Emerging Technology 2: Photo Editing - Picnik

In a history class, the challenge is always how to make the past come alive. We all know what that means when we visit historic places or listen to a speaker with first-hand knowledge of an historical event. The problem with teaching history in the classroom is the limits of the school building and the walls of the classroom. One way to overcome these obstacles is through the use of pictures.

With the use of photo editing sites like Picnik, a class could compile pictures of historical places, people, or things and create a class project. Individual students could use family vacation photos to make a display for the class to view. This would be a great activity for younger grades as a digital "What I did for summer vacation." I could see a geneology tree being done with the use of Picnik.

I am going to try this year to begin to make a library of pictures on Picnik for use in my history and geography classroom. I will ask teachers and other staff members to share their historical photos and photos of the world. After tagging these photos and organizing them I will have the students put together a class poster the last week of school. Stay tuned