Picnik

Picnik is such a fun tool! I have been playing on this site all day, editing my photos using a large variety of effects, touch-up tools, frames, stickers and text. Some of these tools are amazing, it was surprising to see that a free program allows you to whiten-teeth, fix blemishes, change colours and textures in your photos. The site is very simple and easy to use and navigate around. I love this program and look forward to using it for fun as well as within my future teaching practices.

Picnik is a tool that could be used in almost any pedagogical contexts. Learning Managers could make use of such a tool in almost all classroom experiences in order to provide inclusive practices and incorporate engagement (Kearsley & Shneiderman, 1999). Some students learn best through the incorporation of ICT's (Prensky 2005) and multimedia while other students may learn best through the use of visual cues (Mueller, 1980) or hands-on experiences, it is for this reason it is vital to ensure all students are catered for and inclusion is achieved (Felder & Solomon), this can be achieved through the integration of tools such as Picnik. Teachers are able to use this tool along with Flickr to choose and manipulate images to suit their teachings. For example, in a topic of animals Learning Managers are able to choose images from Flickr and manipulate and edit them to support their teaching. They may, for example, choose to blur the background in order to provide focus on the animal they are discussing or add text to reinforce their key points about the animal, such as labeling parts of the animal. This tool could also be of great benefit in the teaching of technology or art in order to provide students with visual support (Mueller, 1980). Kearsley and Shneiderman (1999) explain that this type of learning shows students how their learning can be put into practice within the real-world and provides reason behind the learning. They suggest that the use of this supports students' engagement toward classroom tasks. Therefore, it can be seen that Picnik caters for those students who learn best through relation to real-life.

Students are also able to make use of this type of technology within their pedagogical activities along with assessment tasks. Students may put this tool to good use within their assessment tasks and presentations in order to support their work and show a deeper understanding. Learning Managers may also integrate this tool into learning activities. Students could learn about the use of technology within the 21st century and how it had progressed (Prensky 2005) , photos can now be manipulated and edited on the internet compared to once taking photos to professionals for such work. In addition, students can learn about the job of a professional photographer and what this exactly entails through hands-on experience. Picnik would be very beneficial to the learning to art. In particular the different effects including, colours, textures, creating a focal point, softening, sharpening and bordering. Learning Managers have a large array of opportunities to incorporate such technology within their classrooms.

As it can be seen the use of Picnik within pedagogical practices offers engaging, hands-on opportunities for students while providing visual cues, real-life connections and ICT rich experiences. There are a rich variety of ways in which Picnik can be used and incorporated within learning experiences for Learning Managers as well as students use and learning.

References

Kearsley, G., & Shneiderman, B. (1999). Engagement Theory: A framework for technology-based teaching and learning. Retrieved from CQUniversity,
FAHE11001 Managing E-Learning, http://home.sprynet.com/~gkearsley/engage.htm

Mueller, G. (1980). The Modern Language Journal, Vol. 64, No. 3, pp. 335-340

Prensky, M. (2001). Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants. On the Horizon. MCB University Press, Vol. 9 No. 5, October 2001.

Felder, R., Solomon, A. Learning Styles And Strategies. Retrieved from http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/ILSdir/styles.htm