Graphics Essay
TDT1 Task 2 Part A
Kathryn M. Cullum
December 2, 2014
A Written Project Presented to the Faculty of the Teachers College
of Western Governors University
Purpose
The purpose of the collection of graphics that will be created is to show the various types of technology tools and potential uses for educational instruction. As a Technology Integration Specialist for a school district with 365 teachers and 6000 students, it is important to help educators and their students conceptualize the definition of technology. Without this understanding, teachers may become overwhelmed by their own perceived lack of “tech savvy.” They think that to integrate technology requires a deep understanding of computers and how they operate. While that level of knowledge is helpful, it is not typically attainable in a world where educational standards are changing and teachers are working hard to stay on top of content knowledge. Time left over to become computer experts is rare. The theme of this e-portfolio is Technology Integration. The images created and selected will help to answer the question “What is Technology?”
Audience
The audience for this graphics collection will be educators working in K-12 classroom settings. The district has 365 teachers, with six elementary schools, two middle schools, and one senior high school. Initial focus will be on content area teachers working with social studies, science, English and language arts, and mathematics. Teachers will be introduced to a variety of technology tools and use the imagery to create their own answer to the question “What is Technology.” These adult educators range in age and educational backgrounds with a minimum bachelor’s degree up to master’s degree.
Process
Original Image
The original image will be taken using a digital camera. The data card will be removed from the camera and inserted into the laptop card reader in order to copy it to the hard drive for manipulation. The file will be opened using the program Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Once open, it will be edited by clicking on “Edit Picture” on the toolbar at the top of the program window. First it will be resized by clicking on the “Resize” option. The predefined width x height option will be used to select “Web – Large (640 x 480 px)” from the drop down menu in order to make the image a size ideal for use on a web site. Once resized, the image will be saved and renamed using the File—Save As menu option.
Cropped Image
The cropped image will be created using the program Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Once open, it will be edited by clicking on “Edit Picture.” The option “Crop” will be selected from the editing menu, and the black lines were dragged to identify the areas of the picture to be deleted (cropped) out of the original image. Once cropped, the image will be saved and renamed using the File—Save As menu option.
Adapted Image
The adapted image will be created using the program Microsoft Office Picture Manager. Once open, it will be edited by clicking on “Edit Picture.” The option “Color” will be selected from the editing menu. The “Hue” and “Saturation” levels were decreased to -180 by clicking and dragging the respective sliders to the left all the way. This made the adapted image into a black and white image. Once adapted, the image will be saved and renamed using the File—Save As menu option.
Scanned Image
The scanned image will be collected using a copy machine with scanning capabilities. The original poster will be placed on the scanner which will be set to scan a color image and email it as an Adobe .pdf file attachment. Once the email arrives, the file attachment will be saved to the hard drive of the computer for manipulation. In order to resize the image to meet the 640 x 480 size, the Adobe file will be opened and a screen capture using Microsoft One Note will be completed. This will be done by clicking on the Microsoft Windows start key and “s” key simultaneously. This opens the screen capture feature. The selection will be made by clicking and dragging to include the image. Once this is copied to the clipboard automatically after clicking and dragging, the program Paint will be opened. The image will be pasted into the new Paint document by using the Ctrl-V keyboard shortcut. Once pasted, the image will be resized using the “Resize” option from the toolbar. Once in the resizing tool, the option will be changed from “Percentage” to “Pixels” before changing the Horizontal value to 640 while maintaining the aspect ratio. Once resized, the image will be saved as a .jpg file by using the File—Save As menu option within Paint.
Drawn Image
The drawn image will be created using the program Paint. The design will use the line draw tool, shape draw tool, text tool, and color palette. A combination of free-hand drawings and shapes will be used to create graphic representations of a textbook, television set, and laptop. Text will be used to create image titles and a title for the document. Four rectangles will be drawn using the color black; one for the laptop screen, one for the book cover, and two for the television screen (one smaller rectangle drawn inside a larger rectangle to indicate the television frame). To complete the laptop, the line drawing tool will be used to create the space for the keyboard and the touchpad. The keys will be drawn using the calligraphy line tool. On the screen of the laptop, the words “Google” and “Search” will be typed in blue using the text typing tool. The font will be adjusted for size and appearance. A small rectangle shape will be made using the shape tool with blue lines to represent a “Search bar” on the screen. Inside this rectangle the words “all about frogs” will be typed using black text. The television screen will have a title using the text tool with green text. A frog will be drawn using the shape drawing tool and line drawing tool. The book cover will be given a title using the text tool which will be outlined with a red rectangle. In the bottom left-hand corner the letters F-G will be added using the text tool. On the page, in larger text, the title of the document will be added using the text tool. Once all the drawing is complete, the image will be saved using the File—Save As menu option. The drawing will be saved as a .jpg image file.
Found Image
The found image will be saved to the computer’s hard drive from the website Technology with Intention (De Haan, 2011). The graphic image will be saved as a .jpg image file by right-clicking on the image and selecting “Save image as…” from the drop down menu. No modifications will be made to the image.
References
De Haan, J. (2011). [Graphic organizing chart April 4, 2011] Technology with Intention. Retrieved from http://www.techwithintent.com/2011/04/what-is-technology-with-intention/