End of Year Projects – Web Design and Applications

 

Time:  About 5 weeks (25 class periods – more or less)

 

Objective:  Complete a project that will use the web skills you have learned so far and expand your knowledge of software, computers, and/or the internet.

 

Deliverables (and Payments):

 

Project proposal (20 points) [see examples on page 4 & 5]

q     States what you hope to do and how you will go about it. 

q     You need to identify at least one book or two websites that will be your primary resource.

q     If not delivered on timed payment will be reduced. (“D” or lower on progress report if not delivered before progress reports)

 

Daily Journal (100 points, 2 installments) [see example page 6]

q     In your student folder, a word document named DailyJournal

q     Each day write 4 to 10 sentences about what you have done, what you have learned, what problems occurred, and what you will do on the following day(s). 

q     You will be reminded the last 10 minutes of each class to do this

 

Mid-Project Benchmark (40 points)

q     A mini-project, report, presentation, or draft that shows you are making progress towards your overall project.

 

Feedback part I (20 points)

q     Share your Benchmark with 2-3 classmates

q     Learn about the Benchmark for 2-3 classmates

q     Share oral and written feedback with 2-3 classmates

q     You will be put in groups for this on one day and be given forms to fill out as part of the written feedback process

 

Project Summary (50 points)

A written paper (250-500 words) explaining

q     what you set out to do

q     where you found the best information

q     things you learned as you worked

q     the final result

q     what you would do next if you had more time.

 

Feedback part 2 (20 points)

q     Share oral and written feedback with classmates in small groups (similar to part I)

 

 

 

 

(continued)

 


Presentation (20 points)

q     Present your project and your summary to the class.  Two to five minutes.

q     Deduction from payment if under 2 minutes, over 5 minutes, or just reading slides or paper to the class. 

 

Feedback part 3 (20 points)

q     Share oral and written feedback with classmates after presentations

 

 

The Project (60 points)

q     For most of you this will be a flash movie, a collection of photoshop pictures, a website, a program, or some other “thing” that you’ve produced.  For a few of you, it might be something less tangible – a learning or a discovery.  For the less tangible projects, your project summary may be the project, in which case it will be graded twice.

 

NOTE ABOUT PAYMENTS:  Generally you will be paid the points noted.  Doing a half-way job will generally result in no payment or being told to do it again (just like in the real world).  At some point, deadlines become a factor and you will not be paid for work that is late. Exceptional work (or delivering more than was asked) may earn you a bonus.  You are still being paid a salary of daily points for being here on time and staying on task – please continue to earn your pay.

 

DEADLINES:  (Work at home, lunch, or after school if you fall behind)

Friday 4/15/2011               Project Proposal due End of Class

Tuesday 4/28/2011            Re-Submission of Project Proposal based on instructor feedback

Friday 5/13/2011               First Daily Journal Check (half points earned or lost)

Monday  5/16/2011           Mid Project Benchmark due at End of Class

Tuesday 5/17/2011            Feedback Part I in class

Friday 5/27/2011               Draft Summary due beginning of class – Feedback Part II

Tuesday 5/31/2011            Second Daily Journal Check (half points earned or lost)

Wednesday 6/1/2011         Final Summary and Project due

Thur/Fri &                          Presentations – Seniors go first!!

Finals Week                       Presentations, Feedback Part III


Mr. T’s ideas for project (ideas in bold are better for Web Design, Italics are better for Applications)

  • Create a website on an academic subject.  Something you’ve studied in another class.  You can use Dreamweaver, Google Docs Sites, or any other “free web site”.
  • Create a flash movie that is at least 90 seconds long. 
  • Create a flash game
  • Create a portfolio of Fireworks effects and original photographs
  • Create an Alice movie that is at least 90 seconds long.
  • Create an Alice game.
  • Learn to program in Java, Build several example programs (I HAVE BOOKS)
  • Learn to program in JavaScript, Build several example pages (I HAVE BOOKS)
  • Use the Alice Java version.  How is it different?
  • Compare Fireworks to another Paint/Picture program.
  • Compare Flash Animation to Fireworks Animation
  • Create a movie using movie maker and burn a DVD
  • Create a multi-media slide show about something you’ve studied in another class
  • Evaluate what software is best for creating presentations
  • Evaluate what software is best for creating web pages
  • Create a training manual for a software or computer language.  Explain how different things work and make step by step exercises for common tasks.  Use Wink software to record video tutorials.
  • Learn how to use Geometer’s Sketchpad, Google Sketchup, or GeoGebra
  • Learn how to use a software related to another class – Biology, History, English, Physical Education, Art…
  • Research the history (and future) of the internet, blogs, online shopping, computers, communications, cell phones…
  • Go through Excel lessons and adapt them to work with new version of Excel.
  • Create additional Excel lessons related to topics you are interested in.
  • Create a series of internet search “treasure hunts”
  • Learn how to use Ubuntu operating system.
  • Evaluate different typing games and tutorials on the web.  Come with a comparison of which ones are best and why.
  • COME UP WITH SOMETHING THAT INTERESTS YOU THAT IN SOME WAY.  We can negotiate about how it needs to be related to this class and what your deliverables should be.

 


EXAMPLE PROPOSAL 1:

 

                                                                                                            Joe Student

                                                                                                            4/26/07

 

Proposal for Web Design Final Project:

Learning how to use Nero Photoshow

 

 

Narrative:

I recently purchased Nero Photoshow to do a slideshow with music for my father’s 60th birthday.  I did a little research before buying it to try to figure out if it was really the best (I really wanted to use something that was free but didn’t like any of these).  For my project, I want to build the slide show which will contain at least 50 slides and have 5 to 10 songs (all of them clips – not the whole songs).  Photoshow allows transitions and lots of neat effects which I will explore and use as I see fit.

 

In addition to the slideshow, I’ll produce a chart that shows the different features of Photoshow, ones that I used, ones that I didn’t use, and ones that I wish it had.  I’ll also create a step-by-step document that walks someone through creating a slide show and then burning it to a DVD or CD.

 

Resources:

Photoshow built-in help/tutorials

These links (none of them have a lot but between all of them I’ll have enough, I hope)

http://photography.consumerelectronicsnet.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=37698

http://graphicssoft.about.com/b/a/092215.htm

ftp://ftp6.nero.com/tutorials/recode2/NR2_for_SonyPSP_tut_eng.pdf

 

 

Recap of deliverables:

Slideshow for Father’s 50th Birthday

Chart of features and wishlist

Step-by-Step for using Photoshow

 

Mid-project goal:

Either chart or Step-by-step

Draft (maybe 20 pictures) of final slideshow


EXAMPLE PROPOSAL 2:

 

                                                                                                            Josephine Teen

                                                                                                            4/26/07

 

Proposal for Web Design Final Project:

Building the ultimate Flash Cartoon

 

 

Narrative:

I really like Southpark even though the animation is lousy.  I want to create my own set of “cut-out” characters and create a cartoon with them.   My goal would be to create 3-5 characters that are very simple shapes.  I would then create a funny plot and put them in it.  It would probably involve opening credits, at least two scenes, and closing credits.  Of course I’ll have music and sound effects.  I’d probably have them talking but would probably start with word bubbles and add the speaking once everything else is done.  I think I’d ask different people in the class to audition for the characters voices.

 

Resources:

Flash 5 Cartooning (borrowed from Mr. T)

Learning Flash (class textbook)

There are tons of good links like the one below:

http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/multimedia/shockwave_flash/tutorials/tutorial8.html

 

 

Recap of deliverables:

3-5 character sketches (first on paper, then as Flash Symbols)

A script outlining the plot, dialogue, and scene descriptions

The Flash cartoon (minimum 90 seconds, my goal is 3 – 5 minutes)

Posted to the web (with Mr. Taylor’s help)

 

Mid-project goal:

Script and characters done


Daily Journal Example:

 

Monday 4/30/2010

Spent some time thinking about what I want to do.  I’m pretty sure I want to do a set of CD’s and CD covers related to each of my classes.   The idea would be to do a cover related to the subject (like English – I’d probably put a bunch of grammar words on it and show books and pencils and stuff).   The playlist would all be songs related to English in some way.  Maybe names of famous books or authors.  I know this song by The Police – “Don’t stand so close to me” where they mention the book by Nabokov.  I guess I’d need to do liner notes that explained the significance of each song.  This might be harder than I thought but I really liked doing the CD covers and this seems like something Mr. Taylor might let me do.  I guess I’ll ask him today and think about it some more at home tonight so I’m ready to start working tomorrow.

 

Tuesday 5/1/2010

Did a little brainstorming last night and came up with a CD cover idea for each one of my classes as well as a couple of songs for each one of them.  Mr. Taylor said it was okay but that I definitely had to write liner notes as part of the project as well as create a web page for each CD cover that had the liner notes on it.  He suggested I try to think of a few songs every day because I won’t be able to think of them all at one time.   I wrote this all up in a word document and printed it out as my proposal.  I even started the CD cover for my science class (I’m putting a mad scientist on it and I’m going to try to get a picture of Mr. Hudson to put in the person’s face).  Tomorrow I’ll finish that and spend some time finding songs that I like that fit into the different categories.

 

Wednesday 5/2/2010

Science CD is finished although I still don’t have Mr. Hudson’s picture.  It’s pretty cool looking.  I took some stuff from some old Frankenstein movies.  I came up with a couple of songs for science – Weird Science by Oingo Boingo, Darwin by Third Eye Blind, Super Pop by Madonna (mentions Isaac Newton), and Marie Curie by the Blackspoons (I had never heard of this but found a clip on the internet that was pretty good).  Next Steps:  I’ll start my Trigonometry CD picture (Lots of Shapes and Curves) and continue working on my playlists.  I guess I need to start writing down what I’m going to say for each song so I don’t leave that until the last minute.  Maybe I’ll start a word document and as I come up with a song I’ll just write down what it’s about related to the subject.  I guess I have to make sure I remember how to do web pages at some point too. 

 


Some practical expectations:

 

I’ve done this for years now, so here are a few guidelines of what I expect for these types of projects.

 

As mentioned in web design class, these are the basic expectations for THESE types of projects unless you convince me otherwise:

Flash Movie:
3 minute movie
Mid-Project: Script and significant progress (90 seconds?)

Flash Game:
Working game, Must show and explain code
Mid-project: Simple game and written instructions

Fireworks Portfolio
At Least 20 Photos with annotated explanation of effects, Before and After pictures + instructions of how to create effect
Mid-project: Half of these done

Movie Maker or iMovie Movie
5 minutes, Some Original Material
Mid-project: Script and trailer

Web Site:
At least 8 pages, all written content original, some original photos, all other photos credited (NOT GOOGLE!)
Mid-Project: Navigation bar with links to all pages (some pages may be empty, HALF must be finished)

MORE…

Movies and Websites Must have some original material - not just have pictures from the internet (max is C without)

 

Fireworks Editing projects: Must have before and after pictures along with instructions (max C otherwise)

 

Flash Games - Must show code, explain, and show which parts you changed (max C otherwise)

 

...

SOME MORE SAMPLES, Ideas, and Past Projects:

 

See Flash Projects from Quarter 3

See Web Projects from Quarter 2

Animations:

Fighting Sticks

Elliot's Awesome Video

Brandon's Game

Photoshop

Isaac's Slide Show (takes a while to load)

Short! example of a movie.

TECHNICAL NOTE:

WinFF is a great free program for converting different types of Video Formats to other compatible and SMALLER versions.