Week 6 - Photo Editing

Below is an image of Scotland's Edinburgh Castle that I have edited using Adobe Photoshop. I have replaced the blue sky with an orange color.

Assignment Title: Photo Editing

Uses in the Classroom: Photo editing is a great tool for students to better understand and learn subject specific content. For example, a history teacher can create an assignment where students research black and white photos from an older era in time (WWI or WWII for example) and use the replace color tool in Photoshop to give the images a more modern look.

This activity would allow students to synthesize the black and white images by having them design and reconstruct the image to meet their understanding of the time in history the photograph was taken. Allowing students to use their own creativeness in completing this activity will give the students a sense of ownership in the new image, while also having them think about the image itself and how they may have interpreted the event if they were there.

Issues to Consider: As with any software used in a classroom setting, students need to know how to use it and have had enough time spent within the program to feel confident utilizing it. The teacher should also structure the assignment with very specific instructions on what should be done with the image. Students can spend a lot of time in Photoshop seeing what the different editing options can do. This is not necessarily a bad thing (as it allows students to be very creative!) but can take up a lot of classroom ,or computer lab, time.
Another issue to consider when using this activity is to decide on whether you yourself will select the images the students will be using, or if you will allow the students to select their own. Either way, make sure that you are using an image that is allowed altering under Creative Commons licensing, and that it is cited properly.

Copyright: The above photo is an edited version of the image titled Scotland 2013 – 162 (September 22^nd, 2013) and belongs to Kyle Taylor, The image is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution license on Flickr.