First Impressions

Overview

Students begin to experiment with creating digital artefacts and are invited to join an on line community where they can post their work safely.

Description

Set up a Google+ community for the project. You will need a Google account if you haven’t got one already. Give the community account an appropriate name e.g. Class B6 Photo Prompts and make it public. It is possible for the administrator (you) to adjust the settings so that you can moderate who joins the group. When the community is ready, send invites to your students. You can do this directly from the community page if your students already have a Google account, otherwise do it via e-mail and they will be guided on how to create their own accounts.

Show students a photo prompt that you have created. The easiest way to do this is to upload a photo (either one you have taken or one found on line) to www.picmonkey.com, edit the size, colour etc. as appropriate and add a thought-provoking text that incites action. Having posted it on the community page ask students to respond to the photo prompt with their own digital artefact – this could be a photo, a podcast, a video, a graphic design, an animation, a story …

A successful first prompt we used in our art project was: “Recreate an iconic photograph”.

Show the results of their work in class and invite the students to comment on each other’s work. This way you will quickly discover if students are capable of giving feedback in a polite and constructive manner. Work on this if necessary.

Time needed 3- 4 hours, depending on students’ skill level.

Resources

Google+: https://plus.google.com.
For support on how to create and manage a community go to https://support.google.com/plus/answer/2888328?hl=en&ref_topic=2888488.
We used PicMonkey (http://www.picmonkey.com/) because it’s so easy to use and because you don’t need to register. Pixlr (http://pixlr.com/) is another good online tool for creating your own photo prompts. It also has apps for Android and iOS. You can use any image editing software you like but ensure you (and your students) respect copyright when using images owned by others.
Students can look for iconic pictures on the web (you’ll find quite a few dedicated Pinterest sites) but they could also visit a photography gallery or museum, either online or in person. Again, be sure to respect copyright laws.
Students will need a digital camera, tablet or smartphone in order to take photographs.

Hints and tips

You can also use a blog (WordPress/Blogger) or a website to create a community.
If you are using Google Apps for education, you get more privacy options e.g. you can restrict the community to your school (domain).
The iconic photograph is just an example. You could also ask them to recreate a painting but with photography. In that case they could visit an art museum or take a virtual tour in a museum via the Google Art Project http://www.google.com/culturalinstitute/project/art-project?hl=en-GB.
Other options with photography:
- Improvise a scene based on a photograph and record it.
- If there’s a person in the picture, tell the story from their point of view (e.g. podcast).
- Compose a short soundtrack for the photo.
- Write the story that goes with the picture.