The image editing tools can be fun to play with. However, I find the process much more time consuming than I would use on a regular basis. The editing features are not that much more special than what I can do with iPhoto. For students, I see the image remaking tool as another way to digress from task, much like the animation features of PowerPoint. If the point is to teach photo editing skills, great, but if the goal is to reinforce science understanding, students should be spending more time on the content in their reports.
I am unlikely to subscribe now that I have uploaded my five free pictures. I did have trouble uploading an image I acquired from Creative Commons, although I later realized it was in how I saved the image in the first place. (needed to save as image, and not copy.) I realize that if I am going to use my camera for a blog, I need to change my camera settings. Typically I take pictures on outdoor vacations with highest number of pixels so that I have the option of enlarging them into prints if I want. These take too long to upload to blogger, and I would be better off with less resolution.
I found the copyright information worthwhile and will probably require students who make powerpoints to include the information on the first slide as suggested by EducationWorld. Most of the time I want students to include more graphics or images on PowerPoints than words. Students should talk to the class (not just read the words off a slide) because this shows understanding of their topic. The PowerPoint is the graph reinforcement.
All the photo enhancing tools remind me of an article that I saw perhaps 25 years ago as photo retouching software was just being developed and long before anyone had easy access to it. The article was titled "The End of the Photograph As Evidence of Anything Real." This is another reality check that many students probably need to be reminded of. What you see, just because it is a photograph like image, doesn't mean it actually exists that way. Maybe the way to help students see this is to have them alter images of their own.
Detail of green sign on outhouse on trail in Whistler, Canada
Sign cropped and zoomed.
Butterfly laying eggs, cropped and color enhanced
Black bear Whistler, Canada after cropping and heat mapping
The heat mapping would be more useful in class if there were an easy to follow color code about what was hot and what not.Detail of green sign on outhouse on trail in Whistler, Canada
Sign cropped and zoomed.
Butterfly laying eggs, cropped and color enhanced
Black bear Whistler, Canada after cropping and heat mapping
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ReplyDelete"Typically I take pictures on outdoor vacations with highest number of pixels so that I have the option of enlarging them into prints if I want. These take too long to upload to blogger, and I would be better off with less resolution."
I do the same thing but I compress them with Picture Manager before I upload them to a website. I don't really see any loss of photo quality once it's on the web. Check out these pictures on a site I edit for our local TU chapter:
http://www.wisconsintu.org/shawpaca/News/tabid/204/Default.aspx
Tom, I agree with Randy. Don't take smaller pixel photos ... instead change the amount of pixels afterwards on the computer.
ReplyDeleteI have found that having the better quality original has allowed for more editing opportunities. I cannot think of the program we use; currently my better half's computer is not connected to our home network...
the downfalls of relying on technology :) I will work on finding that software for you though!
i agree with you about how things like image editing, or powerpoint animations can be a way for students to get off task, and neglect the conceptual material at hand. but i think it is also as likely that attempting to develop these skills to accentuate the material will provide a variety of students an entrance point into the material they may not otherwise have had.
ReplyDeleteit is another thing to assess them on, but i always include the effectiveness of their decisions in presentations as an aspect of any presentation grade, and i feel like the benefit it has provided students far outweighs the negatives
Randy and Kelly, thanks for the tips on compression. One more tool to locate and plug in. I think my camera (a Nikon) originally came with software that allowed me to do this but it disappeared when the computer was stolen so it is time to go back through the storage box and see what is there.
ReplyDeleteRaymond, If I read your comment correctly, I think what you are saying is that you get more depth of understanding if you ask students to explain why the display mode they chose helps explain the ideas. Another way of saying this is, allow, welcome and encourage the graphic capabilities of the tools (which many love to use) but require them to justify how the use furthers the presentation. An analogy would be to a movie making class where you either justify your camera angle or field of view or why you decided to edit the shot at a certain place. I think this can be a valuable learning method because it makes the presentation process less invisible and more thoughtful.
One thing I want to do more of this year is have students comment on the effectiveness of presentations as a way of engaging each other and increasing collaboration. Maybe a way of doing this would be to have each student suggest a different way to present the same material.
I agree with the others. Keep taking them with high resolution. You should be able to use iPhoto to compress the images. Export them and use the "custom" setting under "Size."
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