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3rd and 5th grade classes are exploring the creative power of Microsoft Photostory 3 for Windows. If you are interested in continuing your career in multimedia production at home or over the summer, you might want to download the software on your Windows computer, after all the price is nice—free. |
Technology Integration
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Net Trekker is an amazing student resource that is a student friendly search engine. The results are broken down by age and readability level. The results are filtered and vetted by the providing organization. For access from home: User ID = “bcps” Password = “net” |
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The GNU Image Manipulation Program is effectively an open source stand in for the professional standard Photoshop. (Don’t tell the developers I said so however). In terms of free software there are few programs that have more power and capability for image manipulation and graphic arts applications. If your public school student is pursuing a career in graphic arts or computer based design, please be aware that all Adobe products can be obtained by registered students from academic software distributers for a substantial discount. This is critical as a full commercial copy of Adobe Photoshop can cost as much as $650.00. An excellent source of academic graphic arts software is Creation Engine. This program is free and under development. It provides an alternative to Photoshop as a means to achieve basic image editing and file conversion. This program is a free basic stick figure animator that can be used to learn the basics of character animation. Perhaps one of the greatest pieces of freeware of all time, Celestia is a space simulation that allows the user to observe planets, moons, comets, and satellites and make observations about their appearance, composition, and dynamics. Launch your own voyage of discovery as you fly across the planet touring the sites of our world. This software tool can lead to discoveries and learning in the areas of geography, geology, political science, oceanography, history, languages, world cultures, just to name a few. With programs like this you get out of it what you put into it, use this fun activity as the beginning of your exploration. Ask your own questions about what you are seeing then research the answers with the internet, books, videos, or magazines like National Geographic. Make notes of things you see that interest you and take those notes with you then next time you visit the school or public library so you can conduct your own research and learning. Inquiry examples include: · Why are some political boundaries straight lines and others are squiggly? · Why are there no “street view” photographs in the desert? · What are all the different colors I see on the ground? · Why are there different countries in the first place? · Is there some physical thing on the ground that separates one country from another? · How might those physical barriers affect the language people speak or the way they live? · Why do people live where they do? · What physical feature is close to almost every large city? Just a few examples of the inquiry style learning that can occur during a thoughtful session with Google Earth. Download it today and begin your own voyage of discovery!!! Commercial Software: Some of the programs we use do cost money, but many things in the world do. Here are some of the programs we use with a link to one place where they can be purchased: Our fundamental Elementary school drawing and visualization program. Although we use Type to Learn 3 in school, the thinking is that a student who progresses to say level 10 at home would then have to re progress through to level 10 at school. If a student were working on his or her typing at home it would make sense to perhaps use a different program so that the student is getting the best of what both programs have to offer. Otherwise at home typing can be practiced on the free BBC website: Dance Mat Typing |
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The Digital Student outlines a workflow that students could use to complete class work and manage information for school. This is a suggested method for leveraging the power of information technology to assist in the completion of student work at home or in the library as students move through middle and high school. We will add to this document as other ideas present themselves. |
