Blog Entry #3: Digital Images

This week's assignment and content was my favorite yet. My nieces and nephews constantly show me manipulated images with amazement in their eyes. They have no idea that it is a hoax or fake. This module really drives home the point that it is imperative that we teach our students how to view images critically on the internet. It is clear that the best way to do so is to simply have them create an infographic or digital image with text, like we did for this very assignment. 

First of all, though, I loved the general questions to ask oneself when examining a photograph. I plan on sharing this with my high school students when school starts back up again in the fall. I think going through these questions makes it rather easy to figure out whether an image was manipulated or not. I also thought the "Ways Images can be Manipulated" article was very informational and worth sharing with my students, too. I actually teach Animal Farm by George Orwell, so I was intrigued to learn that "During dictatorship of Joseph Stalin, undesirable officials have been removed from photographs during the Great Purge using airbrushes." This would be a great bit of information to share with sophomores prior to reading the text and also to start a conversation on how to view images critically on the Internet. I think it would be helpful for them to know a little bit about how contemporary photo manipulation is mastered in today's society, especially. I was even surprised that the doctoring technique has the ability to drastically alter before and after photos of weight loss ads.

Next, I found the "How to Add Text Images" Wiki Page extremely helpful. I am horrible with technology (this class has been such a lifesaver so far!), and it really spelled it out for me. I think the methods I would use the most would be using paint (Windows) or an app on my phone, as I learned they are often free and convenient.

After creating an infographic of my own, I am excited to have my students do the same for various formative and summative assignments to showcase their mastery of knowledge this upcoming school year. I like that there are a lot of great infographic tools out there for them to use and that many are so user friendly (I was secretly terrified that they wouldn't be). I especially liked the suggestion in the last PowerPoint about having students talk about a character's decision in literature and to discuss the historical setting of a book. How great is it that the benefits include increased literacy skills of three kinds:  informational, visual, and technological!? Not to mention the increased engagement and motivation. Therefore, having students create infographics as assessments is clearly a no-brainer.

I used Piktochart to create my infographic below. At first, I panicked that it would be too difficult for me to figure out, but I quickly realized that I would be just fine. I decided to create an infographic on how to spot symbolism in a text because it is a mini-lesson I give my students in the beginning of the school year in my freshman English classes, as I want them to be on the lookout for symbolism in the numerous works we read in class over the year. I usually have them take notes in their writer's notebook in the craft section as I lecture briefly. However, this would make a great addition to share with them electronically after, so that they can refer to it later, in case they missed any critical information.

I realize that my infographic is huge, but this is exactly the issue I encountered when I inserted the image here. I wanted the image to be just X-Large, but it was difficult to read the text, so I had to resort to using the original size, unfortunately. Am I missing something, classmates? Aside from that, I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I just can't believe how incredibly easy it is to create such images. I plan to integrate them more regularly into my PowerPoints, etc. I hope everyone else's experience with the software suggested in the texts we read was equally as enjoyable!