Digital journal entry number 1, 4/11/17
https://edex.adobe.com
I haven't used InDesign much. It's confusing, especially when you forget to lock the layers. I don't know why the image is cut off on the bottom in Spark. It looks better when you can see the whole design! Digital weirdness is endless...
Lesson 2: linked text, very similar to ye old PageMaker. but can place directly from a Word document. Use rectangle frame tool to mock up where picture will go. Styles within Id, also imported with a Word doc. Layouts for digital distribution. Buttons, states, actions, forms....multi-state objects. Oh my!
4/12/17 Was inspired to complete my punk rock poster assignment. You can see it here:
https://www.behance.net/gallery/51477311/Punk-Rock-band-poster
4/14/17
Ending reflections... Had some trouble finding this Spark page. The link I posed to the class website didn't work. So how do I share the freaking thing? I find it frustrating to have to learn new things that I didn't want to learn, just because I'm taking a class on InDesign. I see there's value in stretching the mind, but there is also a limit to how much I can effectively learn and integrate in one month. Behance seems a lot more useful. It's an established community which I am glad that I found out about because of this class. How often am I going to want to share the kind of random notes that I'm putting here? Rarely. If I had anything worth sharing I would put it on my blog. Worthy images would go on my website or Behance.
Back to the InDesign class. Here are my reflections:
First I see why my middle school students are so reluctant to work on posters (with Photoshop). I even suggested concert posters as they are so excited about music, but not one kid took me up on that idea. Concert posters are complicated! I tried to make mine realistic, with all the required information, a real band and a real venue, and that made it take a lot of time and concentration. Most of the middle schoolers have the attention span of gnats. They get bored easily and move on to a new project. Four of them ( out of 38) made flyers for a school event. Only one of those four was willing to revise the flyer. Text is difficult because you have to line it up, pick fonts, spell correctly, bla, bla. I don't push my students too hard because it's a pass/fail elective class that is supposed to be fun. I want them to work on something they enjoy. If they're working on Photoshop and not just goofing off that is an accomplishment! As far as how I will use the InDesign class experience in the classroom, I am thinking about that. I will definitely show the kids (age 12-14) the design tips videos. Those were excellent, entertaining and brief. I just hope I can find them again! Navigation was a constant challenge during this course. Hopefully, the next course will be easier as I'm now more familiar with the interface. My students are not ready to learn InDesign. But I am glad that I know more about it now. InDesign will help me prepare files for our upcoming open house presentation. Thank you! Stacey