Group 2 Tools - Images

In this post, I will reflect on my experimentation with images and their potential for use in the teaching context. In exploring images and their application, I tried resizing and uploading digital photos and creating new images.

Resizing and Uploading Digital Photos

Adding high quality images to blogs can be difficult when the file size is large, for example images taken with a digital SLR.

I downloaded MobaPhoto in order to experiment with resizing digital photographs. The application was quick and easy to download, and being able to save it to a memory stick was very handy. The MobaPhoto web toolbar made resizing an individual photo easy, and I believe a batch resize option is also available to resize a number of photos simultaneously. I selected JPG as the file type (as this blog permits upload of JPG, GIF or PNG files), but a wide range of file types is available.

The size of the original image file was 2.92 MB and the resized file is 2.10 KB. The significantly reduced file size made it much faster to upload the image to this blog (below).

This application will definitely be useful for both personal and professional activities.

Although the above image is one I took in south-east Asia a few years ago, manipulating and using digital photos online is a great way of teaching students about referencing and legal/ethical implications of using online materials. As a teacher, I would model appropriate use of images and establish rules around photography (e.g. no photographs of students faces etc.).

Creating Images

Using images in my teaching will foster students' visual literacy. I particularly value images for their ability to engage learners (especially visual learners) and encourage critical thinking/thinking about emotional responses. Thinking routines like the See, Think Wonder routine (Harvard Project Zero, n.d.) are important to scaffold students' responses to visual texts.

Photographs are also a useful way of recording classroom activities (field trips, student work), archiving student work and personalising the learning experience (e.g. time lapse photos of individual science experiments, illustrated student stories etc.). Classroom photos can be shared or used in a variety of ways (e.g. blogs, class wikis, powerpoint presentations, Smartboards, Flickr) and images can be used equally well across the KLAs.

However, in order to move from lower to higher level thinking, the key objective should be for students to manipulate and create images themselves. Although this can involve students taking photos, there are also numerous programs available which can be used to create new digital images.

Today I experimented with one of these programs, called ArtRage Studio. I downloaded the free trial version. Although it took quite a lot of trial and error to familiarise myself with the application, the interface was quite user-friendly (clickable symbols as well as drop-down menus). It's great that so many of the features of the application correspond to 'real-world' art techniques (e.g. crayon, paint brush, spray can, pen, stickers etc.). I didn't have time to master some of the more complicated tools like stencils and image layering.

Using the 'trace' function, I created the below image based on one of my original photos using a variety of media.

I can see this program being a great tool for use in the classroom, although I think the teacher would need to familiarise themselves with its' technical affordances and demonstrate explicitly to students.

ArtRage Studio would be fantastic for art and creative responses to literature. To provide an example, I did the below sketch while listening to the audiobook of The Twits by Roald Dahl. This text uses very descriptive language allowing the reader generate a detailed image in their mind's eye. Using ArtRage Studio in this way encourages and develops effective text-participant literary practices (Winch et al., 2010).

A major benefit of using a program like this is that the final images can be easily saved and shared electronically. An analysis of the advantages and disadvantages of using images in the teaching context is provided in the below PMI.

Plus	Minus	Interesting
- students understand that meaning can be conveyed in different ways  - fosters visual literacy (students develop the skills to create images that portray meaning and interpret visual imagery) - understand and evaluate emotional responses to images - provies an opportunity to teach students about legal, ethical and safety issues associated with using images - supports skills development in image creation/manipulation  - images provide the basis for a range of other digital technologies (e.g. Glogs, Dipity, blogs, etc.)	- legal, ethical and safety sensitivities - students need to be monitoring closely when using online images	- 'an image tells a thousand words' - as a teacher, using images can reach students in ways that no other media can - I love art and find imagery and interpretation of digital images fascinating (I'm sure this enthusiasm would be infectious)

References

Harvard Project Zero (n.d.). See Think Wonder Routine. http://www.pz.harvard.edu/vt/visibleThinking_html_files/03_ThinkingRoutines/03c_Core_routines/SeeThinkWonder/SeeThinkWonder_Routine.html

Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L. & Holliday, M. (2010). Literacy: reading, writing & children's literature (4th Ed.). South Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.