Remix #1: Time of Day from My Window

My New Appreciation for Photo Editors
I’m not going to lie…When asked to edit an image in Pixlr or Photoshop, I was a little nervous. I have never done anything but a collage. In fact, the biggest difficulty I encountered while trying to complete this task was figuring out how to navigate the picture editing program, Pixlr. However, after I figured out how to navigate, it was pretty easy. YouTube tutorials help a lot, even though I did have to figure out some things on my own still.
I knew I wanted to do the option of Time of Day because the beach picture was beautiful, and I love nature images. Although I would have loved to travel to Jamaica and spend a week on the beach gathering different images throughout the day, I settled on a tree in my backyard. Usually, there is a beautiful sun set in my back yard, but I did not luck up to capture the images on a night that was red, orange, pink, and yellow. However, I still am very happy with the final image.
For those that would like to try this on their own, I hope these instructions are easier to follow than anything I found online.

How To:
1) Take multiple pictures throughout the day and upload them to your computer.
2) Log on to Pixlr, Online Editor.
3) Click on the “Open Pixlr Editor (Advanced)” link.
4) Click on the “Create a New Image” link. It’s the first option.
5) You then have to chose a size. You can manually set the size, or there are some options to chose from. My images were 2448 x 3264. I had to load an image first to see the size. If your size is not set the same as your images, it will crop out a large portion of your image, which gets frustrating. After that, a white blank working box will appear.
6) Next, click on “File” and then select “Open Image.” Find the base image (mine was the image on the far right) from your documents on your computer and upload it.
7) After that image appears, you need to unlock it. There is a box on the right, middle side of the screen titled “Layers.” There will be white box with “background” written next to it. There is a lock next to that. Double click on that lock. You will need to repeat this for all images and the initial blank box.
8) In the toolbar, there will be a Marquee tool, found under the crop button, that you need to click. Then use that tool to select all of the first picture. (You will select less and less of each subsequent image, subtracting an equal amount from the right side of each image.) After you have selected the portion you want to use, press “Ctrl + C” to copy that portion.
9) Click on the Blank box and press “Ctrl + V” to paste that into the working blank box. If you need to move the image, which you probably will move more as you paste each subsequent portion into the box, click on the Move Tool and then move the image into place.
10) Repeat steps Step 6 – Step 9 for the number of different images that you want to include. Make sure you divide out the space equal to however many images you want to combine. Don’t forget to unlock each image that you upload so you can copy and paste it.
11) Last, go to “File” and select “save” to save your image.

Boarder: I then entered into the “Open Pixlr Express (Efficient)” mode, uploaded the image, and added the feather boarder to smooth out the edges that didn’t line up perfectly.

NET SMART…Barton/Roper Style!

For our first assignment for our ENGL7741 course, Heather and I were assigned with leading a class discussion on Chapter 1 of Henry Rheingold’s NET SMART. We had a great discussion on how to keep away from distraction in a time where there are so many distractions. The important thing for teachers that spawned from this chapter was the idea of how to teach students to use technology in an attentive and healthy manner. Attached is the video we made as an introduction to the discussion.