Teachers' toolkit for creating and re-purposing OER using FOSS/Image and animation OER
In this chapter of the tool-kit, you will learn how to create and re-purpose image OER. You will learn
- about popular repositories for accessing image OER
- how to create image resources using your camera (on your feature mobile phone)
- how to create image resources using a drawing tool (Tux Paint)
- How to create a simple animation (Tux Paint)
- how to create image resources using a screen capture tool (Screenshot)
- how to edit image resources using an image editor (GIMP).
- How to embed / insert images in a text document to create a picture story (LibreOffice Writer)
- how to present image resources in a ‘slide presentation’ format (LibreOffice Impress).
Accessing image OER repositories
- Like Wikipedia is a popular text OER repository, Wikimedia commons is a popular image OER repository. You can search for your topic in Wikimedia Commons, by simply typing the topic name in the search bar. We will do this for ‘Digital Story Telling’ (DST) which is the OER proposed to be created as an exemplar by this tool-kit.
*** Images to search and display DST on Wikimedia Commons
- You can use a search engine such as Google search engine or DuckDuckGo search engine, using a FOSS web browser such as Mozilla Firefox.
You can search for images relating DST to simply typing in Digital Story Telling in the search bar of the search engine and selecting the ‘images’ link
*** Images to show Google search for images
To get images that are OER, you can provide OER as a criteria in your search itself. In Google image search select Settings → Advanced Search. In Advanced Search, you can select Usage Rights as ‘free to use, share or modify, even commercially’ to get OER that you can re-use with or without modification.
Creating image resources using your camera
The simplest and easiest way to create an image resource is to take a photo of the object you want an image of. Of course this will apply only where the topic is such that you have objects you can take a photo of, with your camera. Objects in nature, creations of human beings etc in your neighborhood can be photographed to create image OER.
You can copy these images from your mobile phone to your computer for further editing or use in your OER. Usually images are stored in .jpeg or .png formats.
Creating image resources using a drawing tool (Tux Paint)
You can also use a drawing software application to draw an image.
Open Tux Paint on your computer, through Applications → Education → Tux Paint
The screen contains two tool bars on either side of the drawing canvas. The left side tool bar contains drawing and editing controls. The right side tool bar provides the various options for the tool you select on the left side tool bar. For e.g., when the paint brush tool is selected on the left tool bar, it shows the various brushes available on the right tool bar. When the Rubber Stamp tool is selected on the left tool bar, it shows the different stamps you can use, on the right tool bar. At the bottom of the screen, you can see a palette of colors. At the very bottom of the screen, Tux, the Linux Penguin, provides tips and other information while you draw.
You can use the ‘brush’ tool, select the colour you want and paint on the drawing canvas.
*** Images to show creating a drawing using brush in Tux Paint
You should also create a drawing on an issue connected to your topic. One possibility is you could use any image you found as a source, and draw it on Tux Paint. The left tool bar also has an eraser in case you want to erase any part of your drawing. Tux Paint is a very simple and easy to use application. You should familiarize yourself with the tool options by simply using them.
The files created by you, are stored in the home/.tuxpaint/saved folder, in the 'png' format. To open the .tuxpaint folder, you may need to select the 'view hidden' files in the /home folder on Ubuntu. The file name will begin with 'year+month+date' in YYYYDDMM format, followed by a serial number.
Creating a simple animation (Tux Paint)
Tux Paint allows you to create animations by letting you create a slide presentation of a set of images. You can save the image you drew. Make small changes to it and save it as a new file. You can then ‘play’ the two photos in a recurring manner to create a simple animation.
We have created two drawings of a bird flying, with the position of the bird on the canvas at different places. Playing these two images recurrently creates a simple animation of the bird appearing to fly.
*** Images to show creating an animation using two drawings in Tux Paint
Creating image resources using a screen capture tool (Screenshot)
One of the simplest and yet very powerful ways of creating an image is to simply take a picture of your computer screen. You may have opened a web page on which there is an image or some text you want to store as an image, or it may be from a file on your computer, or it may be a snapshot of a video you are playing.
You can use the tool Screenshot for this.
Open Screenshot on your computer, through Applications → Accessories → Screenshot
You have an option of capturing the entire display on your screen or selecting a smaller area. For the latter option, chose ‘select area to grab’ and then use the mouse to drag drop the (rectangular) area you want to capture. (Move yoru mouse to the left top of the area, keep your left mouse click pressed, move the cursor to the right bottom point and release it).
*** Images to show creating an image using Screenshot
You can create an image using Screenshot of an image from your computer or the web. You can try to select a smaller part of the image as is relevant to your OER.
Note – Taking a photo of a copyrighted material (such as a photo), is a violation of the copyright law, with exception given for ‘fair use’. For more information on what you can photograph and cannot, visit http://www.wipo.int/wipo_magazine/en/2006/02/article_0010.html. Wherever possible, you could take permission of the copyright holder, to use an image of the material.
Creating and editing image resources using Image editor (GIMP).
GNU Image Manipulation Program (GIMP) is an image editing software. This software is very powerful with many sophisticated features. However, we will learn a few commonly used functions in image editing:
- Cropping an image
- Adding text to an image
- Reducing the size of an image
Open the application on your computer, through Applications → Graphics → GIMP
Open the image you want to edit.
*** Images to show opening a file using GIMP
Short videos on GIMP are available on http://spoken-tutorial.org/tutorial-search/?search_foss=GIMP&search_language=English . Each video is less than 10 minutes and focuses on select features of the application.
Cropping an image
You learnt how to crop an image (reduce the image to a part that you want) using Screenshot. However, in this method, you can only grab an area that is in the shape of a rectangle. Using GIMP you can crop an image in the shape of a rectangle, but you can also use a free hand selection.
Select Tools → Selection Tools → Free Select
You can move your cursor on the image to outline the area you want to crop, this is free hand, not necessarily in the form of a rectangle. Then crop the image to your selection through Image → Crop to Selection. You can export this cropped image using File → Export as and export to an image format like .png or .jpeg.
*** Images to show cropping an image using GIMP (free selection)
Adding text to an image
You may want to add a caption to an image and make that caption a part of the image itself. You can do this using GIMP
Select Tools → Text. A text tool box appears.
Place your cursor where you want to type your text. You can format the text (change font size, color) through the Text tool box
In our image, we have added the text ‘Digital Storytelling, Health centre’
*** Images to show text entered on an image using GIMP
You too should enter captions on a few image resources which you have created for your OER, in this section.
Reducing the size of an image
Sometimes image files can be heavy (compared to text only files). You can reduce the size of an image using GIMP.
Select Image → Scale image
You can reduce the resolution in the form that opens. The more you reduce the resolution, the greater the reduction of file size.
You should then over write the file, File → Overwrite <your file name>.
GIMP will open a form asking for reduction in quality. You can reduce quality upto 30% without visible degradation in quality.
We reduced the size of a file from 10.7MB to 1.2 MB using above approach.
*** Images to show cropping an image using GIMP (free selection)
Inserting images in a text document to create a picture story
One of the ways of making OER powerful and high quality is by suitably integrating multiple resource formats. Images can be embedded / inserted into a text document. The image and the related text enhance the value of the other in the document.
We will export the concept map we created to an image format as “Learning Digital Story Telling.jpeg” and insert it in our “Learning Digital Story Telling.odt”.
Open Freeplane
Select File → Export
*** Image to show export of a concept map using Freeplane
You will get a form with options for ‘File type’. Chose the file type ‘png’ which is a popular and open image format.
*** Image to show export of a concept map to .png format using Freeplane
You can save this image file in your ‘concept map’ sub-folder within your topic folder
Open LibreOfficeWriter
Create a section ‘Concept map’. Move the cursor below and select Insert → Image. LibreOffice Writer will open the file browser. Use file browser to select the image file of your concept map. The image will be inserted in your text document.
** Image showing insertion of image of a concept map in LibreOffice Writer
You can increase or reduce the size of this image by moving your cursor to one of the vertices of the image and drag-dropping your cursor.
Presenting image resources in a ‘slide presentation’ format (using LibreOffice Impress)
The process of inserting an image into a LibreOffice Impress slide is similar to the process explained earlier for LibreOffice Writer. You can manipulate the size as well as the location of the image on the slide using your mouse and drag-dropping the vertices of the image on the slide.
You can move the image to one side of the slide and on the other side, insert a text box and add text which explains the image.
We have inserted the image of the students interacting with the Community Health Institution official and a text box by the side of the image. The combination of an image and text resource adds to the power and meaning of the information conveyed.
** Image showing insertion of image and a text box in LibreOffice Impress
Presenting a series of image resources in a ‘slide presentation’ format (using LibreOffice Impress)
Inserting a set of images on a set of slides (an image a slide) can be nice way of telling a story as well. For instance, if you want to tell the story of your visit to a historical place, you could insert the photos in the order you want to talk about them, in a set of slides. Then using slide show (Slide Show
Alternative applications - Tux Paint
Alternative paint applications include KolorPaint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KolourPaint) and MyPaint (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MyPaint). MyPaint and Krita are paint applications on Windows.
Pencil is another animation tool, it is available on GNU/Linux and Windows (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pencil2D)
Alternative applications - GIMP
GIMP is available on Microsoft Windows, on https://www.gimp.org/downloads
In Android Mobiles we can view images through many apps,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GIMP has more information about GIMP.