MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.
Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1877
128 MacDirectory BACK TO SCHOOL REVIEW Sarah Martin is a middle school teacher (5th-8th grade) at the Hart-Ransom School in Modesto, Calif. Using Photoshop Elements 7.0, Premier 7.0 and Acrobat 9, Sarah asks students and teachers to stretch their potential incorporating media projects in history, literature, science, and English. Some of her student projects involved digital storytelling, creating a news magazine and advertising pamphlets, making historical subject video clips, and producing a photo slide show. More Than the Three R's Besides learning about chemistry, language arts and history, using media applications help teach students important skills in planning, narration, speaking, preparation, listening, working in groups, oral and visual communications. These skills are necessary to succeed in school, or any future career. Organizing a story or idea, however, is key to communication. Toonboom.com offers Storyboard 1.5 as an intuitive, paper-free program to take ideas and transform them into digital masterpieces. Digital storytelling comes alive with Storyboard 1.5. It is a flexible, vector-based program with layer-based panel displays. Storyboard 1.5 has a well-designed interface with intuitive drawing tools, yet takes the time to review the tutorials before creating a storyboard script. It's wise to understand how to insert dialogue, action notes, template scenes, layering etc. into the storyboard panels. Once the script is complete, just import, or drag content into the appropriate Panel box. Other Word doc scripts can also be copied, or dragged into various sections. Panels can also be created with constant reference to script. Toon Boom provides users the option to draw their own the scenes, import images, or reuse images in the Library. At the bottom of the interface screen, Storyboard 1.5 displays thumbnails of completed scenes, so it's easy to observe scene sequence. Using a Wacom Bamboo Fun tablet, the drawing tools were easy-to-use and responsive. Storyboard supports SGI, TGA, YUV, PSD, PNG, and JPG image formats. Higher Ed Everyone has a story to tell, whether they're involved in academic institutions, businesses, nonprofit organizations, government agencies, or journalism. Adobe.com provides a wide variety of digital communication applications for the changing world. Adobe.com offers great free curriculum support for teachers to help students develop critical thinking, and problem solving skills. Adobe's higher education portal features Instructional resources for Adobe Creative Suite 4 (Web design, print, video), preparing future professionals with career skills, eLearning solutions, and using Acrobat 9 for streamlining workflow. Adobe also provides lesson plans and assessments, real-life examples, technology integration, flexible online staff training solutions, and paths to career preparation. Laurie Burruss, from Pasadena Community College Digital Media in California, sums up Adobe's commitment as "It's not the tool that pops up, but the creation that's revealed." Laurie incorporates many Adobe applications (Acrobat, After Effects, DreamWeaver, Flash, Illustrator, PhotoShop, etc.) to teach her students Interactive Design -- weaving different features and functions from various applications to tell a digital story, without the hassle of writing code. Digital communication requires a mix of digital media, writing, problem solving and creative thinking skills. Burruss recommends the Adobe Development Center for training and tutorials, Adobe TV, and Adobe lessons from Lynda.com. Animation Transformation As with Adobe, Toon Boom offers advanced applications in animation. Once students and teachers have mastered Flip Boom Classic and Storyboard 1.5, they can experience Studio 5. Studio 5 is currently in beta form, yet Toon Boom offers pre- order customers Studio 4.5 until Studio 5's release date (priced at $329). Hobbyists to experts appreciate this multi- technique animation software. One new feature is the stop-motion animation,