Available Teaching and Learning Technologies
Here is a selection of categories of interest for photo educators. The websites in some categories will be multi functional and overlap with other categories. The first category is the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) in which students can access and organize all the teaching and learning sites used in their photography course and all their other courses. With a PLE students can have one online location where their personal and academic Internet sources can reside. There are many technologies that can be used to create a PLE but its purpose, ultimately is to give students more autonomy over their course materials by giving them the tools to manage their academic and personal lives online. All online resources used in a course and given to students in the form of a live link should also include the complete URL, or web address, and the complete title of the website so students have multiple ways gain access.
Personal Learning Environments
Symbalooedu.com is a tool that allows students to organize and share their academic resources in one location. It allows educators to, “Promote innovation while maintaining simplicity in teaching.” (4/9/15) Also, teachers can post resources to student sites.
Evernote.com is another organizational tool that can function as a PLE that allows users to sync across all devices (computer, smart phone, and tablets).
RAW Conversion
Adobe DNG Converter is free software that will allow students to convert proprietary RAW files to the DNG format, making them more universally accessible for image editors. This software must be downloaded to a computer and requires regular updating.
Image Editing and File Management
GIMP.org is a free image editor, much like Photoshop. It will not allow users to edit DNGs but it will open TIFF files.
Rawtherapee.com is free to download, though users are encouraged to make a donation. This software will allow users to edit their DNG files.
Picasa.google.com helps users organize, edit, and share photos, but they must be in jpg format.
Studioline.net offers a free image management tool with jpg editing. It also has many fee-based options for expanded capability.
An Internet search for Free Photo Management Tools will yield many other options.
Cloud Storage
Google Drive offers 5GB of free cloud storage and anything created in Google Docs is not counted as part of the storage limit. Users get 1GB of free photo storage in Picasa Web Albums, unlimited storage of photos in Google+. There are also several pay options for addition storage space.
Mediafire.com starts users with 10GB of free storage and will increase the capacity up to 50GB as part of a referral reward program.
Onedrive.live.com comes from Microsoft and has 15GB of free space with multiple fee-based options for greater amounts of storage.
Note: Cloud storage providers are constantly changing free options, many times raising their capacity. Prices may also change regularly so it is suggested that readers do some of their own research to find the best options on any given day.
Presentation
Weebly.com and Wix.com are have drag and drop website editors, with templates that allows photographers to create their own photo galleries of and pages for other information. These website builders work well for making student portfolios and for posting assignments for courses. Photoshelter.com and Zenfolio.com are both available as fee-based website builders that cater to photographers.
Prezi.com has easy to use tools for making dynamic presentations that exist either online or they can be downloaded as Quicktime movies or pdfs.
SlideShare.net users become part of a community of content creators who make narrated, multimedia slide shows.
Assessment and Critique
Flickr.com, Photobucket.com, and many other sites are possibilities for posting images online where students can respond with critique comments. The sites are free, easy to use, and have few limitations. By posting photos online students can present evidence of their image making and editing learning outcomes.
Edmodo.com contains a variety of tools for class and community collaboration and collaboration. It also allows teacher to do formative and summative assessments on student accounts.
Photo.net, 500px.com, Absolutearts.com, See.me, and Google+ are all viable locations for posting images and requesting critiques from the arts community at large. It is common practice to motivate others to critique student photography by seeking out similar work and first posting a critique for that artwork. Most photographers/artists will reciprocate.
Peer Collaboration
“Creating an attitude of collaboration while empowering students to become experts in their own right promotes the lifelong learning habits that are required to keep up with new technology. No longer can the instructor claim to be the voice of authority in every situation. In my classroom, I encourage students to research and teach digital techniques to the class, and to take advantage of the shared wealth of knowledge possessed by the group as a whole.” (Julia Schlosser, 2/22/15) When Students can work together in online environments and share their knowledge, it gives them further autonomy over their learning while motivating the to engage the content. Here are some popular solutions to online peer collaboration:
Google Docs is one of the most common collaboration sites where multiple students can write and edit papers live.
Channel.me is a site where multiple students can share browsers, chat in real-time, and post comments.
Todaysmeet.com is a backchannel site in real-time. By creating a room, students can comment or ask questions among themselves or the room could include the teacher.
Mind42.com is a collaborative, browser-based mind-mapping tool. Several students can create and edit a mind-map simultaneously.
Skype.com and Google Hangouts allow a group of students at any location to videoconference. Or a teacher can be off-site and videoconference with students.
Wikis have become popular in education because they are easy to set up and use. There are many sites that offer free online spaces where a group of students can post, view, and edit text simply by clicking an edit button. Wikis are simple but can be used, “…to change the individualism culture of traditional instruction to one of collaboration and a shared construction of knowledge.” (Mejies, 2006)
Multi-Media
Powtoon.com, Animoto.com, and GoAnimate.com is a selection of websites where students can make multi-media presentations for their own work, for reports, or to present other kinds of research.
Video Production
Jing at Techsmith.com/jing.html is an industry standard for making videos, up to 5 minutes long, by using either a webcam or users can record their monitor screen. Jing also allows users to output their videos and post them online to Youtube or Vimeo.
Screencast-o-matic.com is a free video-makers with a maximum recording time of 15 minutes with the capability to publish videos straight to Youtube or Vimeo. Premium options are available that include editing.
Screenr.com is a web-based video tool that records and publishes whatever is happening on one’s computer monitor. It also records audio so users can narrate videos.
Camtasia at techsmith.com/camtasia.html is the premium, fee-based version of jing with expanded capability including longer video recording times and editing capability.
Google.com allows content creators to caption videos. This tools is useful for making videos more accessible and for adding an additional layer of communication to productions.
Inspiration
Framednetwork.com, TED.com, Interviewsbycrashtaylor.com, Popfoto.net, ndmagazine.net, Photographyinterviews.blogspot.com, and fstoppers.com comprise a selection of websites that offer inspiration for all levels of photo practitioners. Students can find many sources of inspiration at these Internet locations.
Course Content: Tutorials and Information on Photography
Photo.net, PhotoVideoedu.com, Adorama TV, Photodoto.com, DIYphotography.net, 121clicks.com, lensculture.com, slrlounge.com, and Imre Z. Balint’s index of videos at Binarygraphite.tumblr.com/youtubeepisodeguide are all indispensable information sources for photography learners at all levels.
Lynda.com and Kelbyone.com must also be mentioned here as the premier fee-based sites for photography tutorials. They both boast very high production quality videos with high quality streaming.
Critical Thinking
Philosophy.hku.hk/think/ promotes critical thinking. The website has exercises and thorough explanations of critical thinking, meaning analysis, creative thinking and more.
Criticalthinking.org is a, “…an educational non-profit organization, to promote essential change in education and society through the cultivation of fairminded critical thinking.” (4/9/15)
Research Tools
Digitalresearchtools.pgworks.com is an invaluable resource for delivering an extensive list of online tools categorized by the specific needs of the researcher.
Vtstutorials.ac.uk is a site that teaches users to develop Internet research skills. It is a set of free internet tutorials, like the Internet Detective which helps users, “Learn to discern the good, the bad and the ugly for your online research.” (4/9/15)
Exhibition Opportunities
Some photography programs require students to enter juried exhibitions. A few of the websites that post current and ongoing calls for entry can be found below.
Artshow.com lists open calls-for-entry listed by U.S. geographical and international regions.
Theartguide.com lists a wide variety of exhibition opportunities offered by both galleries and museums.
Artdeadline.com allows users to subscribe so they will not miss all the new calls-for-entry posted.
Entrythingy.com has calls-for-entry plus many more resources for artists.
Here is a selection of categories of interest for photo educators. The websites in some categories will be multi functional and overlap with other categories. The first category is the Personal Learning Environment (PLE) in which students can access and organize all the teaching and learning sites used in their photography course and all their other courses. With a PLE students can have one online location where their personal and academic Internet sources can reside. There are many technologies that can be used to create a PLE but its purpose, ultimately is to give students more autonomy over their course materials by giving them the tools to manage their academic and personal lives online. All online resources used in a course and given to students in the form of a live link should also include the complete URL, or web address, and the complete title of the website so students have multiple ways gain access.
Personal Learning Environments
Symbalooedu.com is a tool that allows students to organize and share their academic resources in one location. It allows educators to, “Promote innovation while maintaining simplicity in teaching.” (4/9/15) Also, teachers can post resources to student sites.
Evernote.com is another organizational tool that can function as a PLE that allows users to sync across all devices (computer, smart phone, and tablets).
RAW Conversion
Adobe DNG Converter is free software that will allow students to convert proprietary RAW files to the DNG format, making them more universally accessible for image editors. This software must be downloaded to a computer and requires regular updating.
Image Editing and File Management
GIMP.org is a free image editor, much like Photoshop. It will not allow users to edit DNGs but it will open TIFF files.
Rawtherapee.com is free to download, though users are encouraged to make a donation. This software will allow users to edit their DNG files.
Picasa.google.com helps users organize, edit, and share photos, but they must be in jpg format.
Studioline.net offers a free image management tool with jpg editing. It also has many fee-based options for expanded capability.
An Internet search for Free Photo Management Tools will yield many other options.
Cloud Storage
Google Drive offers 5GB of free cloud storage and anything created in Google Docs is not counted as part of the storage limit. Users get 1GB of free photo storage in Picasa Web Albums, unlimited storage of photos in Google+. There are also several pay options for addition storage space.
Mediafire.com starts users with 10GB of free storage and will increase the capacity up to 50GB as part of a referral reward program.
Onedrive.live.com comes from Microsoft and has 15GB of free space with multiple fee-based options for greater amounts of storage.
Note: Cloud storage providers are constantly changing free options, many times raising their capacity. Prices may also change regularly so it is suggested that readers do some of their own research to find the best options on any given day.
Presentation
Weebly.com and Wix.com are have drag and drop website editors, with templates that allows photographers to create their own photo galleries of and pages for other information. These website builders work well for making student portfolios and for posting assignments for courses. Photoshelter.com and Zenfolio.com are both available as fee-based website builders that cater to photographers.
Prezi.com has easy to use tools for making dynamic presentations that exist either online or they can be downloaded as Quicktime movies or pdfs.
SlideShare.net users become part of a community of content creators who make narrated, multimedia slide shows.
Assessment and Critique
Flickr.com, Photobucket.com, and many other sites are possibilities for posting images online where students can respond with critique comments. The sites are free, easy to use, and have few limitations. By posting photos online students can present evidence of their image making and editing learning outcomes.
Edmodo.com contains a variety of tools for class and community collaboration and collaboration. It also allows teacher to do formative and summative assessments on student accounts.
Photo.net, 500px.com, Absolutearts.com, See.me, and Google+ are all viable locations for posting images and requesting critiques from the arts community at large. It is common practice to motivate others to critique student photography by seeking out similar work and first posting a critique for that artwork. Most photographers/artists will reciprocate.
Peer Collaboration
“Creating an attitude of collaboration while empowering students to become experts in their own right promotes the lifelong learning habits that are required to keep up with new technology. No longer can the instructor claim to be the voice of authority in every situation. In my classroom, I encourage students to research and teach digital techniques to the class, and to take advantage of the shared wealth of knowledge possessed by the group as a whole.” (Julia Schlosser, 2/22/15) When Students can work together in online environments and share their knowledge, it gives them further autonomy over their learning while motivating the to engage the content. Here are some popular solutions to online peer collaboration:
Google Docs is one of the most common collaboration sites where multiple students can write and edit papers live.
Channel.me is a site where multiple students can share browsers, chat in real-time, and post comments.
Todaysmeet.com is a backchannel site in real-time. By creating a room, students can comment or ask questions among themselves or the room could include the teacher.
Mind42.com is a collaborative, browser-based mind-mapping tool. Several students can create and edit a mind-map simultaneously.
Skype.com and Google Hangouts allow a group of students at any location to videoconference. Or a teacher can be off-site and videoconference with students.
Wikis have become popular in education because they are easy to set up and use. There are many sites that offer free online spaces where a group of students can post, view, and edit text simply by clicking an edit button. Wikis are simple but can be used, “…to change the individualism culture of traditional instruction to one of collaboration and a shared construction of knowledge.” (Mejies, 2006)
Multi-Media
Powtoon.com, Animoto.com, and GoAnimate.com is a selection of websites where students can make multi-media presentations for their own work, for reports, or to present other kinds of research.
Video Production
Jing at Techsmith.com/jing.html is an industry standard for making videos, up to 5 minutes long, by using either a webcam or users can record their monitor screen. Jing also allows users to output their videos and post them online to Youtube or Vimeo.
Screencast-o-matic.com is a free video-makers with a maximum recording time of 15 minutes with the capability to publish videos straight to Youtube or Vimeo. Premium options are available that include editing.
Screenr.com is a web-based video tool that records and publishes whatever is happening on one’s computer monitor. It also records audio so users can narrate videos.
Camtasia at techsmith.com/camtasia.html is the premium, fee-based version of jing with expanded capability including longer video recording times and editing capability.
Google.com allows content creators to caption videos. This tools is useful for making videos more accessible and for adding an additional layer of communication to productions.
Inspiration
Framednetwork.com, TED.com, Interviewsbycrashtaylor.com, Popfoto.net, ndmagazine.net, Photographyinterviews.blogspot.com, and fstoppers.com comprise a selection of websites that offer inspiration for all levels of photo practitioners. Students can find many sources of inspiration at these Internet locations.
Course Content: Tutorials and Information on Photography
Photo.net, PhotoVideoedu.com, Adorama TV, Photodoto.com, DIYphotography.net, 121clicks.com, lensculture.com, slrlounge.com, and Imre Z. Balint’s index of videos at Binarygraphite.tumblr.com/youtubeepisodeguide are all indispensable information sources for photography learners at all levels.
Lynda.com and Kelbyone.com must also be mentioned here as the premier fee-based sites for photography tutorials. They both boast very high production quality videos with high quality streaming.
Critical Thinking
Philosophy.hku.hk/think/ promotes critical thinking. The website has exercises and thorough explanations of critical thinking, meaning analysis, creative thinking and more.
Criticalthinking.org is a, “…an educational non-profit organization, to promote essential change in education and society through the cultivation of fairminded critical thinking.” (4/9/15)
Research Tools
Digitalresearchtools.pgworks.com is an invaluable resource for delivering an extensive list of online tools categorized by the specific needs of the researcher.
Vtstutorials.ac.uk is a site that teaches users to develop Internet research skills. It is a set of free internet tutorials, like the Internet Detective which helps users, “Learn to discern the good, the bad and the ugly for your online research.” (4/9/15)
Exhibition Opportunities
Some photography programs require students to enter juried exhibitions. A few of the websites that post current and ongoing calls for entry can be found below.
Artshow.com lists open calls-for-entry listed by U.S. geographical and international regions.
Theartguide.com lists a wide variety of exhibition opportunities offered by both galleries and museums.
Artdeadline.com allows users to subscribe so they will not miss all the new calls-for-entry posted.
Entrythingy.com has calls-for-entry plus many more resources for artists.