Pīkau 14: Creating digital outcomes using digital images and digital photography

Introduction

Links to existing knowledge

You might already know some of this.

Opportunities for projects, large and small, using digital photography can be found in all learning areas of the curriculum. You may be doing things in your classroom already that relate to Designing and Developing Digital Outcomes progress outcomes 2 and 3.

In this video, Kay Le Comte, Digital Technologies teacher, shares her Photography for a Local Context lesson. This lesson has been taught with Year 9 students but would be applicable to upper primary levels too.

‘So the motivation factor, students could work in groups, they could take their photography on other school trips. I know here in Napier they do an art deco trip into the Napier city, going around the buildings. Where there are fantastic design elements of art deco. So you could have that cross curriculum as well.’ — Kay Le Comte, Tamatea High School.

Quiz - File types and formats

Take this quiz to check your own knowledge of file types and formats. If you need a refresher, there is a PDF download below.

• Digital Images flashcards on Quizlet

Classroom example - How does a computer display an image?

In this video, intermediate school teacher Kit Clarkson talks about her lesson that involves uploading pictures to a CS Field Guide website to explore pixels, RGB values, and image data representation.

‘The Field Guide I can’t speak highly enough.....before I taught this lesson I didn’t know any of this... read through it and it made sense to me so I’m sure it will make sense to you.’ -- Kit Clarkson, Heaton Intermediate.

In this video Melissa explains how students recognising that digital images are made from pixels, and how to manipulate the colours of those pixels, relates to the progress outcomes.

Moving from Progress Outcome 2 to 3

In this video Melissa summarises how manipulating digital content features in Progress Outcome 2 and how the use of a design process can provide evidence of movement from Progress Outcome 2 to Progress Outcome 3.

Are you an ethical creator?

The new digital content focuses on being a digital creator. When you create new digital content you have a responsibility to do so ethically, including taking into account cultural and intellectual property issues.

All the progress outcomes ask students to consider end-users, and progress outcome 3 suggests students take into account immediate social, ethical, and end-user considerations as they design and develop digital outcomes.

This means you need to understand how copyright is relevant to schools in the context of both consuming and creating digital content. In addition, you have an ethical responsibility to protect the stories that accompany a digital image, using a culturally aware lens, which may mean knowing the story and seeking permission before use.

Photography provides a great opportunity to introduce the concept of culture as well as intellectual property, which should include recognising that Māori and other indigenous peoples are the guardians of customary knowledge and:

• have the right to protect and control the dissemination of it
• have the right to create new knowledge based on cultural tradition

As digital consumers and creators, we should:

• treat with integrity, and attribute, Māori and other indigenous works
• accept the cultural and intellectual property rights of Māori and other indigenous peoples

In the context of Aotearoa, key resources and references include:

• The Mātaatua Declaration on Cultural and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples (1993)
• Te Ara: Story of Intellectual Property Law
• Waitangi Tribunal claim about the recognition of rights around, and control of, traditional Māori knowledge, customs and relationships with the natural environment.
• Auckland University: Using and copying cultural property and indigenous works

Checklist - Being an ethical creator

The Technology learning area strands (practice, knowledge and nature) contain achievement objectives for each New Zealand Curriculum level. They describe ways in which you can support students to develop their practice as they design and develop digital outcomes. The Values from the Technology Learning Area suggest a practise of consideration for others and working in an ethical manner. The progress outcomes also identify clearly that social, ethical and end-user considerations need to be taken into account.

We’ve put together a very brief summary of what you should do when creating and using digital content. This is a complex area, but we think you’ll find our thoughts useful. If you want a more in-depth coverage of this topic, you can access the Copyright and Creative Commons module on Enabling eLearning.

For yourself:

• Know your school’s policy on copyright and how it applies to employees (teachers) creating content - and follow it.
• Check if your school allows teachers to share work they have created using a Creative Commons type license.
• License your work using an appropriate Creative Commons license.
• If your school has no policy on copyright and how it applies to content creation, ask your principal to raise this with the Board of Trustees - with a view to having a Creative Commons policy for your school so that you can freely share your work.
• Respect iwi by understanding image and story use allowances and seek permission when appropriate.

For your learners:

• Ensure they understand the concept of copyright using age-appropriate terms.
• Help them understand that they control the copyright to work they have created - but that this control comes with a responsibility to others.
• Give them opportunities to discuss when it is suitable to share content and how to apply a suitable Creative Commons license.
• Help them understand that in addition to copyright laws there are cultural responsibilities to consider.

We’ve included a pdf version of this checklist here: What to do when creating digital content.

What to do when using content created by others

For example when using a digital image found on the internet.

For yourself:

• Be a good digital citizen by only using images that have been licensed for the intended type of use.
• Know where to source digital content that has been licensed for reuse or modification.
• Clearly attribute the image you are using. See Best Practices for Attribution (examples) and Attribution 4.0
• New Zealand to assist with understanding the requirements.
• Understand how copyright applies to schools in New Zealand.

For your learners:

• Help them understand how copyright applies to reusing and modifying content. Link to TKI copyright information for students.
• Help them know where to source digital content that has been licensed for reuse or modification.
• Show them how to attribute content that is being reused or modified. Best Practices for Attribution (examples).
• Incorporate this knowledge and understanding into programmes of learning.

Making Connections, Next Steps, Going Deeper

Using digital images can be linked to computational thinking by understanding how digital images are stored and transmitted as they are made up of pixels which are binary ‘bits’ of data.

You may remember in pīkau 1: Why Digital Technologies in the ‘Is it all about devices?’ section, Tim discusses how binary works within digital images. If you’ve missed it or would like to see it again here is the video.

If you’d like to understand more about binary digits, and how they relate to digital technologies or need a refresher, pīkau 16: Representing Data in Binary is a resource to help with this.

Wrapping up and where to next?

Now you have seen some of the possibilities for digital images to be used as a context to help teach progress outcomes 2 and 3, it’s time to try out your ideas in the classroom.

Here’s some handy tips to help you out:

• Know the final destination of your images and start there. This might influence the size, shape and colour balance of your images.
• If there is an image students want to use but don’t have permission, encourage them to get permission (it never hurts to ask).
• Encourage students to create their own images, rather than simply taking them from a Google search.
• See the resource bank for popular resources DDDO 13: Resources.
• Incorporate this learning in authentic contexts.