Digital Business Cards and Visual Resumes

Hey all, long time no see. Like many of you, I've been really overwhelmed with... everything. We don't need to go into it. But I'm finally feeling a little more inspired lately to create new things and have more fun. Well, slowly but surely. It comes and goes in waves. I think you know the feeling. 

In any case, I'd like to share something fun I've been working on, inspired by a mini-assignment in my Google Certified Coach cohort through the Illinois Digital Educators Alliance (aka IDEA). We were tasked with creating a Google Slide to introduce ourselves, and it dawned on me how useful this could be for things like Twitter chats or email signatures as a sort of digital version of your business card... I mean, it's not like I've been giving away too many of my paper ones lately... !!!

This is pretty simple and fun to do... just lay out your design on a Google Slide by inserting a pic (or Bitmoji), your contact info/social links, any pertinent badges, logos, or professional affiliations... and then File -> download as -> your preferred image file type! 

PRO TIP: I like to use Insert -> Word Art for my name, as it gives me greater control over the color, outline, and sizing. 

Now, if you really wanna level up your game, you could save this slide as a .pdf so that any/all links are functional - making your digital business card a landing page out to all of your other related work and contact channels! My friend Beth did this on hers and it was pretty dang impressive. 

Yet ANOTHER option would be to add and save your final digital business card as a .gif! Then you could add a fun animation or other attention-grabbing element to your design. 

So, this assignment got me thinking about other opportunities to represent yourself visually... I decided to try out something similar with my Twitter banner/header. My goal was to create a visual resume of sorts, highlighting the things I would typically include in a written resume:

(Haha I just realized that at the time, I was only ONE person away from 6000! Help me out, y'all!) 

I was thinking, if someone had no idea who I was, and they were to click on my profile, what would my profile say about me? Twitter bios are quite limiting in size, so how could I get a whole bunch of info out there quickly? Using my iPad and my favorite app, Procreate, I created this collage of images:

You could create something just like this using free tools, like Google Slides/Draw, too!

My previous banner was our group photo from the Google Innovator cohort, so it was important to me to keep that as a prominent item, but I wanted to add information about being a presenter and PD provider, too. So, I added a series of pics of me highlighting these experiences, along with a photo from the Illinois State Teacher of the Year banquet where all of the finalists got to meet the Governor. I then layered ambassador badges, credentials, and other professional affiliations related to the pictured roles near each photo. I even snuck in the Coding to Kindness book cover on the screen of the last photo! 

I've been thinking a lot about re-designing my digital presence lately... this is just a start. I also am playing around with a new blog header, and possibly re-vamping some YouTube channel art and things like that. 

Do you get the urge to re-design your profiles and webpages every so often? Got any tips or tricks on what's worked for you?

- Mrs L.

The Invention and Design Cycle

It's parent-teacher conference season, so I get tiny pockets of free time here and there between meetings. I decided to finally try my hand at some sketching on the iPad in the style of sketchnoting/visual note-taking. I used the Autodesk Sketchbook app, which is free!

I'm very pleased with how it turned out! I'm excited to try something similar on my Chromebook next. (I own a personal Chromebook that has a touch screen, so I'm hoping to be able to use it in a similar manner as the iPad...)

Drawing this really got me thinking about the similarities between making art and making/inventing using technology. We all follow a similar thought process of concept - ideas / brainstorming / creating and execution / reflection and revision. Makers, artists, designers, inventors... we're all the same! I think this really helps to illustrate (pun intended, ugh) why I love to live and teach in both worlds: art and computers, and how they're related!

Have a great weekend!
- Mrs L.

p.s. Do you like my new logo? I made it using Google Draw with my 6th graders! 

Using Pixlr to Combine Images in Creative Ways

I love using Pixlr to combine pictures to make silly photographs! My students do several projects using Pixlr editor that require removing the background on a photo and combining it with another. Removing backgrounds and combining images are pretty simple starter tasks for learning how to manipulate digital images. Here is a breakdown of how we have used Pixlr in class.

Me on a Wheaties Box (left), and Mr Gail-nimals (right)

Visual Puns (left), and Animal Mash-Ups Alliteration Poem (right)

Past projects have included putting ourselves on a Wheaties box, creating animal mash-ups and writing alliteration peoms to accompany them, and visual puns. Just for fun (we had a couple of extra days one term!), we put our assistant principal's head on a variety of animals and called them "Mr. Gail-nimals."

What's great about these projects is that it gets students comfortable with the idea of layers and how to manipulate them, as well as file type limitations (like how a .jpg cannot have a transparent background!) and sizing/re-sizing of images.

We use Pixlr as our image manipulation tool because it is a pretty good FREE resource that works on our Chromebook devices - it's not as user-friendly as fancy Photoshop software would be, but since we can't install software anyway, this suits us quite well. Students need to get used to using the "Free Transform" tool to re-size images and create a selection box with anchor points - they're used to just clicking on an object in Photoshop - but most of the functions are so very similar that the transition from one digital manipulation software/application to another is pretty easy.

This last quarter in 8th grade classes, we made a "Mount FaceMore" project where (as you can guess) we swapped out the faces on Mount Rushmore. After walking around the room and providing assistance to students, I realized that I kept answering the same questions over and over again. So, I decided to make a video all about the process. The first half is about about removing backgrounds using Pixlr, and the second half shows how to manipulate the layers and file types to save as:

This turned out to be pretty helpful in class, as students could refer back to the video (just skipping to the point that they needed help with), but also could get help if they worked from home, or were absent on the day that the project was first introduced or demonstrated. Win!

I really like teaching digital imaging, as it combines my love of art and computers in one happy place. The skills and concepts that students experience in this project are extremely helpful for future applications and across classes, when custom graphics or images can help demonstrate knowledge in other areas.

Do you have a favorite digital imaging project?

- Mrs. L.

Awesome Avatars Using Google Draw!

My all-time favorite project in computer lit class is one that I call "Google Doodle Yourself" using Google Draw. You can use Google Draw to create your own illustrator-esque portraits, which are awesome for having students use as avatars. The best part is that this is actually quite simple to do! It doesn't need to be perfect in order to come out realistically. It's up to you how detailed you want to go with it.

I use this YouTube video in class to show students how it's done:

I love that you can take a picture right on the spot, but you can also upload existing photos, which lends itself to creating portraits of friends and family for gifts or other surprise things!

The trick to creating these images is the line drawing tool called "curve," which smoothes out any shapes that you make. It gives your shapes a cool cutout style for that all-around freehand-ish drawn look.

The only downside of Google Draw that I've discovered so far is that there isn't an iOS app for it. But I like to use it on Chrome (via Chromebook, Macbook, or PC laptop) using a mouse to help with the fine motor skills required if you wanna get the details looking good.

The other thing to keep in mind is that shapes work on layers, so it's important to work from largest shapes to smallest shapes when tracing, so that you can select the tiny shapes without the larger ones blocking access. Then, when filling in the shapes, you work backwards, smallest to biggest. If you mess up, no biggie, because there's an "Arrange --> Order" function that will allow you to move shapes forward or back as needed.

When you're all done, you can download your drawing as .pdf, .svg, .jpg, or .png - or you can just screen grab it, too! And from there, the possibilities are endless!

This is one of my favorite new computer tricks!
Enjoy!

-Mrs. L.