The image editing application I decided to review was Picnik. I have been using this application for years now. It is very user as well as kid friendly and has fun effects to use on photos. Some features picnik has are basic edits, photo effects, text, stickers, and frames.
In the basic edits tab you can crop your photo to your preferred size. You can also change the colors in your photo with auto-colors or the neutral picker. This is the area you can also find the tool to sharpen your image. The last tool that can be found in this tab is the resize tool that you can use to change the size of your image. Under the effects tab is where you can really start to have fun editing your image! Some effects that you can use on your image are black and white, sepia, boost, or soften. Under the text and sticker tabs your can add text and stickers to enhance your photos. On my example photo below you can see that I added text to my photo. There are several fonts and colors to choose from. The frames tab allows you to add frames to your photos. There are holiday frames, basic frames, and different shaped frames to choose from. Below on my example photo I used a basic simple frame.
I could see this application used in the classroom for any grade level. This tool could be used in art class to create digital art. It would be a great way to bring art and technology together. This application could also be used in a language arts lesson while creating a story. Photos could be uploaded and edited and then printed to add to a student created story. There are many possibilities in ways that you could use this application. It is very disappointing that this tool will no longer be available after April 19th.
The office tool I chose to look into was Google Documents. This tool has a lot of features that are present in Microsoft Office’s tools, such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint. I have never used the program, to create documents, but I already have a Google account, so I have access to their tools and have used them in passing. One of the features of Google Docs I use the most is the ability to open PDF documents from Gmail.
Much like the very expensive Office software, you can create documents and apply all sorts of different formatting to them. However, the choices for fonts and formatting are limited to whatever ones Google chooses to include in the program, so it is not as deep as the Microsoft software is. I am not very good at using Excel, but my husband is, and he told me that Google Docs’ Spreadsheets are not as powerful as Excel’s. He said that Google severely limited the functionality of the software, so “power users” can’t get as much out of the spreadsheets. I also used the presentation software in Google Docs and found that it can create basic slide shows, but not with as many features as PowerPoint.
One of the parts of Google Docs I can see myself getting the most out of in a classroom is not actually even related to the documents themselves. It is the ability to share files between different Google users so that everyone can create and edit the document. For example, in my class, we could take all of the students to a computer lab, and give them all access to a shared Google Document. This document could be used to start a story, and let everyone add to it. They would be able to see the updates from their classmates in real time. They would also be able to proofread each other’s work instantly and provide their classmates feedback on the story. Then we could go over to a presentation and everyone could add their own visuals to tell the story with pictures, maybe even ones they create with a service like Picnik!
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