Thursday, September 24, 2009

Week #5 - Image Generators


Image and word generators are a lot of fun! There is plenty of room for creativity. I can think of lots of applications for these tools in the classroom. Teachers can use these tools to convey the themes contained in what they are teaching, no matter the subject. Using images and colors students can also create representations of characters within books or history. I also like the idea of using these tools, like the comic strip, to express their understanding of anything from a vocabulary word to a scientific principle. Being creative with a concrete or abstract idea is a way for teachers to require students to use higher level thinking. One small problem I do foresee is students spending too much time collecting and laying out images. Students are much more visual, selective and particular nowadays when it comes to how things look, but, I guess, this is a good problem to have in the classroom. It means the students are fully engaged in what they are doing.


I tried using Image Chef, FD Toys and ended up creating my project in Mosiac Maker. They were all relatively easy to use, but I like Mosiac Maker, because I had a little more creative control and I was happier with the templates offered. Once again I themed my project for the week on the book I am reading. I am currently reading Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson and decided to do a montage of images that relate to this novel.


Throughout this process I learned a bit more about Flickr and how well integrated it is into all of these image generators. It is forcing me to become more comfortable using Flickr, so that's good. More and more of the tools we are exploring really require that you have an e-mail account of some kind (ie: yahoo, google) and I fear many schools block e-mail sites. This may be an obstacle in using some of these sites within the classroom.

3 comments:

  1. I love that mosaic!! I read Chains this summer and really liked it. You have some great ideas for using image generators in the classroom and with literature. The students will love that!

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  2. very good comments about visual representations of info

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