Picnik and Image Manipulation

I really enjoyed using Picnik in this learning activity – who knew there was a far superior version to ‘Paint’ available free of charge on the web?

During this learning activity, I:

1. created a Picnik account,

2. uploaded an image,

3. edited the image using the various tools available (e.g. cropping, resizing, rotating, auto-fixing, sharpening, altering the colours/ contrast),

4. ‘created’ the image (adding further effects and a frame) and

5. saved the image to my computer, uploaded it Flickr and posted it to my blog.

I repeated this process using another image and the results can be seen below.

Original Photo...............................Photo After Editing.

Original Photo................................Photo After Editing.

Images: Personal photos taken and edited by Karlee Kreis

 

As you can see in the 'Coke Bottle Building' photo, the 'Neon' effect in Picnik enabled me to manipulate the image in a way that expressed the coke brand (and colour) and is far different from the original photo I took whilst on a study tour in China (I come from a Marketing background and previously worked for Coca-Cola Amatil).  Note that the image/ title at the top of my Blog (Karlee's e.Journal) was editied in Picnik and I found the process of customising an image for my blog very rewarding,

Picnik would be a great image manipulation tool for students wishing to edit images for class projects, their wiki or blog. Using the site could become a lesson in itself, where students learn how to manipulate digital images and then perhaps post them onto their (or the class) Flickr account.  The hands-on nature of Picnik would also foster creativity and could be used in learning experiences underpinned by engagement theory (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). For instance, students could collaborate (relate) to build an online photo gallery of digitally altered images on Flickr on the topic being studied (Create) and make these images available to an outside audience, be it their peers, the teacher or parents (Donate).

For lower primary grades, the images created could be used in special occasion cards (e.g. for Mother’s Day) or compiled and presented in a power point presentation to parents during a parent conference in the classroom. 

In fact, I am so enthusastic about Picnik, that I will be working with the learners in my ELP class next week to edit an image in Picnik for their Mother's Day card (example left).

Picnik is yet another digital tool that enables active, hands-on learning (as students use multiple senses, in an active process to produce a product as per Dale's Cone (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). Referring to the Learning Pyramid, using Picnik would also enable higher retention of the skills learnt and the learning experience itself through practical experience (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). Picnik is my new favourite website and I can't wait to share it with the learners I'm currently working with.

IWB: The Blackboard of the 21st Century

Interactive Whiteboards (IWBs) are the Blackboard of the 21st Century.

Schools throughout Central Queensland are rapidly adopting the technology, with Parkhurst State School (in Rockhampton) featuring an IWB in every classroom.

Dysart State School (DSS), where I attended most of my primary years (and where my mother is currently a teacher), has also embraced IWB technology - with almost all teaching spaces housing an IWB. Late last year I visited the school (volunteering as a 'class helper') and was amazed to see how the classrooms had transformed since I was a student there in the early 1990's... air-conditioning, IWBs and no painfully uncomfortable wooden chairs!

DSS has two types of IWBs – Soft boards for the lower school (as they are essentially giant touch screens, ideal for children to interact with) and Hard boards for the upper school (as they include an electronic pen and are ideal for tasks requiring greater accuracy).

At DSS, the IWBs have access to everything on the school network, internet access, the ability to play DVDs and access to software programs on the schools network specifically designed for IWB use including; Super Spell, Google Earth and Art Rage. IWBs have become integral to daily lessons at DSS, with teachers frequently using the IWB to visit educational websites (such as Enchanted Learning and Music Lab) and display pictures and documents.

IWBs offer a host of benefits, for example:

- Teachers can plan and save lessons in advance on the computer.
- Class work can be saved, printed and emailed.
- ICT skills can be seamlessly integrated into the syllabus and learning experiences.
- Various media, software and internet applications can be displayed and used on the one teaching board.
- Students are exposed to and can use various technologies and programs in the classroom which, without an IWB, would be difficult.

Most importantly, learning in a classroom with an IWB becomes a visual and interactive experience which facilitates hands-on, student-centred learning. Referring to Dale’s Cone (below), IWBs promote active, deeper and more effective learning through demonstration and direct, purposeful experiences (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000). For instance, teachers can easily demonstrate content and activities on the IWB and students can use the electronic pen to interact with the board or search internet sites (e.g. Google Earth or Wikipedia) themselves during class discussions to find the answer to their question – becoming an active participant in their own learning. IWB's also enable students to 'practice by doing' and immediately apply what they have learnt, which according to the Learning Pyramid, further promotes active learning and higher retention (Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence, 2000).

Later this month, our internal class will be visiting Parkhurst State School and I am looking forward to seeing their IWBs in action and learning about their ICT program.




Images courtesy of: Abilene Christian University Adams Center for Teaching Excellence.(2000).

Interesting Viewing - The Importance of Technology in Classrooms

I came across an interesting YouTube video today. It was created by Carl Anderson in 2007, and highlights the importance of using technology in modern classrooms.

Watch the video embedded below, and feel free to share your reactions and thoughts....



The video really resonated with me and I found the mix of text, images and music quite engaging.

In one section, the text reads "Digital tools improve motivation and are appropriate tools for active engagement in authentic learning tasks." Given what I have read regarding Learning Engagement Theory and Dale's Learning Cone, Anderson's statement about digital tools in this video certainly reflects the academic literature and popular thinking about e-learning.  Furthermore, by actively engaging students in authentic learning tasks as Anderson recommends, the average retention rate would be higher, as learners 'practice by doing' with ICTs and can immediately use what they have learnt.

"They [children] want to learn with the tools that will shape their future" was another key statement for me. Children use computers and digital media, including blogs, mobile phones and i-phones everyday. So, why not enhance and motivate student learning by engaging kids with the tools they; regularly use, enjoy and are familiar with? Particularly when we, as teachers, are preparing them to live and work in a 'knowledge economy' where digital tools are the foundations for the knowledge and information, society so greatly values.

Learner-centric and Teacher-centric Education

What does it mean to be a Teacher in the 21st Century? There has been a paradigm shift within the teaching profession over the past decade. The role of teachers has changed to reflect the current focus on learning management and learner-centric approaches to education. As a pre-service teacher at CQUniversity, my education and professional preparation will be underpinned by the learning design process, the dimensions of learning, as well as other concepts and approaches we now know to be integral to the achievement of learning outcomes in 21st Century classrooms, including; learning engagement and information communication technologies.

Teacher-centred (direct instruction, deductive or expository) learning, dominates the traditional view of what teachers ‘do’ (Killen, 2003). Here, the teacher controls what is taught and how information is presented (personified by a ‘chalk and talk’ approach). There is minimal student interaction or substantive conversation between teachers and students. At this end of the teacher-centred – learner-centred spectrum, it is easy to see, that with such minimal participation, students would find it difficult to engage in learning experiences. From what I recall of my own primary education in the early 1990’s, the teaching of curriculum generally gave way to my individual needs and preferences as a learner. My teachers had the class copy information from a blackboard and their pedagogies tended to concentrate on imparting the knowledge they deemed important. In relation to Dale's Cone, my primary education in particular was quite passive, as verbal and visual symbols dominated. Mind you, I was generally more interested in sport and athletics when I was in Primary school. At the bottom of this post you will find an image of me when I was in Year 5.

In a learner-centered approach to teaching, teachers (or more precisely, ‘learning managers’) act as facilitators of student learning, negotiating with students what path their content learning will take. In devising learning design, teachers take into consideration what their students already know, what their students want to know, and how their student’s best learn and want to learn (Lynch, 2003). Nonetheless, as Scot Alred, pointed out in an ICTs tutorial earlier this month, teacher-centred practices have their place in modern classrooms and can be used alongside more learner-centred approaches.

For example, in a Year 11 IT class, a teacher might ask their students what they would like to know more about and the class responds, basic HTML. The teacher might then proceed to outline how HTML codes are created for websites - writing an example on the whiteboard. Although the explanation of HTML in this lesson was essentially didactic in nature, the teacher was responding to their student’s learning request. Thus, the students were at the centre, and the learning experience can be deemed learner-centric, even though didactic teacher instruction was included.

As learning managers, we must keep in mind that the ultimate goal of education is learning (and indeed, learning for understanding). As Killen (2003, p. 2) puts it, “[our learners] should be at the centre of all teaching.” This learner-centred approach is reflected in the process of learning management, Learning Engagement Theory, Lynch’s 8 Learning Management Questions and Marzano and Pickering’s 5 Dimensions of Learning.

So what is learning management? Over the past decade, learning management has emerged as a dominate approach to teaching. Smith (2000) describes learning management as the capacity to design pedagogic strategies that achieve learning outcomes in students. The Learning Management process involves asking 8 learning management questions (LMQ's), spanning three stages (Profiling, Strategising & Delivery, and Ascertainment). The emphasis of the learning management process is on achieving learning for students, and the teaching strategies we use, are the keys to successfully achieving these learning outcomes. But what teaching strategies should we use to teach the youth of today, and how can we apply them in a motivating and engaging way? Are purely teacher-centric teaching strategies a ‘thing’ of the past?

As teachers of the 21st Century, we are teaching the youth of generation X, the ‘I want everything I want it now’ generation, children and young adults who were born into a digital revolution, people who seemingly can’t live without their mobile phone or the internet and not to mention a multitude of other emerging technologies. To successfully achieve student outcomes, learning managers need to learn how to spark the curiosity of young minds, connect with our students, and cater to their diverse learning needs. This can be achieved through the integration of ICTs. My future blogs will address the issue of learning engagement and ICTs can be applied in the classrooms of today.

Image source: Personal Photo