1. Web
Permission Slips - Before you post any
student art, names or pictures there is a very important question
to ask. Does your school district have a policy regarding the
posting of student names, pictures or work? If so, what is the
district policy? If not, write a permission letter informing
parents of what you plan to do and ask their permission to post
their child's name, art work and/or picture on the web. For an
example of the letter I send parents click Web
Portfolio Permission Request.
2. Getting
digital images of student work - Keep
in mind that the more students do the more they will learn and
the less you will have to do.
Video Capture - Power Macintosh computers have Apple
Video Player. This software enables computers with a video
input to capture images from a video camera. I find this to be
the easiest way to capture digital images of student sculpture.
An area set up with a video camera on a tripod can be used by
students to photograph their work. Be sure to set up a good background.
PC users may get video capture boards for their computers.
Image Scanning - Two dimensional work, and small three dimensional
work, soap sculptures, for example, may be scanned. When using
a scanner you can save lots of time by having the scanner set
to the proper dpi, 72, and to produce the right size scan, most
images I post are not more than 3 to 4 inches high. You may have
each student scan their work to their own folder or have a student
who finishes early scan their classmates projects.
Digital Cameras - Digital cameras are great for taking lots of pictures
without the costs of film and processing. Unfortunately, digital
cameras automatically name the images they capture by number.
Therefore, if many students are using the camera to photograph
their work, I suggest that they create and photograph a label
for their work with their art. This will insure that the right
student gets credited. (When I photograph objects in a museum
with a digital camera I usually photograph the label right before
or after I take the picture of the object. This makes it easy
to identify the object.)
Digital Video - This is the latest way to capture digital images.
At this point, I have had no experience with the technology.
3. Preparing
images for the web - If you have scanned
your images you should have preset your scanner controls so that
you have an image with a resolution of 72 dpi's and height maximum
of between 3.5 and 4 inches. If not use an image processing program
like Photoshop to prepare your images
for the web.
4. Preparing template
web pages - Much time can be saved by setting up your web
site with template web pages. A template page requires that you
simply add a student's name to their web page and place correctly
named images into their web portfolio folder. Use software like
Adobe PageMill or Microsoft Front Page to create the template
web page for a student and simply make a copy of the template
for each student in your class. You may allow students to make
some changes to the template. Examples of web pages I have set
up for my classes are accessible from my school web site, Mr.
Olejarz - Main Index, www.ridgewood.k12.nj.us/www/bf/teachers/olejarz
5. Posting
web pages - Use a program like Fetch
or CuteFTP to post your web pages to your server.