(Click for a full-sized PDF version)

This post shows an easy way to create word cloud graphics and screen capture video tutorials. The graphic above is a word cloud generated from topics presented at the CUE (Computer-Using Educators) Conference in California this March. We created it in a few simple steps:

• We created a text document with a list of topics  from the conference
• We repeated the topics to reflect how often they were presented at the conference
• We pasted this list into the free Wordle “word cloud” generator at wordle.net
• We chose colors and  a layout for the graphic that worked well for this post
• We took a screenshot of the image (you can also generate a PDF) and inserted it into our blog

These are a lot of words to describe a very simple process. Another way to describe is is by creating a screencast- a short video tutorial that captures what’s happening on your screen. We used the free tool Jing and a microphone to create the video below. Jing is available for both PCs and Macs and allows you to capture screenshots and quickly create and share video tutorials up to five minutes long. You can then post your videos to the free Screencast.com site with just one click. Here are some ways teachers are using Jing.

• YouTube EDU is a sub-section of YouTube that contains hundreds of thousands of  high-quality educational videos from sources like Staford, PBS, TED, and the Khan Academy.
• YouTube for Schools is a free service that allows schools to configure their networks so that students can watch only YouTube EDU videos and videos that the school has added to an approved list. Comments and related videos are disabled, and the only search results that will appear are for YouTube EDU videos.
•  YouTube Teachers is a site that shows you how to use YouTube in the classroom and includes hundreds of playlists created by teachers for teachers. The playlists are organized by subject and grade and are aligned with common educational standards.

See how Chicago and other school districts are changing their policies in this New York Times article. To learn more, click the links above, or watch this quick intro video.

• Storyboarding: A key element of any media production effort is storyboarding to provide the basic flow and organization of the project. Some sites that have been used by other educators to provide resources in this regard include:
  • Celtx – Online Open Source Storyboarding Tool
  • Tools & Utilities for Filmmakers

• Video Editing: Probably the most convenient video editing tools available to programs are those that come directly from Apple and Microsoft. For the Mac, iMovie is a very powerful digital video editor. As for Windows, Microsoft offers Windows Movie Maker as a free download and provides the basic elements for teaching students about digital video editing. For the iPad, you might also want to take a look at Action Movie FX.

• Royalty Free Images, Video and Audio: Students not only need to learn the issues of media but also the requirements dealing with plagiarism related to original ownership and copyright. A way to alleviate potential problems is to use resources that are in the public domain. Some resources worth exploring include:
  • Creative Commons
  • Internet Archive
  • Discovery Education
  • Google Images
  • Flickr

• Story Telling: A good way to get students engaged in digital media production is through digital story telling. Using resources like those listed by the Digital Storytelling Association can make it easy to integrate into your program. In the effort to teach students about digital storytelling, it’s worth having them consider some of the following key components:
• Point of View – Have students consider not only the reason for a story but also why it should be told now and to whom should it be told.
• A Dramatic Question – What is the question or issue that needs to be addressed? To maintain the interest of the person watching or listening to the story, what’s important and will be answered or resolved by the end of the story. For example, In an adventure, will the hero reach the goal? Once the question is answered, the story is over.
• Emotional Content – Did the story engage emotions? Did it invoke sadness, happiness, excitement, etc?
• Adding Voice – Did the student personalize their story by using their own voice. This has other benefits such as ELL instruction, practicing public speaking, etc.
• The Power of a Soundtrack – Selecting one or more soundtracks can help set the mood of the story and influence the impact and feeling related to the event currently being viewed.
• Economy – Ideally students will only shoot just what is necessary to keep the story visually rich while moving forward, with only the minimum of dialogue and number of scenes necessary to envision the larger story
• Pacing –An audience’s interest is sustained by the rhythm of a story. A fast-paced movie with many quick edits and upbeat music can suggest urgency, action, nervousness, exasperation, and excitement. Conversely, a slow pace can suggest contemplation, romanticism, relaxation, or simple pleasures.

We have been asked frequently to have TRIO programs to tell their story. With the ease and ability that this can be done now by students, maybe we can begin to build a library of stories about TRIO and its success. We welcome comments and contributions related to this post.

Source: Monjan, M. “Digital Storytelling 2.0″, 2012 CUE Conference, Palm Springs, CA

• Provide basic editing tools
• Apply effects to an image or photograph
• Provide basic capabilities similar to Adobe Photoshop Elements

The top three graphics application programs with the most features that were found to be of particular interest were:

Aviary (http://advanced.aviary.com/)

Aviary is a suite of powerful creative applications that are available just by using your Web browser. This includes:

•  Phoenix, an image editor that utilizes layers, masks, effects, undo history, and other desirable functionality.
• Peacock, a powerful effects editor
• Talon, a screen capture application
• Raven, a vector editor
• Roc, a music creator
• Myna, an audio editor
• Falcon, an image markup application
• Toucan, a swatch color editor

In addition, Aviary has a fantastic set of tutorials and supports education by providing classroom accounts for educators.

Pixlr (http://pixlr.com)

Pixlr is cited as being one of the most popular online graphics applications in the world. It provides three choices for working on images and photos: Pixlr Editor, Pixlr Express, and Pixlr-o-matic. Each application has different capabilities as described below.

• Pixlr Editor – provides many of the tools you would see if you were using Photoshop Elements with layer, adjustment, and filter controls that allow you to do almost anything you can think of to your images or photos. It also provides Navigator, Layer, and History panels to assist with tracking and making changes to images and photos.
• Pixlr Express has a much simpler interface with icons for adjustments, effects, overlays, borders, stickers, and text. Clicking on any choice brings up other icons and sliders for further refinement of the changes to the image or photo.
• Pixlr-o-matic, the third application and simplest of all, lets you upload a photo and apply an effect, overlay, and frame to an image but doesn’t have the detailed control provided with Pixlr Editor or Pixlr Express.

Phixr http://www.phixr.com

Phixr is another powerful Web-based photo editor for quickly fixing photos in three steps:

•  Step 1: Upload a photo from your computer or transfer one from your Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Webshots, Photobucket or SmugMug account.
• Step 2: Edit your photo.
• Step 3: Save it on your computer, e-mail it to a friend to share or directly upload the photo to Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Picasa, Photobucket, ImageShack, SmugMug and others.

Phixr includes a lot of basic and advanced features. For example: crop photo, resize photo, rotate photo, remove red eye, flip or “mirror” photo or convert a picture to a charcoal drawing, oil painting, pop-art poster or matrix-printout. It can also create a comic from a photo and insert text into the photo using speech bubbles.

Color tools – Phixr Online Photo Editor can change a photo’s colors in many ways. Starting with the basics, there is, of course, a color balance and histogram-based levels tool, and a tool to correct brightness, exposure, contrast, temperature, saturation and hue. Phixr can also auto-correct contrast, white-balance and color balance. Phixr’s has a broad range of color filters that can convert a photo to sepia tone to make a photo look old, make a picture black and white or invert the colors to create a photo negative. It can also make a photo black and white, except for certain colors (e.g. imagine red lips on an otherwise greyscale photo).

Camera & lens tools – Phixr online photo editor also has some camera and lens related tools. These can create a tilt-shift effect, lomography (lomo) effect, or imitate a Holga or night vision camera. Furthermore, it can add a vignette effect or put the photo behind a bunch of shaped masks such as putting a photo inside a crystal ball.

Blur/soften tools – Phixr can blur and soften photos in a number of sophisticated ways. It can motion-blur, radial blur (rotation-blur) and zoom-blur your photos. It can also pixelize (pixelate) or glass-tile photos, or build them from small toy bricks.

Other tools – Phixr can sharpen photos; imitate HDR images (using unsharp mask algorithms); remove noise; convert photos to charcoal drawings, oil paintings, or spray paintings; and add special effects such as a carving effect, matrix printer effect, or comic-book effect.

It also allows for the ability to geotag photos which provides the ability to save the location at which the photo was shot into the photo file. Phixr can read and write geotags, and allows you to upload/share geotagged photos with all third party services supporting geotagging.

Photos can be saved as jpg (jpeg), pdf, gif or png, directly out of the Phixr online photo editor. You can also print the photo or upload it to the photo sharing site of your choice. With Phixr, you can create stationery, greeting cards or invitations. Phixr has a broad range of special holiday effects and decorations.

So if your TRIO program has a need for photo or image editing, consider using one of these applications to meet your needs.

Source: Hoerger, D. “Digital·Image Manipulation Using FREE Web 2.0 Tools”, 2012 CUE Conference, Session 2083, Palm Springs, CA.