12-18 November 2012

Hooray for confusion?!

I still don’t know if we’re staying on the university track or switching to Python, and (probably) won’t until after Thanksgiving Break.  Either way, we didn’t switch to anything this week.  We continued programming in Scratch instead.

The main focuses this week, if I remember correctly, were Loops and Lists.  Loops in Scratch are chunks of code that are repeated multiple times- effectively a space-saving measure.  Additionally, the “forever” block can be used to repeat something forever, and similarly the “forever if” and “repeat until” blocks can be used to repeat something depending on external conditions.

Lists are basically a type of variable.  Unlike standard variables, which contain an element (perhaps a word) that is basically indivisible, lists contain several elements (perhaps letters) that can be manipulated individually.  Another way, then, of looking at lists is as a collection of variables, a “basket” that variables can be added to and modified within; this is the more intuitive way of looking of lists.  In any case, lists can be used to store actual lists (such as a group of players) or- like variables- to keep track of something within a more complex system.

5-11 November 2012

                This was a week of Scratch.  As I gain more experience with the visual programming language, I’ve started to like it more.  Liking it, admittedly, is not the same as thinking highly of it.  One can create a stopwatch in Scratch, sure, albeit with some difficulty; perhaps one can create almost anything in Scratch.  But I’m not sure it’s a good educational tool.  Then again, I know very little about programming….

                The other big news this week is that we might be switching away from the university-credit coursework because it’s too easy.  There’s reason in this argument- this has been, probably, the easiest course I’m currently taking, and not the most interesting, though it’s had its ups.  At the same time, I’m rather worried for what such a turnaround might do.  Time will tell, I suppose.

29 October- 4 November 2012

                This week in brief: Test, survey, programming.

                I suppose that’s not enough detail, though.

                The test was like any test.  The fact that it didn’t impact our grade made it pass by quicker, and by decreasing the stress probably improved my result.  That being said, the class day was a waste by most standards: we didn’t learn anything, and we didn’t get graded on what we already knew.

                Day 2 brought the survey.  It consisted of a bunch of pointless questions on whether we are interested in CompSci, whether we’re sexist, whether we’re scared of bullies, etc..  I hope we won’t have to do this often.  We also started the programming unit.

                I’m not sure how I feel about using Scratch.  On the one hand, it’s apparently capable of doing plenty of actions, and it’s easier to use than a text-based programming language.  On the other hand, it’s a visual language that seems to oversimplify a complex topic.  Maybe it is fitting for a Computer Science- not Computer Programming- course, but I can’t get that excited about it.  (And we don’t have a project.  How in the world do we not have a project for the PROGRAMMING unit?)

22-28 October 2012

                It’s getting tiring to say we worked on Peano Advertising again this week.  But we did; the project is now done.

                It would be fitting, in a sense, to talk about my thoughts on the project.  I already did that, though (in brief: it was a mess, but still relatively fun/educational).  Therefore I’ll just mention that we finished the week by observing others’ projects.  There was a Dr. Pepper ad, a generic environmental ad, a Coca-Cola ad, a chicken restaurant ad, a card game ad, a band ad, a Chevrolet Corvette ad and our own BMW motorcycles ad.  None of the groups seemed to have a focused theme to their campaigns, besides perhaps a slogan. Most showed a good use of Photoshop and audio-editing software; the best one, in my opinion, was the Dr. Pepper image with penguins drinking Dr. Pepper.

                Oh, and we have an exam coming up next week.  I don’t particularly understand what it’s going to be about.  Interesting….

15-21 October 2012

                This was the penultimate week of the Peano Advertising project.  We studied compression and its algorithms, but most of the time was spent on getting together our “portfolios”.   The three pieces involved are the digital “interview”, the audio file, and the visual portion; this week, our group began work on the audio file.  Due to the whims of work distribution, this was done by my partners; I finished up my images and worked some on the digital interview.

                We also discussed the morality of digital “piracy”.  I definitely got the impression, from our debate with assigned sides, that most people agreed it was wrong- at least, in the general case.  Yes, sometimes one can’t get music or a movie legally, and then draconian laws are pointless; but the amount of people that really thought art as we know it could have evolved entirely in the public domain was encouragingly small.  All of this is not to say I don’t think copyright is broken, but maybe the fact that most of the class disagreed with digital piracy meant most don’t practice it.

                But I still doubt it.

8-14 October 2012

                This week, we continued the advertising project.  The project (entitled “Peano Advertising Wants You”) involves three portions: a digital “interview”, or essay, a visual ad and an audio ad.  The blog for last week already describes some of my misgivings about the project, so I won’t repeat them.  Instead I’ll say that, in the end, Photoshop is fun, and the project as a whole appears quite creative.

                Besides working on the project, we studied copyright this week.  It seems copyright, like heliocentrism, is going to be a topic that pops up in various classes this year.   Certainly, though, the  perspective of a Computer Science teacher on copyright is going to be different from a Fine Arts teacher!  Personally, my view on copyright is that it should be there, but significantly weaker (or at least shorter-term); perhaps then there would be less need for semi-copyright licenses like Creative Commons.  At the very least, it needs to be fair- say, copyright can’t go to anyone but the creator.

                We also looked at audio quality.  I have to say, a 250 Hz sampling rate sounds much better than I expected.  It sounds nothing like the original music, but that can be for the best.   Anyhow, there’s certainly quality lost when you compress music, but there’s a definite boundary between “bad quality” and “indecipherable quality”.

1-7 October 2012

                Last week, we finally got our real second project- a Photoshop+MP3 advertisement campaign.  It promises to be… interesting.  In the Chinese sense.

                The big problem that I see is that we are studying the impact of digital manipulation of images and sound on society- through, for example, the study of piracy or remixing.  But the project requires not so much knowledge of Photoshop’s impact on society, but rather knowledge of how to use Photoshop, and likewise for any audio editing program we wind up using.

                Much of what we studied in class has been directly useful.  For example, we looked at the difference between vector and raster images, or the difference between file formats.  Both are significant things that deserve to be learned, and both help with the fake ad campaign.  It’s just frustrating that, even more than in SciTech, we seem to have been thrown a problem and not all of the tools necessary to solve it.

                Though unlike that class, at least this is just one of several projects.