Two simple, free tools for adding text to pictures

I recently came across these two very simple tools that will add text to a picture in no time.

If you're on Facebook or Twitter, I'm sure you've seen how people put words (usually humorous ones) on pictures. The best ones are quickly shared with the masses. Many educators create these images (sometimes called "cards") to share great quotes or thoughts for professional development.

I used to call them "digital posters" and I put several of mine on this post on my blog. Tony Vincent calls them "infopics" and he has a lot to say on his blog about how you can use them in the classroom.

I usually to use Pixlr or Picmonkey to create these myself, but these other two sites will let you put a quote or phrase on a picture in minutes.

Because of this, both should be ideal for classroom projects where you don't want the tech taking the focus. They have banner ads displayed on both sites, but as I've used them to test the features I haven't seen anything inappropriate in the ads. Here are some pros, cons and examples.

PICFONT

The interface for PICFONT looks a little dated, but the pictures come out looking great. It provides several effects to choose from besides just adding text. That's great if you want to get into the details of design, but it also could make it more of a distraction in class. 

I couldn't figure out how to center the text without entering each line individually. It wasn't hard once I realized that, so I pass it along. Here's the sample graphic I created at the site:

AddText
Of these two, AddText is the most streamlined. There simply isn't much you can do with the free version other than choose or upload a picture, then type the text. This site has the opposite problem of PICFONT when it comes to arranging the text. The text automatically is centered, so you'll have to add multiple lines of text if you want to align it in any other arrangement.

There aren't many free fonts to choose from, but there are some decorative ones that look a lot better than PICFONT's options. This can be a great option for meme projects, since there are some pictures in the gallery and a font that are available just for that purpose.

The message to get a premium membership will pop up if students choose a font marked with a star. For about $20 a year you can get the premium features (which is actually a premium account at FlamingText.com). It's a fair price by the looks of the many font options, but for quick class projects the free fonts will serve you well.

Here's an example of what I quickly put together with AddText:

Digital Storytelling for Middle School with WeVideo

I created a digital story assignment to introduce WeVideo and we tried it out this week.

It confirmed for me that WeVideo is a great tool for the classroom. This assignment results in a digital slideshow, so we were only uploading photos. I'm not sure how well it will work with video, especially long clips, but I hope to try that out soon.

For now, it is my recommended editor when teachers ask me for a resource to create narrated slideshows.

For our assignment, I took 10 pictures of students in various poses. The students had to arrange at least six of these pictures into some short story in WeVideo. They were required to add a title and end clip as well as captions and some panning and zooming.

Here are the resources for the assignment:

• The assignment sheet - This includes directions, requirements and links to the tutorials.
• A shared folder on Google Drive with the pictures - These 10 photos were taken ahead of time.
• Video Tutorial 1 - This shows how to get started in WeVideo. It shows the basics of the interface, how to upload, arrange, add captions and titles and also how to pan and zoom.  Note:  The tutorial refers to uploading the photos because in our class we didn't store photos in Google Drive. You can upload from Drive or you could save those photos above in a different folder.
• Video Tutorial 2 - This tutorial shows how to add music and how to publish and share the final video.

This basic assignment lends itself to a lot of modification for different needs. Here are some suggestions:

• Have the students take their own photos.
• Have another class take the photos.
• Instead of using actors in the photos, students could set up action figures or maybe even objects.
• They could draw the pictures digitally or on paper.
• Require editing of the photos. For example, speech bubbles could be added.
• Narrate the story and have students read the dialogue.

If you use this assignment or you have suggestions for other changes I'd love to hear from you!

GIMP Tutorials - Lessons for photo editing in high school and middle school

I have been very busy in and out of the classroom so far this new school year.  My favorite part has been the time I've spent with Digital Media courses at our high school and middle school.  Somehow they managed to schedule both classes at the same time of the day!  Since I can't physically be at both of them I have been using video tutorials as one way to assist the classroom teacher and instruct the students.

First, here are the related lessons.

Below you'll find the tutorials for GIMP, a free image editing program.  I hope these could be useful to anyone who might be "flipping" a tech course or possibly for an online course.

Update 10/4/2013:  I posted the most popular tutorials on YouTube and have them in this Playlist now.

• Introduction to GIMP - Brief explanation of what the program is like, how to navigate the multiple windows and how to open files
• Saving files in GIMP - Some of this is specific to our network, but I talk about saving as jpeg.
• Paint Brush and Clone Tools - I explain how to use the Paint Brush as a line tool and how to erase parts of pictures using the Clone Tool.
• Drawing with the Selection Tools - GIMP doesn't have a tool to draw shapes, for example, but this shows how it can be used to accomplish the same thing.
• Using Layers in GIMP - This is probably the best feature of GIMP and the one students have the hardest time with. 
• Using the Text Tool in GIMP - Text in GIMP is pretty easy, but students need to understand Layers first.
• Combining Images in GIMP - This shows how to take parts of one image and paste it into another for simple special effects.
• Neon Logo Tutorial - My version of a popular logo effect that I learned from a couple YouTube tutorials

And here's a quick talk about learning software in general.  I address the difference between learning the software and learning how to learn new software.