8TH GRADE COMPUTER APPLICATIONS• Course Overview

COURSE INFORMATION

½ year electiveClass meets for a double period every

other day Increase student knowledge of today’s

popular computer programs and become more proficient end users.

Introduce students to software programs used in High School classes such as web design, digital photography, and many others.

UNITS OF STUDY

Internet Safety, Search Techniques and Online Content Laws

Adobe Photoshop Audacity Office Applications:

WordPublisherPowerpoint

Macromedia Flash Adobe Premiere

INTERNET SAFETY AND SEARCH TECHNIQUES

Internet Safety: Staying safe with social networking

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace

Internet Searching (Beyond the Basics): How Search Engines work Boolean Logic Advanced Google Searching

Legalities: Copyright laws and illegal music/movie

downloading P2P Sharing Sites (Limewire, Kazaa, Frostwire,

BitTorrent) Fayetteville-Manlius Computer Use Policy

PHOTO EDITING (ADOBE PHOTOSHOP)

• Working with Photoshop Tools • Brushes• Colors• Text• Smudge/Blur Tools• Fills/Gradient Colors• Clone Stamp• Lasso/Wand• Layers

• Photo Editing• Touch-ups• Filters• Applying Special Effects

ASSIGNMENTS

Students will perform multiple daily assignments utilizing many of the different tools in Photoshop to show proficiency.

Upon completion of the daily assignments students will then complete their major projects. Examples are included on subsequent pages and include: Haunted House Magazine Cover Creating unique collages for the calendar project

HAUNTED HOUSE PROJECT

Original: Edited:

PHOTOSHOP MAGAZINE COVER•Students design an original magazine cover featuring themselves•Only object native to the picture is the students head and the rest of the cover is created utilizing Photoshop

CALENDAR PROJECT (PUBLISHER)

Students will learn how to create calendars in publisher while incorporating their own Photoshop designs.

Each calendar will include 13 edited pictures. One for each month and an additional picture for the cover.

Students will then add holiday’s and special events to each month as well as edit the calendar dates for their own design preferences.

CALENDAR EXAMPLES

ADVANCED OFFICE APPS. (WORD)

Headers/Footers Watermark Floating Pictures Alignment Tools Paste Special (.gif & .jpg) Word art Drawing Tools Smart Art Alignment Tabs

AD SAMPLES

AUDACITY (AUDIO EDITING)

Students will learn about what makes a radio advertisement interesting and tips/tricks that motivate a listener to do what advertisers desire.

Students will create an audio advertisement for either their Calendar or one of their Word Advertisements.

Advertisements will include: Background Instrumentals Student Voiceovers Sound Effects Students may include other audio effects as

desired

ANIMATION (MACROMEDIA FLASH)

Macromedia Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages.

Common uses of flash include: Games Internet Advertisements Internet Animations Buttons and other objects on websites

MACROMEDIA FLASH CONT.

In Computer Applications students will learn about the tools and design sequences required to produce a flash animation. These tools and concepts include: Creating Motion

Frame by Frame Animation Motion Tweening Shape Tweening

Working with Audio Nested Animations

Students will then produce an original animated movie utilizing the skills acquired in class.

MACROMEDIA FLASH CONT.

Timeline/Layers Tools Stage

MOVIE MAKING (ADOBE PREMIERE) Students may make 2 types of movies, Standard Capture and

Stop Motion Standard Capture movies are taken with a camcorder

(similar to home videos) and consist of making a film from an initial story idea, then directing, shooting, and editing the final product Students will be utilizing a “green screen” to edit

themselves into existing clips. Examples include:

An instructional Video News or Sports Cast

Stop Motion is an animation technique to make inanimate objects appear to move on their own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Students will create an original stop motion movie

utilizing whiteboards, play dough or other inanimate objects as the “actors”

MOVIE MAKING CONT. Working with Media in the timeline

Trimming Raw Video Footage Organizing Clips/Transitions/Speed

Adding Effects/Transitions/Titles/Themes Adding Audio Planning/Storyboarding