Digital+Photography

=All of us are watchers - of television, of time clocks, of traffic on the freeway - but few of us are observers. Everyone is looking, not many are seeing.= - Quote from Peter M. Leschak

Why is visual literacy important?
We live in an increasingly visual culture. We are surrounded by images everywhere in our lives. By looking at and studying photographs with your students, you will help them better understand the complexities of their world.

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).

It is important that students learn to recognize and understand the often-complex messages of photographic images. Consistent with this goal, this website provides students with tools needed to critically examine their visual world.

By participating in [|Picture This] activities, your students will:
 * learn to appreciate and analyze photographs
 * increase their visual literacy.
 * develop and improve observational skills
 * increase critical thinking skills

Well worth visiting the Picture this website.....Check out the activities down the left hand side of the website.
Suited to Senior/Gifted & Talented

The power of digital photography in the classroom is limitless......here is a place where we can share ideas, experiences, resources, planning.....whatever you like!
Consider this....

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Here is a link to Suzie Vesper's Photo Sharing wiki page - Click Here Suzie provides in explanations and excellent examples from each site......she covers [|VoiceThread] [|Vuvox] [|Animoto] [|PictureTrail] [|Flickr] [|Photobucket] [|RockYou] [|Slide] [|PhotoShow (Roxio Online)] [|Fotline] [|KoffeePhoto] [|WebShots] [|Twango] [|Mixpo] [|FlauntR] [|Scrapblog] Many of these sites are 'covered' elsewhere throughout this Wiki but it is well worth considering the depth of their applications. Not just for storing photo's but for sharing, publishing, blogging, placing on school websites etc etc etc.....
 * There are literally thousands of online photo storage sites.....**

Resources for the Teacher and classroom
Uses for a Digital Camera Elements of Photography Junior Camera 'Book' - would be excellent for display or bound as a classroom resource Websites for Visual Literacy (Teacher and Middle/Senior Learners) Acknowledgement to Sara Taylor for allowing me to share these resources, many thanks Sara. (Please do the same if passing these resources on or using these resources at your school - collaboration is the key! )

Worthwhile Professional Readings
[|Visual Literacy in the Classroom]

Website Links
[|Clipgenerator] a new alternative to "Photostory' - completely free and internet based. [|Digital Storytelling] - A Teach Digital Wiki site An excellent site for introducing learners to [|video production.] [|Visual Literacy and Picture Books] [|Illustrator Studies] (Variation on the traditional Author Study) A Visual [|Literacy Unit] for Years 7 and 8 Here are two online forms of displaying your photographs - particularly good for Wiki's, blogs and Webpages [|Image Loop] [|Visual Literacy in Classrooms Digital Cameras] Learning Live - [|Visual Literacy] Links to Unit Plans This is a groovy site I found recently. (Also on the Web 2.0 page) [|Be Funky] This is a screen capture of the 'Cartoonizer' tool.....very easy and effective for turning a photo into a pencil sketch at the touch of a button.....

Heres a small selection of the huge array of creative tools available on the [|"Big Huge Labs"] Flickr website.......if your looking for something creative, here's the place!

Digital Storytelling
[|Flickr 5 frame storytelling]



Helpful Links From Adobe Digi Kids
http://www.adobe.com/education/digkids/storytelling/main.html http://www.digitales.us/ http://www.storycenter.org http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/PhotoStory3-Tutorials/photoshop-elements.pdf http://electronicportfilios.com/digistory http://www.coe.uh.edu/digital-storytelling/ This is a rich resource.



http://www.inms.umn.edu/elements http://www.teachingteachers.com/story.htm http://tech-head.com/dstory.htm This site links to literacy 100's of useful Digital Storytelling sites. Includes educational programmes, software, books, research, stories and archives. http://www.storycenter.org/memvoice/ http://www.infotoday.com/mmschools/jan02/banaszewski.htm http://www.umass.edu/wmwp/DigitalStorytelling/Digital%20Storytelling%20Main%20Page.htm Useful link bar that can be found on the above website.