ETEC 550 – Final Project
Bill Trickey
June 18, 2015
The Context

This year saw School District #22 (Vernon) unveil its new technology roll-out.

The new roll-out replaced all Elementary Mac platforms and the antiquated
Secondary Windows XP platforms with Windows 7.

The roll-out has been contentious for many who had now been asked to adapt
to a new platform and were now being asked to make use of new programs or
applications that have now been made available to all staff and students in
SD22.

Unfortunately, aside from providing students and teachers with access to,
there has been little or no support with regards to what the applications are,
what they are capable of, how they can be utilized in the classroom and most
importantly, how to use them.
The Context

Teachers and student’s in SD22 are being presented with opportunities to utilize
some very powerful software, but in many cases are unaware of what has been
made available to them or how to use it.

In my collaboration group at school, several like minded teachers decided to
create a list of skills that both teachers and students should be familiar with in
order to make efficient use of the technology provided. We discussed that
often it is assumed that students know how to use even the most basic of
applications like Microsoft Office, but in reality most can only manage some
basic operations and are familiar with only a small number of applications.

We decided to make a list of what skills we felt should be taught to all students
in our school, and what programs or applications we felt could be best utilized
in order to provide students and teachers with the capability to create and
present student generated material in the most imaginative and appealing
manner, and then show them the programs or applications they could then use.

I choose to tackle Paint.net which is a powerful image editing program.
The Problem

Paint.net would prove to be an excellent
program to introduce student’s and teachers to
because once familiar with the program, it
allows for a host of opportunities for the user to
be creative with images that can then be
further utilized in student’s reports,
presentations or even video projects.

The program is also available for free to anyone
so that students can utilize this program at
home without having to purchase other image
editing programs such as Adobe Photoshop.

The problem with teaching how to use a new
software program is that often the program is
so powerful and has so many different options
for doing so many different things that I had to
first decide upon what skills are most important
and what skills would provide students and
teachers with the confidence to experiment on
their own.
What Skills?

I decided upon focusing in on four specific
skills that would allow students to crop,
swap, layer and insert text into any image.

In the process of teaching these basic skills
in Paint.net I would also demonstrate how
to efficiently save and organize their
images in their folders because that was
another complaint that teachers had with
students, is that they were often “losing”
their assignments because they simply did
not know how to save their documents or
work to a specific location that they could
access later.

In this sense, I would also be introducing
the concept of “file management” to
students and teachers as well.
How best to present my lessons to everyone?

Part of the problem that needed to be addressed
was how best to provide unlimited access to
everyone within SD22.

By creating my lessons as part of an online tutorial
and by providing teachers with classroom ready
assignments that would walk students through the
skills I wanted to impart, I felt that any teacher
and any student could learn how to use Paint.net.

The key would be to combine screen capture video
with a student-ready assignment sheet. The video
and assignment sheet would compliment each
other and provide both student and teachers with
written step-by-step instructions with audio/visual
instructions that could be paused and reviewed as
needed.

I choose Movavi Screen Capture for my video
lessons, which I would then post to Youtube.
Needs Assessment/Analysis


Access to the program was not a
problem seeing that the program was
made available to all students and
teachers in the new tech-rollout, and
is also available for free online.
The problems I would need to
address would be teacher willingness
to try to teach to students a program
that they themselves were unfamiliar
with and the perseverance with
seeing a task through to an end
which is always a part of any lesson
with students.

What was needed was something that
was classroom ready, simple in design
and easy for teachers to follow.

By creating “fun” and imaginative
assignments I hoped to encourage
students to persevere because the
end result would be personal and
amusing.

Once that first lesson was successful,
then subsequent lessons could built
upon each other until at the end a
complex problem was assigned that
would allow for students to be
creative with the image editing
process and teachers with the
confidence that they too can use the
program.
The Design -
I would design my lessons around these
very specific skills.

Use the Paint.net program to “crop” images and apply the “rule of thirds”
related to appealing photographic composition.

Use the Paint.net program to “cut” a desired section of one image and
“insert” or superimpose that selection onto another image.

Use the Paint.net program to not only insert text into an image, but alter and
manipulate the style of text to create a gradient or blended colour scheme
within the text itself.

Familiarize the learner with basic file management skills related to Windows
7 operating system
Instructional Intervention

I created a website that
provided all classroom
ready instructional
material and assignments
as well as links to
individual video lessons
that I posted to Youtube.

I was careful to mirror
the step-by-step
instructions on my video
with the same written
step-by-step instructions
on my assignments.
Instructional Intervention

For my first test I introduced the
students in my digital photography
elective “X-Block” to Paint.net as
the software program that we
would be using to be editing their
digital images.

We accessed the webpage and I
demonstrated to them how to view
the videos and print out the
assignment sheet.

Once students were busy watching
the instructional videos or working
on their assignment, I was now
free to circulate and assist those
who required one-on-one
assistance.

My second test was with a group of
teachers during a professional
development day.

The focus of the session was to
introduce teachers to what is now
available to them.

Many of teachers were elementary
teachers who are all new to the
new Windows 7 based operating
system and are not only unfamiliar
with what is made available to
them but had varying degrees of
comfort in teaching their students
some of the basic skills needed to
optimize their use of image editing
software like Paint.net.
The Results…

I found with both groups, the
students and the teachers, that
they received the lessons positively
and appreciated the individual
instruction that the videos provided
as well as the written instructions.

The assignments were “fun” in
nature and every student was
successful.

Teachers who I presented to on the
Pro-D expressed a willingness to try
my lessons with their own classes,
making use of both the videos and
instructional assignment sheets.
What I learned…

In addition to learning a new screen capture program (Movavi), I
learned that using video capture technology to provide an individual
lesson that can be reviewed and repeated as necessary is best
accompanied by written instructions as well.

I found that some students would sometimes either ignore the video
and stick with the written instructions, ignore the written instructions
and watch the video or they would utilize both by watching the video
first, then refer back to the written instructions when they were
working with Paint.net

I also learned that teachers are more willing to take a risk and try
something new, if classroom ready resources are made available to
them as well as instructional support.
In the end…

I was happy with the results and received commitments from the district
technology teacher to post a link to my website on a newly created “Tools
and Applications” website that the district would create and host with the
explicit aim to do what I intended to do with this project, which is to provide
teachers and students with the necessary support to make better use of the
technology that is now being made available to them.

You can view my website for this project at;
http://www.trickey.ca/paint_net/index.html