Picnik

Picnik is a very handy free online tool for changing pictures, whether it is size, colour, brightness, or sharpness. It is very easy to follow along on the website, uploading photos, changing photos and then putting the changed photo back onto the computer or moving it across to flickr.

Dancing with Kylie1
Originally uploaded by Troy H Park

There are lots of special effects, frames and shapes you can use.

This is the photo that I edited, of myself and my girlfriend dancing at a wedding. I altered the size of the image and played around with the features even though the initial image was sufficient. It would be a great way to improve those not so good photos. I found the easiest way to improve your photos was to choose- autofix!

I'll be honest i am not the most artistic creative person, but i can see that this tool could be used in art in the classroom quite easily. Even if you just let the students go on upload a photo and see what they can create playing around with the different effects. This will help enhance the students creativity which is identified in this knowledge where there is so much innovation as an important part of the students learning journey. Sir Ken Robinson on the Teds talk show describes creativity as being as important as maths and literature to veiw follow this link Sir Ken Robinson Talk on Creativity.

Sir Ken Robinson,. Ted Ideas worth Spreading. Ken Robinson says schools kill creativity. Found 13th of Augast 2009, at http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html