Web 2.0 Tools - Picasa

For this project I teamed up with Jason to learn about the program Picasa! Picasa is great tool that allows you to edit, organize, and share your photos.  For use in the classroom, you can organize photos of your class and special events, or make each of your students a photo CD to take home. You can also create Web Albums for students to access from home, and integrate photography into your courses by having kids take lesson-related photos, post them to their Web Albums and use during presentations. Students can keep all photos for their research projects in one location, so they're easy to see and find. 


Perhaps one of my favorite uses for this program is how creative it allows you to be! You can take a simple photo and use Picasa's multiple artistic edits to transform your photo. You can add text, borders, and enhance or change colors of a photo, and upload to your blog! Here is an example of how I was able to take a photo and turn it into something I would want to post on a classroom blog...

Before:

After:

I really learned a lot from this project. Most importantly, it helped me start thinking of how these web 2.0 tools can really function in a classroom.  I can't wait to use and integrate this into my own classroom one day!