PPS Instructional Technology

How many ugly looking presentations are you going to have to look at again at the end of this project? I mean, just look at this example at the right. His picture (although ruggedly handsome) is sitting right on top of the Eiffel Tower and it has all this horrible background clutter distracting from the tower itself. Not to mention the I “heart” Paris image with that unappealing square, white background. Ugh. So, how can we fix it? How can the student keep the images he has so carefully selected, but get rid of that white background and the image clutter? Enter... EditPhotosForFree.com has an EASY TO USE background removal tool that makes this quick and painless for teachers and students. Every time a student visits the Background Remover the set of instructions below appears to remind users of the four simple steps. Select an image Use the edge (boundary) tool to define the areas to keep and to remove Mark the areas to keep (foreground) with the green ...

I have been a Picasa user for years.  I love the ease of use and the way it allowed me to share pictures with my family, friends, and as a teacher - the parents of my students.  A couple years ago, however, Google moved their photo storing service to Google+.  I did not appreciate this change because it made something that was easy and seamless for me to become a lot more cumbersome.  I still have some teachers in my district who use this feature, and I help them whenever possible, but my love of the tool has waned. This is why I was so excited to read in my email today that Google is moving Google + Pictures to Google Drive!  Most of the teachers in my district are becoming comfortable with using and navigating Google Drive.  Having a folder labeled "Google Photos" will increase their ability to share photos via their Google Sites and Google Blogger. So, PPS Staff, according to the Google release notes: "This feature will start rolling out for c...