Blog Entry #3 RDNG 654

 September 18, 2022

Is it a duck?  Do you see a rabbit??  I always liked sharing this picture with students and asking what they see. I love to see their reactions when they can finally see both animals.  To me, this is a good picture to use as an example to show how different people can view the same image in different ways.

I think images are used to influence a group's feelings and thoughts in different ways.  One way that comes to mind for me is playing to people's emotions.  Some people are easily influenced - kids especially so.  Also, young students are more impressionable.  Therefore, if they see an image that grab's their attention, they might not care as much about the factual content.  Because of this, as educators we need to teach our students to read digital images in ways that will help them determine the deeper meaning of the digital image.  One way we could do this is by showing students examples of age appropriate hoax images and having discussions about what makes it look real and what we notice that makes it look like something is not quite right.  This could then be followed up with a lesson on how to verify/read digital images accurately.

I will be the first to admit when it came to thinking about teaching with digital images I automatically became panicky.  That being said, I had a fun time exploring different ways to have students develop images to support their thoughts and ideas.  I am already excited to begin implementing some.  I liked the idea of kids having the opportunity to take photos of their work and then being able to publish it.  My school uses Class Dojo so students could send home messages with photos to their parents about what they are working on.  This might help them take ownership and pride in their work too.  I also liked the idea of Project 365.  This could be something we do school wide and tie it into PBIS to focus on the positive things happening in our school.  I thought Eyes on Creativity also looked engaging!  I agree - who doesn't love googly eyes!  The students or I could take a photo of their creation and then the kids could write a few sentences about their character.  This could be a fun project to turn into a classroom book and then send home to share with parents.  I currently have a blank bulletin board outside of my intervention classroom. Taking a photo of students holding up their favorite book and writing why they would recommend it might make for a fun display.

I had fun exploring some of the various apps that can support visual literacy.  I was already familiar with Bitmoji - that is actually an app I use often when texting.  We have also done some fun things with our Bitmojis for school.  One year we had a fun run to raise money and each teacher made a Bitmoji of themselves running and it was displayed in the school foyer.  The students loved seeing that.  Some of my co-workers also have Bitmojis of themselves outside of their classroom door.  I find it a cute touch to the classroom.  I also tried Book Creator.  At first it seemed user friendly but them I got stuck so I gave up and moved on to another.  The one I had the most fun with was Pixton.  I think students would have a fun time with that app.  There was a dark creative writing idea for third grade that would be fun to do in October.  That app is also where I made my cartoon.  I had a lot of fun creating it! I will certainly be returning to that app tp learn more!