You too can paint the world a beautiful picture . . .
30 Day Blogging Challenge, Digital Images, Digital Storytelling, Integrating Technology, Web 2.0 tools Tagged #ksyb, animoto, Digital Images, Digital Storytelling, images, tools, Web 2.0 tools January 26th, 2011
You could be only one click away from the perfect picture too. Everyone has a digital camera or phone these days.
So get out your camera . . aim . . . click . . . and then surprise yourself with how creative you can be (and how much fun you can have).
This heart-shaped word mosaic was created on Image Chef. Here you can add text to a sketch pad, create a poetry poster, make word mosaics, use an assortment of frames, or remix from user made examples.
Let’s look at some ways you can add fun to your day and artistic pictures to your repertoire.
5 Image Story
Here’s my 5 image story. Well, it’s actually a sentence that represents a big part of my life. Each picture represents one word of the sentence. Can you read my sentence?
As a great introductory activity for the class, you could ask each child to pick an image which represents him/her and add them to Picture Trail or Slideshare to make a class story. Each child could explain what their picture represents about them. This not only introduces each child to their peers but also illustrates the great diversity in the classroom. If you have more time, each child could pick 5 pictures to make their own story to share with the class.
25 Ways to see a Photo
Next I wanted to try some creative visual effects. Using my own photo taken in Hawaii, I was able to make some really artistic changes. 
To get these effects, I used 2 programs, Be Funky and Fotoflexer. Both programs are easy to use and give you lots of options.
BeFunky lets you apply photo effects, enhance and edit your photos online. Effects include cartoon, sketch, painting, pop art and lots more…
Fotoflexer lets you add effects, fonts, shapes, doodling, distortions, layers, and best of all RE-TOUCH! Re-touch allows you to easily fix blemishes and wrinkles, so anyone can look 21 in all their photos again. (What I’ve been waiting for!)
I also used Fotoflexer to make this collage to see at a glance what amazing effects can be applied to one image.
Another program which allows you to create collages of your photos is
Shape Collage. It’s free but you need to download the program to your computer. Use your own images or photos from the web. You can make your photos appear in the shape of a rectangle, heart, circle, letters, or even draw your own shapes. This is also a quick and easy tool to use.
Make a Movie from your Photos
It’s great to find things that are quick and easy but give good results. I use animoto a lot and the students absolutely love it. We now use animoto for education which allows you to make longer movies and students can have their own accounts which you can view from your emails.
Here’s how we combined Wordle and images in an animoto video.
Playing with images is fun, but there are many applications for the classroom which I will be exploring further. Meanwhile I’m off to play some more . . .
The Edublog Teacher Challenge Activity 5 – “Images – the eyes of the blog” has some great suggestions and advice on how to find and use images in your blog in both the Beginner and Advanced posts.
Photo attributions for 5 Image Story
Original image: ‘oil slick eye’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike2.0Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/27021814@N00/22613927
Original image: ‘under my umbrella’ licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/36613169@N00/1828177743
Original image: ‘let peace’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/37309069@N04/3822829488
Original image: ‘reading time’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/12692384@N00/255230682
Original image: ‘what I’m reading and re-reading’ licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic http://www.flickr.com/photos/61787893@N00/163867388
January 26th, 2011 at 8:40 pm
Your image story says:
I love to read books.
What a great idea. Thanks very much for sharing.
January 27th, 2011 at 9:28 am
Gee Pam, you have been working overtime. What a great post, showing all your learning and exploration. I like how you have also related what you can do back in the classroom with some of these tools. It is always wonderful to read about new tools, but the best comes when you can actually see what the tools can do. Wonder what else you experimented with.
January 27th, 2011 at 12:10 pm
Wow Pam – I am chuffed to have discovered this post through the blogging challenge. It is so exciting to find new web 2.0 tools to engage students in creating digital stories, is always a thrill. This is a sensational post. I have acknowledged your blog in a post on my digital story telling page on my own blog. Thank you for your thorough post and response to this challenge.
January 27th, 2011 at 2:50 pm
Pam I have spent all afternoon on your blog, exploring all those amazing links for digital story telling. I have just linked your blog to my blogroll. Hope that is ok.
January 27th, 2011 at 7:39 pm
Marg, I’m so pleased you have found something of interest on my blog and I’m happy to have it linked to your blog. Like you, I often get distracted for hours exploring the great ideas on other blogs. That’s one of the benefits of this great course.
January 27th, 2011 at 9:03 pm
Pam, this is a wonderfully informative post – I’ve learned a lot about images and editing and gained some ideas to use in the classroom! Thanks so much
We’ve used Befunky before but not Fotoflexer. I hadn’t thought about incorporating Wordle & Animoto – in fact, I’ve only dabbled with Animoto so you’ve inspired me to give it a go as I already have an ed account.
January 28th, 2011 at 3:47 am
Hi,
Thanks so much for this (and other) helpful posts during the challenge. I’ll be adding you to my Google Reader! Such great ideas…
April 7th, 2011 at 10:51 pm
Great stuff Pam,
Some great new tools here for use in the class blog, thanks,
Jane