Teacher In-Services for Computer Graphics
Via Video Conferencing. 

Overview

At Silly Billy’s World, we’ve been conducting in-services for teachers for ten years. Now we are offering computer graphics courses for teachers after school, or for this summer.

The great thing is that all of our in-services now offered via video conferencing. Teachers only need a high speed internet connection and a telephone. That’s it.

Our goal is to find small groups of teachers (five or less in a group). With video conferencing, each teacher can be at a different location. One can be at home, another in her office, another might be in Hawaii on vacation. We all sign on to the internet at the same time. Once we all sign in, each teacher can see my computer desktop on their computer desktop. I launch the application we are going to learn together. The teachers can see the application being used, can launch the application on their desktop, and follow along with the lesson. We can all talk to each other in a five way phone conversation.

The great aspect is that your group sets the dates and times that work best for you.

It’ wonderful,it’s easy, and what’s more, it’s fun.

Intro To Digital Imaging

One, Four Hour Session

If you are brand new to Computer graphics, this is a course you might want to take a look at. If you’ve been using a digital camera or a scanner and you are trying to figure out what to do with the images, then this is a great starting point.

You’ll learn about file formats (tiff, jpeg, gif, png) and when should you use which. You’ll learn what applications do what. Scaling, editing and rotating images.

Photoshop

PhotoShop. Three two hour sessions.

PhotoShop is the King of image editing. If you want to put ET’s head on Bill Clinton and make it look real, then you want Photoshop. In these sessions, you’ll learn how to mix images, use layers, use PhotoShop special tools, and make your print project or website images look great.

Fireworks

Fireworks. Three, Two Hour Sessions

Fireworks, a Macromedia product, is PhotoShop’s competitor. Many of the tools look like and work the same as tools in PhotoShop. In these sessions, like PhotoShop, you’ll learn how to manipulate images in a very similar fashion to PhotoShop. I own and use PhotoShop and Fireworks. I prefer PhotoShop, but Fireworks is a great program too.

Illustrator

Illustrator. Three, two hour sessions.

Illustrator, an Adobe product, is the King of Vector graphics. Most logos you see were created in Illustrator. Illustrator is a vector program, meaning that it uses mathematical formulas to create shapes. When you open the program, it looks just like PhotoShop, but when you try to use it, you’ll find that it is totally different, and very confusing.

With our help, you will be in control of this great program.

html

Html. Three, Two Hour Sessions.

Html is the backbone of every page you see on the internet. Actually, html is the old internet language, the new language is xhtml, that is the language we will be teaching you. In these sessions, you will learn how to write xhtml. All you need is, “note pad” for PC users, or simple text for Mac users. It’s fun and not that hard.

What you’ll find is that to make a web page, you need more than xhtml. You might need some Css, Java Script and some forms. In these sessions we review what each language does, and how they all work together.

Dreamweaver

Dream Weaver. Three, Two Hour Sessions.

Dream Weaver, a great Macromedia product is a, “WYSIWYG ( wizzy wig).” It stands for ,”What you see is What you Get.” With Dream Weaver, you don’t have to write any html, it writes it for you. The thing is, you need to have a basic understanding of Html before you can master this program.

Dream Weaver makes great web pages, and it writes Java Script and CSS for you. Again, if you don’t own Dream Weaver, Macromedia will let you download a free version from their website that you can use for 30 days for free.

Flash

Flash. Four Sessions, two hours per session.

Flash is a wonderful Macromedia product. With Flash you can make animated web pages, CD presentations, DVD presentations and lots more. It’s a complex program, but you and your students will love it. I know I do.

These first sessions will get you started in Flash, but you’ll need more sessions to go further down the road to mastering this awesome program.

If you don’t own Flash, Macromedia will let you down load a free version to use for 30 days. There are many websites where you can purchase the application for 60 to 90 percent off list price. We share these sites in the sessions.

Year Long Writing Projects for your Students

Long term writing projects in the classroom. One, Four Hour Session.

Creating a real 32 page, children’s, hardback, color picture book is a long term project that will take a full year and lots of work to complete. This session shares with you how to get it done using the ideas and artwork from every student in the school.