Month: July 2012

See yourself? A Blind Self Portrait Machine

See yourself? A Blind Self Portrait Machine

Posted on by Kbaumlier

When is the last time you drew a self-portrait?  If you have not tried in a while, a easier way might be coming soon.

Two creative techies,  Kyle McDonald and Matt Mets have built a machine which can help you draw your own self portrait.  The ideas is that you keep your eyes shut while a a moving platform guides a pen in your hand to draw a self-portrait . A computer provides the “vision”  to track your face and generate a line drawing. The result is a machine-aided drawing of a self-portrait.

The device “Blind Self Portrait” was  installed for the first time at the NYC Resistor interactive show in May of this year which had a theme of Physical meets Digital.

You can see a video and read more about the device on Vimeo.

Image Source:
Blind Self Portrait Machine on Vimeo

Links:

Video of Blind Self Portrait Machine on Vimeo

Food Font @ The Green Corps Fairfax Farm Making Food Alphabets

Food Font @ The Green Corps Fairfax Farm Making Food Alphabets

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Green Corps is a work/study program supported by the Cleveland Botanical Garden.  For the program, high school students work to transform vacant lots in the city into urban farms. The students are paid for their work and they develop work skills, leadership, and help build a healthier, greener community for themselves and their neighbors.  Green Corps students work 16–20 hours a week in their “home base” neighborhood farm.  They spend time planting, weeding, pruning, harvesting, and preparing crops for market.  Each week, students take turns selling the produce at farmers markets.

Today I worked with 13 Green Corps students from the ½ acre Fairfax Learning Farm which is located in a once vacant lot on E79th at Amos Ave. in Cleveland.  The students worked in teams to create 3 food alphabets for the Food Font project.

When I arrived, two students gave me a tour of the farm.  Rainbow Swiss chard, kale, eggplant, okra, radishes, watermelon, cucumbers and other vegetables were growing in the farm.  There were also herbs such as basil, rosemary, and thyme.  The student showed me their personal square foot garden boxes which are the size of an average backyard garden that each student maintains.

I gave an overview of the Food Font project, and each team worked together to make letters out of the Farm Food.  The first group worked with okra, peppers, and a few squash to make a vegetable letterset that had a fun, flirty feel to it due to the curly shape of the peppers.  The next group got creative with the rainbow Swiss chard and made the “Swissy” alphabet.   The last group worked with full and sliced potatoes to make a lowercase alphabet called “Potato Patato” with potatoes that were harvested yesterday.

When the Food Font tool is built, these Fairfax Farm Green Corps alphabets will be in the Food Font tool so we can all write things in Swiss chard, potatoes, peppers, and okra.  Thanks to everyone that participated and to Alex the team leader who worked with me to plan for the activity.

Image Source:
Kristen Baumlier

Links:

Green Corps – Cleveland Botanical Garden

 

 

A Unique Classroom-Free School : Vittra Telefonplan

A Unique Classroom-Free School : Vittra Telefonplan

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Picture the school classroom.  Rows of desks with chairs, teacher in the front, everyone facing the front.  For many years educational experts have proposed that the traditional setup of school classrooms does not foster collaboration or creativity. In Sweden, the Vittra International school system, which operates 30 schools is changing the look and feel of the classroom.

Vittra schools work with three key words in everything that they do:  networks, skills, and language.  Students develop bilingual skills in English and Swedish and by creating international contacts through networks and and exchange program. Using computers and developing technological skills is a strong value of the schools.

One of the newest Vittra schools, Telefonplan, opened last Summer.  The architecture and space was designed by an architecture firms.  Room setup is arrange in more of a pod or island setup.  There is space designed for group work including a space called “the village” – which is a small house structure with a table.  The forms of the spaces vary from organic to more architectural in nature.

This unique design is intended to provide opportunities for both collaborative and independent work and to support curiosity and creativity.

When I was in grades 6-8 we were setup in “pods” – where 4 classes would be held in one large hexagonal room.  In the middle of the room were a set of couches where you could read, study or meet in groups.  I know that this middle area was one of my favorite areas to be in.  One problem with this setup is that you could often hear the other class across the room in the hexagonal space. I know that I would have loved being a more creative and collaborative atmosphere.  Too bad I didn’t grow up in Sweden – I would have loved the non-classroom atmosphere.

Image Source:
Vitra International Website

Links:

Vitra International Website

 

 

 

Back Alley Brawl or The Smelly Closets Civics Game: Educational Games made by Grade School Students

Back Alley Brawl or The Smelly Closets Civics Game: Educational Games made by Grade School Students

Posted on by Kbaumlier

Back Alley Brawl or The Smelly Closets Civics Game: Educational Games made by Grade School Students

What would an educational computer gams be like if a group of gradeschool  students created them?  Globaloria is a curriculum and learning system program where students create games. While doing so, they are part of a social learning network where they learn science, technology, engineering, and math.  They also develop digital literacies and gain global citizenship skills.  In the program, students work  in teams to create games while working with their teacher gaming professionals, and other students online.

For the program the students follow the real-world design process and practice planning, prototyping, building, publishing, testing, and playing games.

This past year students participated in Globaloria and were from California, Florida, West Virginia, Texas, and New York.  At the end of the year, students participate in a game design competition.   The program is supported by  government leaders, school systems, public, private, and corporate foundations.

Want to play Back Alley Brawl, The Golden Apple Civics Game, Elemental Elegance or the Smelly Closets Civics Game?  These and other games made by students in the program are available to play at the Globaloria website.

I just spent some time trying out the game Gulf Coast Bird Rescue  which was made in New York.  I had to control the Commander of the Rescue Team (who looked like an octopus) and avoid the evil oil spills while trying to save birds.  The graphics were crude but I enjoyed the idea of the game.  I was able to easily move around using the arrow keys on my keyboard to pick up the birds.  In the end – the oil slick got me.  Good thing about games is that I can just play again.

Image Source:
www.globaloria.org

Links:

www.globaloria.org