Time to start the CD cover/record label project!

You know our next Adobe project is designing a CD cover. You’re the pop star, and you’re the record label owner. So use your name or name your group, and design the cover for your first CD. You can have names for tracks, name for the group, of course, and you need to design a logo for your record label. I recommend doing artwork in Photoshop and the final product in Illustrator for adding vector features like outlines and text. Fonts are easier to control and make to look crisp in a vector program like Illustrator.

As for the dimensions of cover, I’ll let Wikipedia tell us:

The front lid contains two, four, or six tabs to keep any liner notes in place. The liner notes typically will be a 120 mm × 120 mm (4.72 in x 4.72 in) booklet, or a single 242 mm × 120 mm (9.53 in x 4.72 in) leaf folded in half. In addition, there is usually a back card, 150 mm × 118 mm (5.9 in x 4.65 in), underneath the media tray and visible through the clear back, often listing the track names, studio, copyright data and other information. The back card is folded into a flattened “U” shape, with the sides being visible along the ends (often referred to as the spine) of the case. The ends usually have the name of the release and the artist, and often label or catalog information printed on them, and are designed to be visible when the case is stored vertically, ‘book-style’, on shelves.

The back media tray snaps into the back cover, and is responsible for securing the disk. In its center is a circular hub of teeth which grip the disc by its hole. This effectively suspends the disk in the middle of the container, preventing the recording surface from being scratched.^[1] The media tray was originally constructed of a flexible black polystyrene, but many newer trays use a more fragile transparent polystyrene. This allows the reverse of the back card, which is usually used for additional artwork, to be visible. The first album to include a transparent media tray was the Pixies’s Surfer Rosa album,^{[citation needed]} released in 1988. The format did not become common until around 1995-1996.

You don’t have to design the disc art, but if you do, you’ll definitely win some strong extra-credit points.

So, have fun! The project is due in about two weeks. I’ll give you an exact date when we’re done with the Recording Industry project.

Update (super important): You MUST create your record company logo SEPARATELY in Photoshop and Illustrator (turn in as an AI file). This way you can do it larger and then size it down when you place it on your CD front and back cover. The due date for this will be the same as the whole cover project.

Guidelines for the Recording Industry Project

As I’ve already told you, there are guidelines for the project. Here they are in writing:

• The Microsoft Word article must be 1500 words long (not including the citations) to qualify for an A. Citations must be complete for the project to pass.
• The charts and graphs used in the article must be complete and in a separate Excel wookbook (file). If they are incomplete, the whole project cannot pass.
• The PowerPoint presentation must follow the guidelines already presented to all classes. You can review these guidelines here. But remember: no sounds for this project. A rough guide to how many slides is 16 t0 24 with a likely target of 20. But you can use the proper number of slides needed to tell your story completely. You must include citations at the end. You must turn the PowerPoint file in to the Work Submission area before your presentation begins.
• The presentation must include your charts and graphs and be based on the research you did for the article. Basically, the presentation is meant to be a chance for the article’s authors to present the article to an audience.
• Dress code for presentations: Boys–dress shirt and tie, slacks (no jeans), and no athletic shoes; girls–blouses, slacks or skirts, or dresses (no jeans), and no athletic shoes. Dress as you would for an interview, a trip to testify in court, or to go to church. No sport coats or suits are needed (but fine if you want to wear them), but no hoodies can be worn during the presentation. Let’s look professional.

The Word article and Excel charts and graphs file are already due. The presentations are due on February 4th and 5th, depending on whether you’re in periods 2 & 6 or 1 & 5.

Some activities to do when not working on your project

Here’s an online quiz to test your knowledge of Microsoft Word:

CLICK ME

and a quiz to test your knowledge of Microsoft Excel:

CLICK ME

and a quiz to test your knowledge of Microsoft PowerPoint:

CLICK ME

Want to study them and try again?

CLICK ME

…and search the page using the Find tool (CTRL+F) for Word, Excel, or PowerPoint.

Today’s Business — January 12th and 13th

Welcome Back!

Log on and immediately go to Basic Photo Corrections in Adobe Photoshop Classroom in a Book and do Adjusting Lightness with the Dodge Tool and  Adjusting Saturation with the Sponge Tool. This is quiet, independent work.

Then, when finished, read the post below — The Recording Industry in the Digital Era — and take note of the due dates for the project. After reading, carefully taking in the assignment and the due dates, get to work with your teams and work quietly and thoughtfully on the project.

don’t hesitate to ask me questions but first see if you can find the answers through research on the Internet.

The Recording Industry in the Digital Era

The Recording Industry in the Digital Era

What happened: In the past 15 years, the recording industry reacted in a number of ways to the changes caused by the coming of the Digital Era (also known as the Information Age).

What we’re going to do: We are going to be journalists writing a report about how the recording industry reacted to the way computers, the Internet, and digital devices changed their way of doing business. Did the industry handle the changes well? Did they know what to do? Was is a masterful performance or an epic fail?

How we’re going to do it: We are going to write an article that explains what happened to the recording industry from approximately 1998 until the present, in other words, the recording industry’s reaction to the Digital Era. We’re also going to talk about what effect this had on musicians and performers and the way they make money and conduct their business.

THE PROJECT:

1. RESEARCH AND WRITE AN ARTICLE IN MICROSOFT WORD THAT TELLS THE STORY, SUPPORTED BY CHARTS AND GRAPHS. ONE ARTICLE PER TEAM. Due by January 21 (2&4) and January 22 (1&5).
   
2. BUILD THOSE CHARTS AND GRAPHS IN MICROSOFT EXCEL. YOU WILL TURN IN THOSE EXCEL FILES. Due same dates as above.
   
3. BUILD A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, GIVEN BY THE WHOLE TEAM, THAT USES THE ARTICLE AND CHARTS AND GRAPHS AS THE BASIS FOR THE PRESENTATION. Presented on February 4 & 5.
   
4. THE EXCEL CHARTS AND GRAPHS CAN BE IMPORTED INTO WORD AND POWERPOINT.

Key points:

• Clearly the topic of this presentation is how the Digital Age has had a huge impact on the recording industry.
• iTunes
• Wal-Mart
• Napster
• File sharing isn’t technically illegal.
• Copyright law.
• How did the recording industry react to illegal file-sharing that cut into its profits?
• Many legal file-sharing ideas were discussed by the media (TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, and on the Internet) when the Internet showed promise for music distribution. The recording industry didn’t react, signing on to nothing for years. Instead, illegal file-sharing grew all over the world.
• “Recording Industry Meets the Internet: What Happened?”

Important: The point of this project is to research the way the recording industry has changed in the Information Age:

What is the recording industry?
What is the Information Age?  (Also known as the Digital Era)
What are the key statistics that might show how the recording industry had changed in the Information Age? (Also known as the Digital Era)
Once we’ve chosen what statistics best show how the recording industry has changed, what is the best way to display those statistics?
After we’ve figured out how to display those statistics, what is the best tool for presenting those statistics, as well as telling the story of how and why these changes occurred to the recording industry?

We now know the answer to that question:

Articles can be researched on the Internet and written in Microsoft Word.

Statistics can be researched on the Internet and charts and graphs of them can be created in Microsoft Excel.

Presentations based on research, using your article, charts and graphs, can be created by Microsoft PowerPoint.

Update: I’ve made it clear that each article and presentation has to end with Citations. This is the same as the Bibliography; I just use the word Citations because, with all online research, Bibliography, which refers to the old idea of a “book” library, is an old-fashioned term. So I use Citations when all research is done online.

Here’s a link to a web page that explains what a citation is. Here’s a link to EasyBib, which makes citations easy. Of course, the “Bib” in EasyBib refers to Bibliography, but, oh well. EasyBib is also available in the Links list in the right column of this blog.

Your team will get an F grade until you include a complete Citations section to both the article and presentation, so do it right from the beginning.

All Previous Work is Now Late…

…meaning you’ll lose work ethic points when I grade an assignment. It also means you need to email me or see me in class to get me to grade a late assignment. So…get the work done, especially if you want to pass my course. Feel free to ask me questions about the assignments, but don’t ask me which assignments you need to turn in. That’s what the grade portal and PeBL are for.

Finally, if you think you turned in the assignment and should have already been given credit, go to the Work Submission area of the Student Journal, click on My Responses, and check if I’ve posted a comment. You might have submitted the wrong assignment, or in the wrong form, or forgot to attach the file, or something. I always leave a comment if you’re did something not according to procedure.

Late work procedures:

1. Put your name and assignments you want graded on a Post-It (I’ve got them at my desk) and hand it to me.
2. OR, Email me a list of the assignments, but don’t attach the files. Turn them in at the correct submission area.

I’ve also set up some things to make it easier to do make-up work:

• My room is available at break and lunch for the rest of the semester.
• I have special work submission areas in the Student Journal called “Getting Rid of Those Zeroes” and “Upgrading Those Grades.” Turn in whatever you’ve got!!
  
• I have set up procedures for turning in late work and have told them three different ways: verbally, written on the white board, and posted on the class blog.
• I am urging all students to print out their assignment list from the grade portal and will print it for them if they need help because of no printing rights.
• I have set aside 40 minutes at the end of each block for make-up work (and postponed one project).
• I have made extra copies of the prompt packets to be available to kids who lost them (thanks Mr. Paisley!).
• I have made charts of each class highlighting  students at-risk for D’s or F’s for personal contact and intervention. Come talk to me if you think you’re on the list so we can talk.
  

All Those Basic Geometric Constructions are Coming Due!!

I’m publishing the grades for the Basic Geometric Constructions that I assigned two weeks ago when I was out for a sub for four days. It’s time to be done!!!

Monday, the first four were due and ready to publish, along with your Cityscape.

Tuesday, the next three are due and ready to publish.

Wednesday, the next three are due are ready to publish.

Thursday, the last two are due and ready to publish.

Friday, you should have everything in, including the extra-credit back page (four separate illustrations). Extra credit work is, of course, optional.

Monday, November 23, I will introduce three more assignments that will take us through to the end of the semester. Tuesday, November 24, the Six- and Eight-Fold Symmetries are due and ready to publish. Let’s go!

Below, an example of good work!

Six- and Eight-Fold Symmetry

Until further notice, we’ll start every class period with a lesson from “Adobe Classroom in a Book,” doing first the Photoshop lessons and then at some point moving over to the Illustrator lessons.

Next, we’ll use the middle third of each period to work on Mr. Paisley’s six-fold and eight-fold symmetry shapes created in Geometer’s Sketchpad, either in Mr. Paisley’s room or in mine. Almost all my computers have the Sketchpad on it already, and I’m working to get all of them working soon.

Finally, the last third of the period should be used to catch up on the Cityscape and various Basic Geometric Constructions that were assigned two weeks ago. We’ve got to get them finished and into our Let’s Get Visual presentations.

Whole Bunch of New Slides for Let’s Get Visual

You’d better get ready!

We’re going to learn so many new terms and how to draw a whole bunch of new shapes and lines in Illustrator. First, here’s a reminder of the procedure:

• Make everything in Illustrator. Save as an .ai and then also save as a .pdf (PDF).
• Import the PDF into your PowerPoint presentation. You can drag and drop the PDF right on a slide.
• When you’re doing the illustrations in Illustrator, don’t hesitate to get artistic. Use color and backgrounds or whatever. Just don’t make the message about the geometry hard to see or read.
• Submit each PDF for your grade.
• The PowerPoint is a big project (plus it’s an archive of all your art).

Now, here is a list of the slides you’re going to make in Illustrator and add to the Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint. They’re from your Basic Geometric Constructions handout from Mr. Paisley:

1. Copied Line Segment
2. Bisection of a Line Segment
3. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line
4. Construction of a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line
5. Bisection of an Angle
6. Copied Angle
7. To Construct a  Perpendicular to a Line from a Point off the Line (four-in-one slide)
8. To Construct a Perpendicular to a Line from a Point on the Line (four-in-one slide)
9. To Copy a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
10. To Bisect a Line Segment (four-in-one slide)
11. To Bisect an Angle (four-in-one slide)
12. To Copy an Angle (six-in-one slide)
13. Extra Credit for early finishers: Inscribing Regular Polygons (four separate slides)

Don’t forget to turn each slide in as a PDF to the Student Journal work submission area to get credit. And add each illustration to the Let’s Get Visual (about Geometry, I Mean) PowerPoint presentation.

Update: I have a special extra-credit assignment for anyone who needs to raise their grade!! Go online, search for “Da Vinci painting” in Google and choose the Wikipedia Last Supper entry from the Google results. Save the JPEG of Da Vinci’s Last Supper. Then, place the painting into Illustrator using the “Place” function. Next, establish the single vanishing point for creating the perspective of the hall and its alcoves in the background of the painting. Finally, draw the lines that Da Vinci might have drawn before he began to lay down the paint. In other words, see if you can create the sketch Leonardo must have drawn preparing for this fresco. Good luck!! You’ll be rewarded for your work. Oh, and you can add this to your Let’s Get Visual project.

Staying with Let’s Get Visual and tying up loose ends

Many of you are completely caught up with your work, and some of you still need to get the Romeo & Juliet stuff done. Even some of you have the Decimal-Fraction Pattern spreadsheet to finish.

Today I just want everyone to get finished with everything we’ve got going and to get ready to add some more slides – produced in Illustrator – to our Let’s Get Visual PowerPoint.

I’m also thinking of a way to create groups in which all the members help each other stay on track. We need to select a mentor (or leader or expert, whatever we want to call it) who can be a source of help and advice. I’m going to think of ways to create these groups so that they sit together but don’t have to particularly sit alphabetically.

If you have any questions or want to receive credit for an assignment, don’t hesitate to come talk to me. However, I’m going to rely on you to self-manage more and take responsibility for your work progress. If you want good grades for your work, though, staying on task is very important.

If you run out of work, I’ve got more for you! And we’ve got plenty of projects to come.

 

Update: The first six illustrations for the Let’s Get Visual project are:

1. Right Triangle 1
2. Right Triangle 2
3. Right Triangle 3
4. Naturally Occurring Square Roots
5. Multiple Terms on a Slide
6. Multiple Images on a Slide

Save them as .ai files, and then save them and turn them in as PDFs.