App Smashing - Making Images Pop

I know the idea of app smashing (or whatever you call it) is a big thing with Seesaw and other similar tools. I decided to try out this idea with two commonly used photo apps to see what I could do. Both are free and are very easy to use.

The effects are super amazing and I'm just getting started. By pairing these two apps I can get some of my pictures to a totally new level of amazing.

The kids and I spent some time walking around the sculpture park the other day and I snapped a few random photos. We found this piece and thought it looked interesting enough to take a few pictures of it. After reviewing the images I saw the angle was a little off so we thought it would be easy to fix it in an app.

We used PicMonkey and Google Photos to fix up the image into something we would be proud to print and hang. These two apps allowed us to take a so-so image and create something that would pop.

PicMonkey - App 1 of 2

We started by opening the PicMonkey app, then clicked on the image we wanted to start editing. When the bottom menus appears under the photo, we clicked Effects.

Click on Lush. This effect makes the image's colors more vivid in one click.

I maxed the effect out by sliding it to 100.

Click the check in the upper right corner of the image when you are finished adjusting it.

I then clicked Save in the corner then Share.

Click Upload to Photos.

Then clicked Upload on the next screen.

This saves the image into the other app where you can take the editing to the next level.

Google Photos - App 2 of 2

Open the Google Photos app and find the image you just edited in PicMonkey.

Click on that image.

Click the little pencil at the bottom of the image.

Click the center icon at the very bottom. This will give you access to many editing tools.

I clicked on color then pumped up the Deep blue filter by dragging it to the right.

This filter makes the sky into something amazing. It only works if the sky is actually blue.

I noticed my image was a little off and I wanted to straighten it a bit. I returned to a previous screen and looked for the icon above. It looks like a little square with two arrows.

To adjust the image all I had to do is drag left or right.

This created an image that was at a more visually pleasing angle.

Now with the image perfect I can post and share it.

Like your ELMO but with an iPad (elementary classroom teachers)

I used AirServer to create the infinity mirror effect. We were in a meeting today and Dominic told us about this fantastic idea. As we discussed all things technology he explained one method of using the iPad as a portable ELMO. It was too cool not to share. Step 1 Make sure you have AirServer running on your laptop. 1. Click the Windows key on your keyboard or click the icon in the lower left of your screen. 2. Just start typing AirServer. 3. Click AirServer. Don't see it? Contact technology or your building tech person. Step 2 Connect your teacher iPad to your laptop. 1. Swipe up from the bottom of the screen. Start by swiping in the bezel, the black plastic part surrounding the screen. 2. Click AirPlay Mirroring. 3. Click your name. Step 3 Open the camera app and instant portable ELMO! Anything you see in the camera's len will be broadcast to the big screen. I just used this method to take a picture of my notebook as a demonstration of how co

Who is emailing me? The Blue Man Group??? (Add an image to your Google account.)

WHY It is always nice to put a face with a name. Sometimes we need a tiny little reminder of what someone looks like because we don't see them very often. Follow these steps to add/change the image associated with your Google account. HOW Open your email. Click your image. It might just be a blue circle if you have not added something already. Click Change . Find an image you like. Your amazing new image will appear. From now on everyone can put a name to a face!

Annotate PDF? How might I do that?

So I have a PDF and I need to edit it. Here is one method that works pretty well for me. Open Word. Click File . 1. Click Open . 2. Click Browse . 3. Find the PDF you want to annotate. 4. Click Open . Click OK when you see this box. Bam! Your PDF now opens in Word. Note: you maybe have to click Enable Editing at the top of the screen. Finished editing and want to turn it back into a PDF? Click File . 1. Click Save As . 2. Click This PC . 3. Pick a location. I usually save things to my desktop. 4. Click Save as type - and choose PDF. 5. Click Save .

Learning in the Lou

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