Backyard Photo Safari

For this week's DS106 assignment, I decided to stick with the visual assignments because they are my favorite.  I chose one that might be boring for some, but the application to the classroom could be very powerful.  It is a backyard photo safari that takes viewers on a photo journey through someone's yard.  Now my backyard is fairly plain, but I chose this assignment because I was thinking about applying it to the classroom.

One of the most powerful things I learned through CU Denver's Urban Teacher Program was how important it is to allow the students to bring their own culture and funds of knowledge into the classroom.  I thought this backyard photo journey could be a really cool way for me to get to know the students at the beginning of the year and for the students to get to know each other.  It wouldn't necessarily have to be their backyards, it could be anything.

In my current school, we would probably have to modify this a bit by either doing it in class together or by using actual pictures the kids have, not digital.  For some, this could be homework during the first week of school and have students share on Friday, for example.  This assignment would teacher the kids about creating digital slide shows and allow them to learn to be digital storytellers!

Here is my photo journey!



  

Professor Tag

I had a lot of fun with the "Dog It Out" DS106 Design assignment this week.  It was frustrating at first to find a good photo editor program...I tried fotor but I couldn't  figure out how to add clip art and then I tried pixlr but that seemed way too complicated for me. In the end, I used PicsArt on my phone and I love my finished product!

Once again, there were very few assignments that related to my focal theme, there were two and I wasn't impressed with either, so I got creative and tied another assignment into my theme (technology and education).

**Maybe I am not searching in the right way...how are others finding assignments related to their theme?**

The goal of this assignment was to take a picture of your dog or any animal and upload the picture to a photo editor program.  Then we needed to edit the picture to make it something unique, interesting and make people smile!  I think I accomplished those things...you be the judge!

I now introduce to you Professor TagDog...

I ended up using the PicsArt app on my phone, which is very simple to use!