Photo Editing/Manipulating: Picasa vs Gimp in the Classroom

As a classroom teacher, I would have my students use Picasa for its ease of use. Picasa will automatically search the computer for all images and put them in folders. On the other hand, the students can search for a specific topical image in all the folders such as all pictures saved with “experiment” in the file name or folder. The students can create albums to keep classroom projects organized. They can do “basic” photo editing with ease.

I would have the students use GIMP for text captioning and advanced features such as layers. GIMP which is quite similiar to PhotoShop has so many sophisticated features, that I have just begun to explore them.

What are your classroom experiences with Picasa or GIMP?

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Education with Technology

5 Smartphone (Mobile Learning) Concerns May 17, 2012

As I have been using smartphones in my classes, presenting about it, writing about it, and reading about it, I have some concerns. 1. Why limit mobile learning to lower-level drill and kill activities? Spanish teachers can have their students study vocabulary on a topic such as a restaurant via an app. However, they [...]

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Using Technology to Prepare Student to Do Well on Finals May 17, 2012

We want our students to do well on the class final, department final, school district final, state final or national final. However, often it is not what our students know but how they will be tested that determines their grade. Here are some techniques to use technology to help prepare students for finals so that [...]

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Scaffolding Modern Language Speaking For Fluency Through Questions May 1, 2012

In the Modern Language / Foreign Language class, speaking is the least developed skill . Teachers may spend much time in teaching a new grammar concept but they usually do not spend that same amount of time in helping students to become better at speaking. One way to help students improve their oral communication involves [...]

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Final In the Course What is it really? May 1, 2012

We are within a few weeks of finals. Some good questions to ask are What is a final? What learning do we want the students to show on the final? A history teacher tells his students that the final is on Chapters 1-15 and all they have to do is know that information. Obviously, [...]

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Return on Investments (ROI) Improves the Quality of Learning With Technology April 10, 2012

Return on Investment (ROI) is a business term that can help us better understand the learning process. The term asks if the investment of time, resources, and people is worth the return. The higher the ROI, the better. In education, our return is student learning. So the question becomes how we as educators use time, [...]

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Online Grading For Communicating Students’ Learning Problems and Successes March 26, 2012

Administrators want accountability for learning in schools. One way to build greater accountability is for teachers to use online grading programs that give students and their parents access to the grades. For example, the teachers can use the free program of Engrade or a commercial program such as Blackboard. As soon as the teachers enter [...]

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Spontaneous Speaking in Modern Languages – Not Just Saying Grammar Exercises March 21, 2012

I recently heard a modern language teacher brag about how much speaking her students did in the classroom. She said that her students orally did every book grammar exercise. She was amazed at how much they were speaking. Yes, the students were orally saying the grammar exercises but they were not spontaneous speaking. They could [...]

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Learning Disease Epidemic: Textbook Dependency March 20, 2012

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Flickr Vocabulary Pictures Based on Real Objects For Your Class February 21, 2012

I have been having my Spanish students take real life pictures of vocabulary items that are in our textbook and put those pictures in my class Flickr account. The textbook’s drawings lack realism (what is that?). Most students used their Smartphones. When students can see a real object such as a plate, they can better [...]

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Education Leaders Promote Higher Users of Mobile Learning Technology February 15, 2012

Superintendents, Assistant Superintendents for Curriculum, and Principals as the educational leaders for their district and building have the responsibility of helping students to succeed. One way to accomplish this goal is to assist teachers through showing them how to use technology at higher levels to meet learning goals. A current hot technology ce […]

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Education with Technology Harry G. Tuttle