Adobe Photoshop in Education

The Grade 7 classes at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Elementary School have combined technology, Language Arts, and their creativity in a unique way. The project involved the 2 grade seven classes at OLPH with their teachers, Deb Paling and Angela Fields, along with Digital Literacy support from Vice-Principal Vicky Walker. The students were learning about active verbs. Their learning goal was to come up with an action that described themselves and then a pose that would best communicate the meaning of their verb. The challenge was that they could not rely on facial expression to get their action across.
The next lesson, students viewed an animated iTunes ad from Apple and a slideshow of different versions of silhouetted dancing figures.
They were extremely motivated and planned out their ideas on a given template.
Next, they took pictures of each other on a blue background and downloaded them onto the computer. Students imported their pictures into Photoshop Elements and used the magic wand to select and delete the background as well as change their body into a silhouette. They added a text box and used the paint bucket tool to add a new coloured background of their choice. "We did this as a whole class lesson which at times was a bit overwhelming! It took longer than we thought, due to some technical difficulties and there was lots of learning for everyone. The results speak for themselves."

Adobe Photoshop Elements is one of many OSAPAC software titles available to Ontario students and teachers.
Please contact Joe Sisco for more details.