Picnik and Flickr

I have never even tried image manipulation before, I have heard about photoshop and others, but had never used it myself. I wasn't even aware of how to change the size of a photo ... until now.

I have just been introduced to an image manipulation program called Picnik . It is a free program and allows you to do basic adjustments such as resize, crop, enhance lighting/colour, and add some special effects to an image, as well as other things I haven't had the time to discover yet. There are more advanced versions available, allowing more possibilities for editing, but these involve a cost to upgrade your account.

Here are some attempts I have had at image manipulation (using the free version only):

This is my photo, I have resized it here

In this one I have used Picnik to add a border, enhance the colours, add a smiley and a text message.

Incorporating images into classroom work is a necessity, it engages all types of learning styles in the group. In order to make them more engaging for students, sometimes you will need to manipulate the image, which is where Picnik proves a valuable tool. It is simple to use for both teacher and student. I enjoyed using Picnik, I found it very engaging. I'm sure it will engage students in the classroom and would enhance their work if they were to use it to manipulate their own images. Picnik only stores 5 photos, but it gives the user the option of saving the images you have edited to either your computer or Flickr.

Flickr is an online, safe storage site for images. It allows access to images (that you have uploaded, or any other images on the Flickr website) from any computer with internet access. Flickr is free and is available for anyone to use. Most of the images can be used for educational purposes. One of the great things about Flickr is that any copyright issues are covered because Flickr is covered under the Creative Commons Licence.

The use of Picnik and Flickr in the classroom promotes active learning, engages students and encourages creativity also. Students are meaningfully engaged in learning activities through collaboration and interaction with others and worthwhile tasks. (Kearsley and Shneiderman, 1997)

Using these two technology tools also needs 'creative thinking' (Dimensions of learning - Habits of mind) to occur. Perseverance, pushing the limits of your knowledge and abilities, generating new ways of viewing a situation that are outside the boundaries of standard conventions are some of the mental habits needed to produce different types of work using these tools. (Marzano & Pickering, 1997).

Examples of where this technology could be used in the classroom are:

• editing images for either group or individual assignments
• creating photostories/media presentations about specific issues/topics
• powerpoint presentations

This is all I can think of at this stage with my limited knowledge, but I know there would be heaps more.

References:
Marzano, R., & Pickering, D. (1997). Dimensions of Learning: Teacher's manual (2nd ed.). Alexandria: ASCD