Online+Images

EdTech Activity 2: Online Images
//Using images to engage with learners//. toc


 * //The image survives the subject and becomes the remembered reality."//** - John Szarkowski (Director of Photography Department, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1962 - 1991)

One of the more powerful aspects of the web is the use of images. As American computer scientist, Ben Shneiderman, noted //'A picture is worth a thousand words. An interface is worth a thousand pictures.'// There are a host of Webware tools that allow you to synthesize/analyze/create/evaluate images. We will signpost just two tools that can be used to create a storyboard to stimulate thinking about your educational experiences. In addition, we are then going to harness the skills we developed in EdTech Activity 1 to engage you and for you to provide peer feedback.

Visual Literacy
Visual literacy is defined as the ability to understand communications composed of visual images as well as being able to use visual imagery to communicate to others.

Students become visually literate by the practice of visual encoding (expressing their thoughts and ideas in visual form) and visual decoding (translating and understanding the meaning of visual imagery). For a good mini-lesson on visual literacy, my colleagues at Kent State University - Dr. Cindy Kovalik and Peggy King have developed a mini-tutorial on [|Visual Literacy].

Which Images
An extensive list of free image resources by topic can be found at [|Wikipedia:Public domain image resources]. Useful general purpose image search engines include [|Google Image Search], [|Picsearch] and [|YotoPhoto]. At this point we would like to introduce you to [|Flickr]which has a [|Creative Commons] section at [|Flickr.com/creativecommons.] Images with //Attribution// and //Attribution-ShareAlike// may be used anywhere subject to the licence terms.

Additional Resources
[|Visual Literacy Resources]

Your Task
The following assignment is not very difficult. Please read the instructions first and map out your storyboard so you can find the appropriate images.

Step 1
Select and save TEN images to your PC that may be used to stimulate thinking about your educational experiences. These images may convey a particular event, experience or may even be thematic. Alternatively you can use your digital camera to take real photographs but make sure you have the persmission of those in the pictures to post them online.

Step 2
Upload these images to either [|www.slide.com] or [|www.scrapblog.com]. To do this you will need to create an account with the webware tool. Follow the instructions for the tool that you plan to use. Please select a password that you will be able to recall.

Step 3
Once these images have been upload, use one of these webware tools to create your storyboard. A storyboard is a series of images displayed in sequence for the purpose of presenting a "story" through graphic representation. To help you plan and organize your storyboard, here are a few templates that you can use:

[|Simple Storyboards]

[|Mary's Template]

Step 4
Once you have created your storyboard, copy the "embed code" from the webware site to display your work both here on this page and on your portfolio. [|Wikitext+media] shows you how to embed media directly onto your page. If you feel you need to edit your slideshow, please do and then paste the "edited" show onto your page.

Step 5
Finally, using the discussion forum reflect on the power of images. Where might images be more powerful than words?

Assessment
Please make a comment on a peer's storyboard. Try and decipher what each storyboard is trying to communicate.

Here we have an example of where images have been used to communicate complex Sports Psychology terms in a very simple picture presentation.

user:kristianstill media type="custom" key="121384" Having problems seeing the Scrapblog? If you see black than get a FLASH [|update]. Or try this web link to [|Scrapblog viewer]