Digital+Images



Isn't digital photography wonderful? Take any photo, crop it, rotate it, straighten it, change the intensity level, add a frame and on and on and on! You don't have to be the world's greatest photographer to have a great photo nowadays.  On this page of the wiki you'll see some amazing web 2.0 tools for embellishing photos. These are all free! Well, let me clarify! They all have lots of features that are free, then they entice you with more, and more features, which are NOT free! But for most of us, we'll be happy with the free features.

 The three sites listed here are places where you can upload your own photos, embellish them in a variety of ways, and print or save them. I've uploaded some of my personal photos in each site as examples for you. A more extensive list can be found on our Technology Keys Wiki.

Site #2. dumpr.net site has been discontinued.

Site #3. Be Funky

Photo Booth is an application on the Mac. Kids (and adults) can spend hours playing with this simple application. Photo Booth opens the built-in iSight camera and takes a quick snapshot while you're sitting right in front of your computer! Just like the photo booths at the mall! Change the settings to something crazy and then take your picture! I"m not sure what the real connection here is to learning but I'm sure some of you creative teachers will come up with something! Also, in Photo Booth, you can create a short video, this can be with the green screen effect or without. I've seen the sixth graders using the roller coaster video for their roller coaster unit. It's a great way to start their Keynote presentation!  If you need a picture of your students quickly, use Photo Booth. Or if you want to post your students photos online, but you don't want them to be recognizable use Photo Booth, choose the Comic Book or Pencil Drawing effect.  This is a video tutorial on using Photo Booth. media type="youtube" key="tIVb7eX5XWQ" height="340" width="560" align="center"

Another way to link Photo Booth to curriculum standards is to use it to teach symmetry. One of the effects available in Photo Booth is "mirror", which allows you to show a portion of your face and have it reflected on both sides of the image. In these photos, students have taken unusual photos of themselves using the mirror effect and then physically (not digitally) colored parts of the image.

 Most of the photos that I use in newsletters, brochures, on my blog, in this wiki, have frames on them. I think the look is more friendly instead of the stark corners. This can be done pretty easily in Keynote or Pages, it really doesn't matter which application you use. For complete instructions and a video tutorial, go to my wiki on Pages. Look how much a simple frame enhances the photos!





**Photo Sharing** For an extensive list of Copyright-friendly images, photo editing sites, and cool sites for using your images, go to our Technology Keys Wiki.
 * **PhotoBucket**: Image hosting, free photo sharing and video sharing. Upload your photos, host your videos, and share them with friends and family.
 * **Flickr**: Flickr is almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world. Show off your favorite photos and videos to the world.
 * **SmugMug**: The ultimate in photo & video sharing. Easily create online photo albums. Share, store, organize and print.
 * **72 Photos**: Store, edit, add effects, arrange in galleries, share. 72photos replaces the need for conventional photo software and redefines the way you work with your photos.
 * **Clevr**: Create and share panoramic photos online. Embed on your own site.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS',cursive;">Google Picasa - helps you instantly organize, edit and share pictures. Automatically locates all your pictures and sorts them into visual albums. Make powerful photo editing simple. Allows photos from iPhoto to be uploaded to the web quickly and easily.

__ Using Images in Comic Life: __ __Images can easily be dropped into Comic Life (on Macs) to create quick and easy flashcards and sorting games. These also__ __make great journaling prompts, vocabulary studies, etc.__ __Measurement sorting cards (vocab, definitions, images of tools): __

Another manner for using images is to stimulate prior knowledge thinking at the introduction of a new topic. Showing images to students facilitates their connection-building, whether done independently, or as a building point for group conversations. The example below shows images posted in the hallway at the introduction of a new social studies unit, to help students build connections about the Southwest region of the U.S.