The trials, tribulations, successes & epic fails of a North Devon Schools Web Designer.

Posts in category Photography

Summer Photo Competition – Art Vs Geography

May08
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

Just putting the finishing touches to a new blog with a forthcoming Summer Holiday Project in mind.
In a ‘colab’ between Geography & Art, the two departments will be running a competition open to Students & Staff to photograph our local area & environment.
Rumors of a cash prize are floating around so it could be an attractive proposition.
I’ve built the site around WordPress and included the excellent PHP FormMail Generator plugin for the submission tool.

Check the site to find out more…

Happy Blogging

Posted in Blogs & Blogging, Collaboration, Design, Student Engagement, WordPress

Visual Quiz

Apr30
2013 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

Following on from the success of the ‘Can you tell what it is yet?’ pictures we used on the College signage last week I’ve used the simple ‘Text & Pictures’ reveal brick in Frog to created a visual quiz for whiteboard & classroom use. We already publish a weekly text quiz but I thought this might engage visual learners. Awaiting feedback because it might be quite good fun to run an inter-form comp using similar imaging.

Check it out yuorself over @ http://www.bideford.devon.sch.uk/what

Posted in Beta Testing, Frog Learning Platform, Frog Powered, Fun, Student Engagement, Website

Virtual Gallery Under Construction

Jul21
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

Currently I’m hand cranking a virtual art gallery for this years GCSE & A Level Art Shows. Admittedly it’s taking longer than I’d anticipated but the finished article will be able to be reused each year with new students work & the minimum of hassle. The concept is a very wide L to R scrolling gallery that showcases 2 pieces of work per student. Clicking on the works opens a greybox Flash slide show of more of their portfolio while clicking on the exhibitor info opens a lightbox window. The trick has been how to divide up the content so it loads quickly, works for different screen resolutions and crucially can be updated in the future with the minimum of hassle. It’s been a bit of a toughie. More as & when it goes live.

Posted in Design, Developments, Future Dev, Graphics, Pix, Resources, Student Engagement, Web Design

The growing 500px Portfolio…

Jul19
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

As followers will know I’m a keen snapper & have used (& will continue to do so) the My Right Eye blog to host a selection of photos BUT for the last few months I’ve been using the excellent 500px photoblogging community site too and found it really inspirational. Check it out here

Posted in Blogs & Blogging

Interactive Evacuees Suitcase !?! Whatever next?

Mar10
2011 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

A quick peek at the project currently taking up a lot of processing power @ the moment. It’s (will soon be) an interactive WW II child evacuees suitcase! The History Dept’ are contrasting the 1987  John Boorman film ‘Hope & Glory’ with the realities of the mass evacuation of children from the major cities during the war. The original photo only had the case & gas mask, everything else has been added in Photoshop. Live link when it’s finally cooked!

Posted in Developments, Graphics

More 360 Degree Panoramas

Apr20
2010 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

Was lucky enough to get on the College building site today to take a wedge of pix for some new 360 degree panoramas.
Once again I’m using the excellent You3DView hosting site for the finished panoramic images that have been created using the open source  ’Hugin‘ tool.
Now all I need is a wider angle lens on the camera to really make the most of it all!! ;)
Check the other panorama’s on the New School Blog.

Posted in Erm...Umm..., Pix

360 Degrees of Wisdom

Oct09
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

I spent a few hours yesterday trying to find a better solution to interactive 360 degree panoramas than the old QTV approach that we have used previously. Flash was the obvious way forward but most of the free solutions (Don’t forget this is an educational establishment after all & I have no budget) were a tad clunky or out of my limited sphere of Flash knowledge. Almost by accident I stumbled across the rather wonderful you3dview.com a youtube for panorama nuts. All you need to do is upload a panoramic image (I’m currently using the excellent open source ’Hugin‘ app to create mine) & they do the rest!  Result!
The above is a hastily knocked together demo but the potential is good, especially with the new buildcompletion getting nearer day by day expect to see more “Biddy-Coll-Pano’s” in the near future.

Happy blogging

Stu

Posted in Developments, Future Dev, Kinda Cool

Landscape Windows

Sep16
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

Southole

I’ve spent quite a few hours recently compiling some enormous, high definition landscape images (Up to 22,000 pixels wide)
The main idea is to create ‘Landscape Windows’ which can be hung in a teaching space. They can then be used as inspiration or as a visual resource for landscape drawing & painting.
The process is quite simple, just a little time consuming.  Once the source photographs have been downloaded they are compiled in Photoshop &  then divided into A3 sections, printed out & reassembled like a giant jigsaw in the classroom. I’ve also hit upon the idea of accompanying the image with sound recordings taken at the original photo location to aid the atmosphere created by such large images. The next trick is to create a zoomable online version for the College website. More as & when.

Torrington
Happy Blogging
Stu

Posted in Developments, Future Dev - Tagged

Blink & you’ll miss it.

Jul09
2009 Leave a Comment Written by Stuart

splash

Experimenting today with the new Casio Exilm EX-F1 High Speed digital camera. It looks like a DSLR but has the ability to shoot up to 60 fps (Frames Per Second) still photos, as above,  & a whopping 1200 fps video. Up until a year or so ago this facility was strictly the property of Uni’s & larger institutions but the Casio brings this kind of technology right into a Devonian classroom. Like…..WOW!
And before some of you start to acuse me of just  ’Playing’, I needed to really get the hang of it before we start to use it properly as the Manual it comes with is pants!
Mr Pyle & I saw one of these cameras at a STEMNET meeting the other month & decided the College just HAD to have one. The fact that you can shoot images & film in the classroom & then play it back instantly via a laptop/whiteboard can really bring ‘blink of an eye & you’ll miss it’  stuff to life especially in Science, PE & Art (just for starters)
The plan is to build a comprehensive library of images & footage for use in a wide range of lessons.
It should also take the sports day photos into a different league next year!

Happy blogging

Stu

Posted in Amazing, Developments, Future Dev, Video

Subscribe


 

About BCO WebDev

BCO WebDev
I've worked at the College for 15 years now, initially as a music dept' techie & then as a resource technician.
A significant amount of time since then was spent as an I.T Techie then 5 years or so ago I was promoted to the dizzy heights of "Web Developer & Curriculum Resources Technician".
Currently I design, develop & manage virtually all of the College's web presence, am closely involved in the continued development of our Frog powered learning platform as well as creating mountains of stuff in Photoshop/Dreamweaver for all sorts of departmental resources.
I'm a commited blogger, surf & skate fanatic & groove loving bass player.
When not doing all that I still find time to run 10K once in a while, take photos, make Skateboards in an after school club & then collapse in a heap @ the end of the day.
I harboured ambitions to be a helicopter pilot when I was young.
Check the About Page for more stuff & nonsense.

A peek inside my mind

Instagrams

Lucky you…

you are blog visitor number: Currently there are: visitors reading this blog.

My Right Eye

My Right Eye

Spiders Eye View

Macroscoping

Random Visions

6.jpg

Archive

Posts by date:

June 2013
M T W T F S S
« May    
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Disclaimer

BCO WebDev The views expressed on this blog are strictly those of the author and no other. Devon County Council & Bideford College cannot be held responsible for any comments, statements or views expressed by author. Every effort is made to ensure that the information provided on these pages is accurate and up to date, but no legal responsibility is accepted for any errors, omissions or misleading statements. Please have a nice, peaceful & non confrontational day.
Back to Top