Houska, L. (2016). Books-bookstore-book-reading-1204029 [photograph]. Pixabay. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/books-bookstore-book-reading-1204029/ CC Zero

I unknowingly set myself up to learn a lesson this week when I used a Pixabay image and altered it last week to be the graphic on my blog heading! I knew enough about copyright and Creative Commons before this week’s lectures to know that I needed to ensure I was allowed to use it and that attribution was not required. Clearly, I hadn’t given any thought to whether modifications of any sort were allowed, as I immediately cropped it, or the fact that I needed to cite it. I realized this pretty quickly when I watched the lectures Dr. Kimmel shared that I’d not done it correctly, but I decided that sharing my mistake this week indicated the learning that occurred between posting on my blog last Saturday and this one.

StartupStockPhotos. (2014). Children-win-success-video-game-593313. [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/children-win-success-video-game-593313/ CC Zero

Playing with the tools in the sandbox was a lot of fun this week, and I settled on creating this magazine cover. I used Big Huge Labs once last summer for a Children’s Lit class, found it a bit frustrating, and was sure I’d avoid it this go ’round. That said, I clicked around with a bit more confidence this time and really enjoyed playing with it. I found myself really wanting to use an image of my own students playing with Makey Makeys (https://makeymakey.com/) this past winter, but, as discussed last week, I would never use their photographs on a public blog. I settled for a picture that conveyed the same sense of victory that my students displayed upon making a piano out of a circuit board and play doh and then playing actual music!!!

I can think of several ways my students could use these types of tools in a lesson. I love the idea of having my 4th and 5th graders create a magazine cover or movie poster for a book they’re reading: sharing information like title, author, genre, characters and theme. Any of the photo editing tools we were offered this week allow students the chance to try something new and different and, perhaps most importantly, a tiny bit frustrating which allows for the thrill of overcoming an obstacle. I have a feeling I’d be a big hit if I were to suggest that we play around with memes!