universe. I hope we all keep our blogs up a good long time, because there was a lot in the presentations we all did that really helped me a lot.
And by the way, I recently ran across another math website that I liked a lot. It’s not as lively, or as colorful, as the one you demo’d for us, so I don’t know how long it would hold the attention of a group of kids who cut their teeth on the Web, but for me, it was pretty user friendly. It’s called mathplayground.com
December 21, 2009 at 4:53 pm |
Do you find that the students are better with photoshop? Or do they use the internet to get pictures of things that interest them but then do their work in more physical media? It might be interesting to ask them why they make their choices and how much access they have to Photoshop? Internet? Art Supplies? Outside of school?