Introduction

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Images have many uses for both teachers and students. This presentation demonstrates two free software tools that can be used for the preparation of images and their display in your favorite media (print, stand alone presentations, web, ...).

Educational Uses
The following sites provide a number of ideas for the use of digital camera and images in the classroom.

• Digital Cameras Enhance Education:( members.ozemail.com.au/~cumulus/digcam.htm )
• 1001 Uses for a Digital Camera:( pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~ucfcasio/qvuses.htm )
• Using Digital Cameras in the Curriculum:( www.watertown.k12.ma.us/dept/prodev/cameras/cameras.html )

Acquiring Images
The two most common methods of acquiring images for use in education is to capture an image with a digital camera or to scan an image (photograph, magazine, etc). It is important to remind students to be sensitive to copyright issues.

Image Preparation
Okay, I've got an image. Why fuss with editing it? Below is an example of two images made from the same 640X480 digital camera image. Since the original image was much too big to include in a paper or on a web page it had to be reduced. Which image makes the point better?

The image on the left was just reduced to 200x150 while the image on the right was first cropped to the baby opossum then reduced to 200 pixels wide. It focuses better on the subject. This illustrates the basic image editing process: crop away excess, resize to fit the space, and sharpen to provide a clearer image.