Are your kids complaining about nothing to do this summer? Are you wishing they would use their summer vacation to learn something new or brush up on some basic skills? Then this collection of recent posts from The Best Free Training may be worth a second look:
Topic: Photography & its deeper meaning in our lives
Format: Website with a collection of blogs, photographic exhibits, videos, and more
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
Today the average 5-year-old can create crisp, high-quality photographs that would leave the early photographic pioneers gasping in amazement. We are awash in low-cost, simple-to-use image-making tools that have us all generating more pictures than we can process. But what does it all mean? And how has photography changed our lives? … our very consciousness? This amazing website from the Smithsonian will challenge you to think about the answers to these questions and to think about the small, but profound, role that you and your camera may be playing in altering the way humankind thinks about itself.
“click! photography changes everything is a new Smithsonian Photography Initiative program that looks at how photographs don’t just document what we do, but how photography shapes everything that we do.” — Smithsonian Photography Initiative website
Kids complaining about nothing to do this summer? Then this collection of posts from The Best Free Training (originally published last December) may be worth a second look:
This is a PDF file containing 62 reviews and articles (more than 140 pages!) focusing on free training and educational resources for kids of all ages, from pre-school through college. Reviews include “hot links” so you can click & go directly to the resource’s website. Categories in this collection include:
ENJOY!!
Topic: Long term goal: An examination of “culture in broad terms, particularly the cultures of modernization, war and peace, consumerism, images of ‘Self’ and ‘Others,’ and so on.” Immediate results: Specific examination of these topics related to the emergence of Japan in the modern world.
Format: Image-based website with rare visuals, essays, notes, assignments, reading links, and materials for both students and teachers
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
From the website: “Visualizing Cultures weds images and scholarly commentary in innovative ways to illuminate social and cultural history.” These words fall far short of capturing the full impact of the images and essays. I found the website to be a powerful immersion experience that delivered historical facts along with some of the authentic emotional content of Japan’s cultural evolution, beginning with the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry who “forced the long-secluded country to open its doors.”
This website bravely innovates. And it delivers to your desktop rare archival images filled with the tension, fear, humor, and terror originating in the cultural clashes it chronicles. And it does all this while remaining scholarly and well-designed from an instructional perspective.
Topic: Documentary film making
Format: Notes, assignments, reading links, and samples to support of an academic class
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
If you are ready to get serious about making documentaries, this structured collection of notes, assignments, links to readings, and sample films will help you build a comprehensive do-it-yourself course in Producing Films for Social Change. No… the content is not spoon fed to you. But it constitutes a wide-ranging list of college-level materials carefully assembled by Tufts University faculty and available to you free online.
So if you’re ready to go beyond those YouTube videos, this course will help you think more deeply about Producing Films for Social Change and help you get started making your documentary masterpiece!
Topic: The origins and evolution of Aaron Copland’s uniquely American musical sound
Format: Interactive website with narrated slides, musical samples, archival photos, and unique, “clickable” time line
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
From the website: “Explore the sights, sounds and influences that brought Copland to write music that gave Americans a sense of their own identity and created a truly American sound. With excerpts from the original 13-instrument version of Appalachian Spring.” This interactive website is fascinating, fun, and inspiring. It’s beautifully produced, with clean visuals and a surprising collection of musical samples that allow you to hear the musical roots and traditions from which Copland’s powerfully American masterpieces were created.
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Topic: Art and artists related to the American Labor movement
Format: Website with text readings, quizzes, and many links to archival photos, artwork, and related sites
Reviewer/email: Mike G – greers_pm@yahoo.com
Images of Labor in Art consists of “five short lessons [that] focus primarily on artworks and movements of 20th century America…” In particular, the course showcases many examples of the art and ideas that captured the spirit of the labor movement. According to the course authors: “We hope that students will come to view the arts as yet another form of activism that can “carry the message” to union members as well as to the broader public.” No matter what your politics… or your views on Organized Labor… you’ll enjoy the vigor and power displayed in the carefully-chosen examples of great art shown in this course.
This is a nice, tight little course that is filled with beautiful examples of the energetic works of art that expressed the early American Labor Movement. The course consists of text readings, quizzes, and many links to sites where you can see full-color archival photos of great works of art. In addition, links to related sites, such as “Articulation: How to Look at Art” (an overview of terms commonly used when viewing and critiquing art) provide the tools for deeper understanding of the art you are looking at.
From the website, here are the course objectives:
“By the completion of this course, participants should be able to:
* Discuss the meaning of Labor Art.
* Identify selected artistic movements and styles as well as significant themes and vocabulary common to critical discourse in the art world.
* Discuss the social significance of the artwork of Ashcan School, the New Deal and the American Mural Movement.
* Identify significant contemporary Labor Artists, movements and styles.
* Identify and discuss the many ways in which artists and workers have come together throughout history to further the cause of the labor movement.”
To accomplish these objectives, you work through six modules, which include several external links and the opportunity to test you knowledge in a brief quiz at the end. Each will take “approximately 45 minutes to complete.”
Here’s a list of the course modules:
* What Is Labor Art [includes 5 Links]
* How Do I Look at a Work of Art? [includes 3 Links & Quiz]
* Who Were “The Immortal Eight”? [includes 7 Links & Quiz]
* Why Was the New Deal Such a Big Deal? [includes 6 Links & Quiz]
* The American Mural Movement [includes 13 Links & Quiz]
* Art and Activism Today [includes 10 Links & Quiz]
This course is unique and fun! Whatever your politics, you will find it filled with exciting, vigorous examples of some of the best American art.
URL — http://www.nlc.edu/cait/olc/Images_of_Labor_in_Art/html/introduction.html
