From 2 Dimensions to 3D with Google SketchUp

I’m off today to Sicily for a while. With a few hours to spare until plane time, I thought I’d handle the post that follows – something I’ve been meaning to do for at least 6 months…

From 2 Dimensions to 3D
I taught Fine Arts in middle schools in East Harlem, NYC for close to 2 decades. I think one of the most important challenges I tackled during that part of my career as an educator was teaching kids to draw – I mean REALLY DRAW. Over the years I developed my own curriculum. As I did this I discovered there are half a dozen, perhaps 8 or 9 basic, essential concepts that elude almost everyone, but that anyone can learn if properly taught. Among this is the representation of depth or 3D. You can support learners in this by showing them how to construct 3D images out of flat 2D shapes and connecting lines. The figure below was done in MS Word.

Actually, MS Word has 3D shapes that are already drawn that may be inserted into a composition (example below).
Watch a student who has been struggling perceptually with depicting basic shapes in 3D accomplish this easily using technology and you’ll see big light bulbs illuminate over his head! However, in the strictest sense, these drawings are not accurate because the planes (rectangles) are fully frontal. This sets up an impossible situation because if the rectangle facing the viewer were absolutely frontal, then the sides would not be visible. These drawings are inelegant in other ways, but we are talking about the training of perception here. And in that sense walking a learner through this exercise is invaluable.
Moving on, though, Google’s SketchUp (free downloadable) software will take students and artists infinitely further (example below).

I hope to return to SketchUp again and again to experiment with it and its educational potential. For now, here are some worthwhile links to explore:

Google SketchUp – 3D for Everyone
http://sketchup.google.com/index.html Student Work

Google’s Gallery of Student Workhttp://picasaweb.google.com/gallery.sketchup/EducationK12#5242246332382961586
http://www.slideshare.net/tverdegreen/6th-grade-sketch-up-projects
Google SketchUp Math ProjectsStudent Built Homes Using SketchUphttp://www.sanjuan.edu/webpages/pribadeneira/view.cfm?subpage=77265

SketchUp Video Tutorials
http://www.youtube.com/user/SketchUpVideo
also
http://download.sketchup.com/downloads/training/tutorials50/Sketchup%20Video%20Tutorials.html
and
http://www.sketchucation.com/
Lesson Plans Involving Sketchup
http://www.sd53.bc.ca/gifted/strategies/sketchup/sketchuplesson%20plans.pdf

and Misc. Resources
http://www.sharphue.com/edu
Edutopia blog post - http://www.edutopia.org/have-you-seen-sketchup
3DVinci Teacher Guide - http://www.edutopia.org/have-you-seen-sketchup

The Art of Vocabulary

Wordle (a free web-based resource) is an easy to use engine that generates powerful images from the words you enter. Many refer to the images produced with Wordle as 'Word Clouds'. I believe the thinkingstudents put into planning a producing a Wordle image on a theme would make a wonderful activity that offers the potential for great art learning as well as foster literacy skills.

Images can be manipulated in many ways and users can develop intuitive techniques for producing images, just as one would using any other medium to make art. It requires no registration. Once an image is created it can be submitted to the Wordle website gallery and/or a screen capture can be taken of it for use elsewhere (i.e. a Picasa Web Gallery). Here's a sample I created in roughly 10 minutes. Find Wordle @ http://www.wordle.net/

ISTE Art & Technology Education WEBINAR a Success!

It was a great privilege to share the ideas in my book with colleagues from around the world. The archived WEBINAR is available from ISTE as a recording. Go to: www.iste.org/webinars

USING TECHNOLOGY TO MAKE EVERY CLASSROOM AN ART CLASSROOM

Accompanying materials/resources for ISTE Webinar:
“Using Technology to Make Every Classroom an Art Classroom”
April 22, 2009

You may access the PowerPoint presentation @:
http://www.slideshare.net/markgura/every-classroom-an-art-classroom97-a
Also: Animation Project @ http://www.slideshare.net/markgura/food-chain-1277806
and…
African Culture Sculpture @ http://www.slideshare.net/markgura/african-culture-sculpture

The presentation references the use of the following free resources:

Picasa – Photo processing application (download) http://picasa.google.com/
YouTube Introduction to Picasa: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rskC6c_5L1M
Picasa Web Albums – Online Gallery/Slide Show, Videos, etc. http://picasa.google.com/intl/en_US/web/learn_more_picasa.html
GIMP multi-platform painting program http://www.gimp.org/
TUX Paint multi-platform painting program http://www.tuxpaint.org/

New Life.com Photo Archive Brings Access to Usable Images to Your Classroom

Photos are a perennial source of inspiration and material for student art projects. Read on about a new source from LIFE magazine. Note that the article below states "Photos on the site are organized into five channels: news, celebrity, travel, animals, and sports. Visitors can print individual images and share them through sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious. New features of Life.com, due to roll out in the coming months, will allow users to create their own photo galleries (on, say, the life and work of Maya Angelou, for English class, or animal life in the Everglades, for science). All the site's tools will be free."

From edutopia:

"Alabama governor George Wallace stands in the doorway of the University of Alabama, physically blocking African American students from integrating the school. Humphrey Bogart, in Washington, DC, protests the blacklisting of artists by the House Un-American Activities Committee. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the dusty surface of the Moon.
These and seven million other images of American history and culture are newly available on Life.com. The relaunched site -- accessible to everyone but especially useful to educators -- makes the entire archives of photo giants Life magazine and Getty Images available free. Users can view galleries curated by the site's editors or search the library by names, dates, subjects, and locations. The archive chronicles current events, too, with daily news galleries and the addition of 3,000 new Getty photos a day.

Once America's leading photo-centric news magazine, Life chronicled the nation and the world for seven decades before issuing its last print publication in 2007. Life's last editor, Bill Shapiro, who heads up the new project, wants students, teachers, and parents to use the site to make history more tangible. "The most iconic moments in American history -- we have those," Shapiro reports. "We didn't want simply to create a historical repository or a dusty archive. We wanted these events to feel as alive as they did when they happened."

Photos on the site are organized into five channels: news, celebrity, travel, animals, and sports. Visitors can print individual images and share them through sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Delicious. New features of Life.com, due to roll out in the coming months, will allow users to create their own photo galleries (on, say, the life and work of Maya Angelou, for English class, or animal life in the Everglades, for science). All the site's tools will be free..."

Read the full article @ its source: http://www.edutopia.org/online-photography-archive-life-magazine