Digital Cameras Image Editing Software and the Computing Classroom Michelle Wingett

Introduction  Digital Cameras and image editing software have numerous uses in today’s computing classroom – both teacher and student related.  Many of the uses suggested in this presentation are applicable to all KLAs.

Put a Face to a Name Take a picture of each of your students on the first day of class.  These can be used on rosters, seating plans, assessment records etc.  Have students complete their own profile using software such as a word, powerpoint, or web authoring software. Compiling the end results into a class document is a great way to get to know your students.

Keeping Records Use a digital camera to give parents and others an insight into your classroom  Take photos of students making presentations, working in your classroom, participating in excursions or other special events.  These can be included in newsletters, electronic portfolios, year books,or displayed in the classroom at open night

Essential Tools Digital cameras and associated image editing software are essential tools in the computing classroom. Students are required to learn about and how to manipulate digital images using a range of software products in all computing studies subjects.

Digital cameras and related software have obvious application in topic areas such as Internet and website development and Multimedia The hardware and technology utilised by digital cameras, and to store digital images could also be studied as part of Digital Media studies and Data Handling Topic Area Applications

Some Examples The following slides provide examples of how I used digital cameras/image editing software whilst on practicum.

Making Movies with MovieMaker Year 9/10 ICT worked on creating a multimedia presentation using Microsoft’s MovieMaker – packaged free with XP. All students were required to incorporate digital media that they created. Some students chose to create animations, using image editing software to create their graphics. Other choices included tours of the school, and reports on the cross country and athletics carnival days. Digital photos taken by students and myself were used as stills in these projects

One of the Year 10 students jumping 145 cm

Building A School Website Year 11 IPT completed a school website as group project. Instruction on group work and FrontPage was given. This included a virtual tour of the school – with photos taken by the students – and photos taken by others at events such as open night and carnivals. Students created icons and buttons for their pages, using image editing software.

Practical Examples of Theory Theory is difficult to teach to technology students – they’d rather be doing something. Digital cameras and editing software can be used in practical tasks that enable students to learn about theory topics such as:  file size calculations  data encoding  image formats  data compression

Example -File Size Calculations The senior IPT syllabus requires students to be able to calculate the size of various digital image files, based on the colour depth, dimensions etc. Without practical examples this becomes an exercise of substituting values into an equation. Having observed Year 12 complete 3 lessons on this topic, I created an “experiment” for the class to complete that was used by my supervising teacher.

Experiment Design Photos were taken with a 5 MegaPixel Digital Camera in TIF Mode. The anticipated file size was calculated by the students. This was compared to the actual file size – from this we calculated the amount of header space in the file. Image files were resampled and saved at various dimensions /colour depths and the above process repeated. The experiment gave students opportunity to practice this calculation skill whilst illustrating concepts.

Example of Photos Created and Compared TIF format, 24 Colours Tif Format, BW – 8 Colours Tif Format, 8 coloursJPG Format - Compressed

More Personal, more relevant Using photos of the students, student activities or the school/community increases relevance and makes projects more interesting to students. Allowing students to actually use the camera themselves will not only be fun for the students, it gives a greater sense of ownership and provides valuable technology education.

Web Links The following websites could be utilised by both students and teachers Kodak Digital Learning Centre Adobe Photo Shop Tutorials Paint Shop Pro Users Group Paint Shop Pro Tutorials Using a Digital Camera With Paint Shop Pro How Stuff Works - Digital Camera Page The links below provide lesson ideas using a digital camera for teachers in all KLAs: Education World 1001 uses of a Digital Camera in the classroom Using A digital Camera in The Classroom