[MWForum]turning teachers on to MW - the graphics are great!

Thu, 26 Feb 2004 09:11:37 -0800

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What a great lesson on MW graphics! I use (and love) AppleWorks Paint. It is
fun to take any of the graphics that come with AppleWorks or can be inserted in
its paint program and turn them into shapes in MW.  One great activity by
4th/5th graders for first graders was to take a copy of a scene from Once Upon
a Time and use it as a bacground in MW, draw a maze on it and customize the
turtle shape. The big kids loved making the mazes and the little kids learned
to "drive" the turtle.

Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste a shape
from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to accompany a
story written in AW word processing. Is the following true?
Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??

BTW, you once asked what changes would be helpful. A lasso tool would be nice,
now that we are discussing graphics.

Looking forward to your presentation mode lesson.

Wendy Petti wrote:

> Hi Folks,
>
> Recently on this list, Tony Wilson was asking about an easy way to use MW to
> run an automatic slideshow.  He mentioned during that dialogue, "I am trying
> to push Microworlds amongst the staff and if it is too much of a bother they
> will want to use a media player or powerpoint.  I am hoping the kids can see
> the value and power of programming."
>
> I think many of us have found ourselves in that same situation.  We might be
> the lone MicroWorlds enthusiast on staff or we might be one of a small core
> group of MW enthusiasts, and we might be looking for ways to get more
> teachers excited about and comfortable with MicroWorlds even if they have no
> background or interest in programming.  It's one thing to teach our students
> some programming, but I never got anywhere with trying to teach programming
> to my colleagues.
>
> But I did find many ways to promote the use of MicroWorlds by less
> tech-savvy teachers, even though they continued to need some hand-holding
> and encouragement.  I'll share a few ideas here, more later, and I hope some
> of you will share ideas that have been well-received at your schools.
>
> The focus in this message is on the graphics capabilities of MicroWorlds.
>
> At my former school, we had a very limited set of software installed on our
> computers:  MicroWorlds 2.0_ and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint,
> Access - which we steered clear of for the most part) and also MSWorks.  And
> then of course there were the programs that come with Windows, such as Paint
> and Internet Explorer. (I hated Paint and much preferred the graphics
> capabilities of MicroWorlds.)
>
> I became a huge fan of using MicroWorlds for all of our graphics needs, and
> I continue to use MicroWorlds for generating all of the graphics on my Math
> Cats website.  In 3 1/2 years of developing that site, I have felt little or
> no need to shell out $$ for a more advanced graphics application.
>
> We've already seen how MW can easily be used to assemble an automatic
> slideshow of external JPEG or GIF files (as well as other graphics formats).
> Here's how I often use MW to create and edit artwork:
>
> Let's say I'm drawing a new cat for Math Cats.  I use the circle/oval tool
> to make the basic head shape, then erase a bit and add ears.  Next I draw
> one eye.  I want the other eye to be a mirror image of the first, so I
> surround the first eye and copy and paste it into a shape.  I open that
> shape and use the mirror image button to reverse the eye, then I surround
> that eye with the selection tool and copy it.  I close that shape and paste
> the selected area into the cat's head.  (I've used this partial mirror-image
> technique in lots of Math Cats projects, such as the Symmetrical Butterflies
> craft project:  http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/symbutterflies.html.)
>
> I often use the fat bits editor (I click and drag with the selection tool
> then double-click inside the selected area) to get an enlarged view which I
> can edit pixel by pixel.  I love that I can select the desired magnification
> with MW Pro.  I copy and paste my finished cat into a shape, then I open the
> shape and click and drag its boundaries to crop the image closely so that I
> don't have any unnecessary white space around it.  (This works much better
> in MW Pro than in MW 2.0_, for we can easily select any shape dimensions
> with Pro but cannot fine-tune the dimensions as much with MW 2.0_.)
>
> (I love storing graphics in the shapes center.  Often I make multiple copies
> of a newly-drawn shape and then edit them to get variations - arms and legs
> in different positions; merging one graphic with another; etc.)
>
> Next I use the SAVESHAPE command (in the command center) to save my new
> shape as an external GIF file (or if I've cropped a photo or combined a
> photo with a cartoon-like drawing, I might save it as a JPEG file).
> Example:
>
> saveshape "orangecat.gif 17
>
> where 17 is the number of the shape I'm saving as an external file.
>
> Now one thing to bear in mind is that a white background in a shape is
> transparent when used within a MicroWorlds project, but it appears as solid
> white when used outside MicroWorlds.  If I want a transparent background for
> this external graphics file, I need to use another application to do this.
> (I used to use the drawing tools of Word to make one color transparent; I
> would import the graphics file, use the transparency tool to make one color
> transparent, then save the Word document as a web page, and in
> newly-generated folder accompanying the web page I would find two files, one
> of which was the new graphics file I needed with the transparent
> background.)  But it is much easier to use the free Irfanview graphics
> viewing-editing application (www.irfanview.com) to make a transparent color;
> read on "transparency" in the help index to find out how.
>
> All of the graphics for Math Cats' Polygon Playground
> (www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html) and Tessellation Town
> (www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html) were created with MWPro
> (with the help of another application for making transparent backgrounds).
> I combined MW Logo programming with the graphics tools to generate all of
> the colored polygon outlines.  It is very easy to create tessellating puzzle
> pieces with MicroWorlds, when you copy and paste wiggly lines to form
> matching pairs on both sides of an altered quadrilateral (for instance).  My
> students used to love creating tessellations with MicroWorlds.  I used the
> rotation tool in the shapes editor to create right-side-up and upside-down
> triangle people.  (Of course, first I created the original equilateral
> triangles with Logo commands.)  To make very precise tessellating ocean
> waves I used MW Logo programming to draw the original curves and then I used
> the graphics tools to color the wave puzzle pieces and the coordinating fish
> puzzle pieces.
>
> For an example of a graphic combining a photo with a cartoon-like drawing
> and using a transparent background, see my self-portrait at
> www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html.  I used the graphics tools of MWPro to
> erase the background of the photo, first outlining carefully around my head
> (first with a white fine line tool or eraser and then with the fatter lines
> and with white rectangles).  Then I put my head into a MicroWorlds shape,
> opened the shape and chose a good magnification, and drew a little cat
> perched on my shoulder.  I saved this as a GIF image and then used Irfanview
> to make the white background transparent.  It was fun and easy to create
> this composite image using MWPro.
>
> My students used to love drawing cartoon bodies under their photo heads and
> then animating their bodies to dance or leap or do jumping jacks or
> whatever.  You can see examples in the "Animate Me" folder at the
> MicroWorlds in Action site:
> http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animate_me/animate_me.htm
> They enjoyed importing each other's cartoon-body images and using these
> characters in multimedia stories which they wrote using MicroWorlds
> textboxes.  Even first-graders could do this, if we didn't worry about
> writing procedures to create animations.  The "Animated Story" MIA folder
> demonstrates how even stationary characters can be used to make textboxes
> appear or to navigate to different project pages:
> http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animated_story/animated_story.htm
>
> We used to use the graphics capabilities of MW combined with textboxes to
> create many multimedia social studies projects.  It was nice sometimes to
> incorporate some programmed animations, but if we are trying to get more
> teachers comfortable with using MicroWorlds, we can encourage them to
> combine static graphics and text as a first step.
>
> I also created an "empty book" project which already had empty textboxes and
> navigation arrows and plenty of pages already set up (another version
> generated pages automatically as needed, complete with new textboxes and
> programmed navigation arrows).  It had a title page; the student just needed
> to type the title and author in the preformatted textboxes. It also had a
> planning page where students could list their characters, make note of any
> references, do some brainstorming, etc.
>
> I much preferred using MW for creating multimedia projects in this way
> rather than PowerPoint or HyperStudio, because this way we could keep the
> focus on generating meaningful content.  With PowerPoint or HyperStudio,
> students begin to get too distracted by the formatting decisions before
> they've developed their content.  With MicroWorlds, it is easy to start with
> a bare-bones text box and then gradually add the bells and whistles after
> the text is written.
>
> I will try to locate this empty book project and a few other useful template
> projects and share them soon with this list.
>
> I hope you'll find some of these ideas useful... and if you've managed to
> read to the end of this message, I congratulate you heartily!
>
> Wendy Petti
> MicroWorlds in Action
> http://mia.openworldlearning.org
> Math Cats
> http://www.mathcats.com
>
> _______________________________________________
> MWForum mailing list
> MWForum@lists.mathcats.com
> http://lists.mathcats.com/mailman/listinfo/mwforum
> Attachments archived at:
> http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html
> To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact
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What a great lesson on MW graphics! I use (and love) AppleWorks Paint.
It is fun to take any of the graphics that come with AppleWorks or can
be inserted in its paint program and turn them into shapes in MW.&nbsp;
One great activity by 4th/5th graders for first graders was to take a copy
of a scene from Once Upon a Time and use it as a bacground in MW,
draw a maze on it and customize the turtle shape. The big kids loved making
the mazes and the little kids learned to "drive" the turtle.
Other than a screen capture, I am not sure how to capture/copy/paste
a shape from MW into AppleWorks. Sometimes MW has the perfect graphic to
accompany a story written in AW word processing. Is the following true?
 Graphics can become shapes but shapes are not graphics??
BTW, you once asked what changes would be helpful. A lasso tool would
be nice, now that we are discussing graphics.
Looking forward to your presentation mode lesson.
Wendy Petti wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Hi Folks,
Recently on this list, Tony Wilson was asking about an easy way to use
MW to
 run an automatic slideshow.&nbsp; He mentioned during that dialogue,
"I am trying
 to push Microworlds amongst the staff and if it is too much of a bother
they
 will want to use a media player or powerpoint.&nbsp; I am hoping the
kids can see
 the value and power of programming."
I think many of us have found ourselves in that same situation.&nbsp;
We might be
 the lone MicroWorlds enthusiast on staff or we might be one of a small
core
 group of MW enthusiasts, and we might be looking for ways to get more
 teachers excited about and comfortable with MicroWorlds even if they
have no
 background or interest in programming.&nbsp; It's one thing to teach
our students
 some programming, but I never got anywhere with trying to teach programming
 to my colleagues.
But I did find many ways to promote the use of MicroWorlds by less
 tech-savvy teachers, even though they continued to need some hand-holding
 and encouragement.&nbsp; I'll share a few ideas here, more later, and
I hope some
 of you will share ideas that have been well-received at your schools.
The focus in this message is on the graphics capabilities of MicroWorlds.
At my former school, we had a very limited set of software installed
on our
 computers:&nbsp; MicroWorlds 2.0_ and Microsoft Office (Word, Excel,
PowerPoint,
 Access - which we steered clear of for the most part) and also MSWorks.&nbsp;
And
 then of course there were the programs that come with Windows, such
as Paint
 and Internet Explorer. (I hated Paint and much preferred the graphics
 capabilities of MicroWorlds.)
I became a huge fan of using MicroWorlds for all of our graphics needs,
and
 I continue to use MicroWorlds for generating all of the graphics on
my Math
 Cats website.&nbsp; In 3 1/2 years of developing that site, I have
felt little or
 no need to shell out $$ for a more advanced graphics application.
We've already seen how MW can easily be used to assemble an automatic
 slideshow of external JPEG or GIF files (as well as other graphics
formats).
 Here's how I often use MW to create and edit artwork:
Let's say I'm drawing a new cat for Math Cats.&nbsp; I use the circle/oval
tool
 to make the basic head shape, then erase a bit and add ears.&nbsp;
Next I draw
 one eye.&nbsp; I want the other eye to be a mirror image of the first,
so I
 surround the first eye and copy and paste it into a shape.&nbsp; I
open that
 shape and use the mirror image button to reverse the eye, then I surround
 that eye with the selection tool and copy it.&nbsp; I close that shape
and paste
 the selected area into the cat's head.&nbsp; (I've used this partial
mirror-image
 technique in lots of Math Cats projects, such as the Symmetrical Butterflies
 craft project:&nbsp; <a href="http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/symbutterflies.html">http://www.mathcats.com/crafts/symbutterflies.html</a>.)
I often use the fat bits editor (I click and drag with the selection
tool
 then double-click inside the selected area) to get an enlarged view
which I
 can edit pixel by pixel.&nbsp; I love that I can select the desired
magnification
 with MW Pro.&nbsp; I copy and paste my finished cat into a shape, then
I open the
 shape and click and drag its boundaries to crop the image closely so
that I
 don't have any unnecessary white space around it.&nbsp; (This works
much better
 in MW Pro than in MW 2.0_, for we can easily select any shape dimensions
 with Pro but cannot fine-tune the dimensions as much with MW 2.0_.)
(I love storing graphics in the shapes center.&nbsp; Often I make multiple
copies
 of a newly-drawn shape and then edit them to get variations - arms
and legs
 in different positions; merging one graphic with another; etc.)
Next I use the SAVESHAPE command (in the command center) to save my
new
 shape as an external GIF file (or if I've cropped a photo or combined
a
 photo with a cartoon-like drawing, I might save it as a JPEG file).
 Example:
saveshape "orangecat.gif 17
where 17 is the number of the shape I'm saving as an external file.
Now one thing to bear in mind is that a white background in a shape
is
 transparent when used within a MicroWorlds project, but it appears
as solid
 white when used outside MicroWorlds.&nbsp; If I want a transparent
background for
 this external graphics file, I need to use another application to do
this.
 (I used to use the drawing tools of Word to make one color transparent;
I
 would import the graphics file, use the transparency tool to make one
color
 transparent, then save the Word document as a web page, and in
 newly-generated folder accompanying the web page I would find two files,
one
 of which was the new graphics file I needed with the transparent
 background.)&nbsp; But it is much easier to use the free Irfanview
graphics
 viewing-editing application (www.irfanview.com) to make a transparent
color;
 read on "transparency" in the help index to find out how.
All of the graphics for Math Cats' Polygon Playground
 (www.mathcats.com/explore/polygons.html) and Tessellation Town
 (www.mathcats.com/explore/tessellationtown.html) were created with
MWPro
 (with the help of another application for making transparent backgrounds).
 I combined MW Logo programming with the graphics tools to generate
all of
 the colored polygon outlines.&nbsp; It is very easy to create tessellating
puzzle
 pieces with MicroWorlds, when you copy and paste wiggly lines to form
 matching pairs on both sides of an altered quadrilateral (for instance).&nbsp;
My
 students used to love creating tessellations with MicroWorlds.&nbsp;
I used the
 rotation tool in the shapes editor to create right-side-up and upside-down
 triangle people.&nbsp; (Of course, first I created the original equilateral
 triangles with Logo commands.)&nbsp; To make very precise tessellating
ocean
 waves I used MW Logo programming to draw the original curves and then
I used
 the graphics tools to color the wave puzzle pieces and the coordinating
fish
 puzzle pieces.
For an example of a graphic combining a photo with a cartoon-like drawing
 and using a transparent background, see my self-portrait at
 www.mathcats.com/grownupcats.html.&nbsp; I used the graphics tools
of MWPro to
 erase the background of the photo, first outlining carefully around
my head
 (first with a white fine line tool or eraser and then with the fatter
lines
 and with white rectangles).&nbsp; Then I put my head into a MicroWorlds
shape,
 opened the shape and chose a good magnification, and drew a little
cat
 perched on my shoulder.&nbsp; I saved this as a GIF image and then
used Irfanview
 to make the white background transparent.&nbsp; It was fun and easy
to create
 this composite image using MWPro.
My students used to love drawing cartoon bodies under their photo heads
and
 then animating their bodies to dance or leap or do jumping jacks or
 whatever.&nbsp; You can see examples in the "Animate Me" folder at
the
 MicroWorlds in Action site:
 <a href="http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animate_me/animate_me.htm">http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animate_me/animate_me.htm</a>
 They enjoyed importing each other's cartoon-body images and using these
 characters in multimedia stories which they wrote using MicroWorlds
 textboxes.&nbsp; Even first-graders could do this, if we didn't worry
about
 writing procedures to create animations.&nbsp; The "Animated Story"
MIA folder
 demonstrates how even stationary characters can be used to make textboxes
 appear or to navigate to different project pages:
 <a href="http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animated_story/animated_story.htm">http://mia.openworldlearning.org/animated_story/animated_story.htm</a>
We used to use the graphics capabilities of MW combined with textboxes
to
 create many multimedia social studies projects.&nbsp; It was nice sometimes
to
 incorporate some programmed animations, but if we are trying to get
more
 teachers comfortable with using MicroWorlds, we can encourage them
to
 combine static graphics and text as a first step.
I also created an "empty book" project which already had empty textboxes
and
 navigation arrows and plenty of pages already set up (another version
 generated pages automatically as needed, complete with new textboxes
and
 programmed navigation arrows).&nbsp; It had a title page; the student
just needed
 to type the title and author in the preformatted textboxes. It also
had a
 planning page where students could list their characters, make note
of any
 references, do some brainstorming, etc.
I much preferred using MW for creating multimedia projects in this way
 rather than PowerPoint or HyperStudio, because this way we could keep
the
 focus on generating meaningful content.&nbsp; With PowerPoint or HyperStudio,
 students begin to get too distracted by the formatting decisions before
 they've developed their content.&nbsp; With MicroWorlds, it is easy
to start with
 a bare-bones text box and then gradually add the bells and whistles
after
 the text is written.
I will try to locate this empty book project and a few other useful
template
 projects and share them soon with this list.
I hope you'll find some of these ideas useful... and if you've managed
to
 read to the end of this message, I congratulate you heartily!
Wendy Petti
 MicroWorlds in Action
 <a href="http://mia.openworldlearning.org">http://mia.openworldlearning.org</a>
 Math Cats
 <a href="http://www.mathcats.com">http://www.mathcats.com</a>
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 MWForum mailing list
 MWForum@lists.mathcats.com
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 Attachments archived at:
 <a href="http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html">http://www.mathcats.com/mwforum/attachments.html</a>
 To unsubscribe or for administrative questions contact
 <a href="mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com">mailto:mwforum-admin@lists.mathcats.com</a></blockquote>
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