Collection of Digital Images
Digital Images are stored in a variety of formats. The most common we will see are JPEG, GIF, BMP and TIFF. There are many others, however, they are usually very specific to certain types of software. JPEG’s and GIF’s are the most accepted forms that you will find on the Internet and most software packages. BMP’s and TIFF's are useful in some situations however they take up considerably more disk space. This is a crucial factor on the Web since download time should be kept to a minimum. The collection of images should be kept as simple as possible. Prior planning can save you hours of work and frustration and you will be quite satisfied with the results. There are many ways and places to find images to use for your projects and presentations. Some of these are digital cameras, scanners, the internet and clipart to mention a few. Here are some pointers that will help you utilize these resources.
Digital Cameras
Digital cameras are the most versatile image collection device you can use. There is not a lot of expertise required and you can take a picture of just about anything. This is great when you want children to have hands on experiences. The two cameras that we will be experimenting with are the Kodak DC 50 and the Sony Mavica.
Kodak DC 50
This is an economical digital camera. It takes a good picture. You can zoom in and out. It takes pictures in varying degrees of resolution. You can purchase a memory card and an AC adapter. It runs on 4 AA batteries. After taking pictures with it you must connect it to a computer with a cable which is provided and load on special software (Photo Enhancer) in order to view the images and transfer them to disk. It saves the images in kdc format which specific to Kodak. You can save the images in other formats such as JPEG from the program Photo Enhancer. This process is time consuming and I find it a negative feature.
Sony Mavica
This digital camera is more expensive but it is worth it. It has all the features of the Kodak model and more. Take some time to become familiar with some of its features. You have an LCD display that allows you to see exactly what you are shooting. There is a preview feature that allows you to look at all the images you have taken and then you can delete the ones you don’t want. It has a rechargeable battery pack and the best feature I think is that it saves directly to a floppy disk in JPEG format which you can directly put into a piece of software and use. What a time saver!
Scanners
A scanner is excellent for reproducing images, artwork or print material. All you do is place the work face down on the scanner and open the scanner software. Click on scan and the image is copied. From here you can crop it, manipulate it and save it. Again you will need to familiarize yourself a bit with the features of the software but it is not that difficult. Scanners can also take print material and decode it so that you can import the information into a word processor. You will need a special type of software to do this (the scanner usually comes with both types of software).
The Internet
There are many places on the internet that you can collect images, photos, animations, etc. The easiest way is to use a search engine like Yahoo or Hot Bot and type in clipart, pictures or any other category you want to search for and a multitude of listings will appear. Supervise children when doing this, the simplest phrase could turn up some inappropriate sites. Quite often as you are “surfing on the Web” you will find an image or animation you think is really neat. If you move the cursor over the image and right click the mouse, a menu will open that identifies the image and a number of options that are available to you. One will be the “save image as” option. You can save the image to disk for use later. While most images available on the Web are not copyrighted if in doubt, it is appropriate to ask permission from the author of the site to use such images.
Programs
Many software programs come with clipart, photo and image libraries. Search through these, they are a valuable and easy resource. There are media conversion software that can take an image that is not in an appropriate format and change it or compress it into an a more acceptable form. One example is the Media Converter on the O2 computer we use for Kidsmuse.
Cataloguing Images
We have talked a lot about collecting images. It easy to build a library, however, take some time to organize your images as you collect. If you organize your disks in categories and subjects and you get your colleagues to do the same you will have a great resource that everyone can share.
Transferring Files
Be aware of the format of your images and which formats the software you are using accepts. The Internet accepts JPEG and GIF so save yourself some anguish so try to use them. When you are saving images you will sometimes be given the choice of saving an image as a High, Medium or Low quality of image.Choose the low level because it will save a lot of disk space and the difference in the resolution is not always that noticeable. The most common way of transferring files is by saving to a floppy disk and importing an image into a piece of software. This is very simple and easy to do. A novel way to move files from one place to another is by an email attachment. You can attach your image file to an email message and send it to someone else who can then download it onto their computer. You can even email yourself say from school to your home. No disk to carry. If you use Hotmail (it’s free) or any other such email service you can send and receive email from any computer that is connected to the Internet. Therefore, you could send yourself a file from your PC and save it to the O2 computer or vice versa. You can FTP (File Transfer Protocol) a file from one computer to another. You need a program that does this. There are free programs that you can find on the Internet that will allow you to perform this operation. It sounds complicated but it is really quite easy to do. If you are creating a web page you will need to use this type of program to upload your files to the server where it can be viewed on the Internet.
Archiving
There are many ways of saving presentations and projects. Again it is important for you to consider why you are saving something and to whom you wish to show it. Word Processors, Powerpoint, Hyperstudio, Kid Pix, Web Pages, and Video are just a few possibilities. My experience has been to keep things simple and easy for children and colleagues to learn and use.
Video
This is a super medium to use in the classroom. You can tape many activities and keep them to show, for example, on open house night. You can hook up your computer to a television through an inexpensive device called an AverKey. This device will also enable you to hook up your computer to a VCR (video out to video in, speaker jack to audio in, press record). You can record anything created on the computer onto video tape. The O2 computer has video and audio out jacks that can also be connected to a VCR. Once you have your tape you can take it anywhere and show to anyone.
Web Pages
This is a great way to exhibit work and share ideas. It is not a difficult process to learn and the rewards are limitless. It is also a great communication tool especially with the use of email. Many schools have web pages and there are many wonderful ideas out there to explore. There are some concerns with children using the Internet and when you are creating web pages try to keep the size of files reasonable otherwise all your hard work may bring disappointment if you have to wait for minutes while images are downloading.
Hyperstudio
This is a good program that will introduce children to the presentation of their ideas using media. It is not as complex as Powerpoint and it is more challenging than Kid Pix. It allows for interaction and creativity. You will find primary and junior students will take off with this program. It will simulate some of the features of the the Internet. A great starting point for web design.
Please feel free to inquire further.
Julian Zamparo [email protected]
Denise Scott [email protected]
Cherrytree Public School 905 542 1167