In the early 1900s, Samsula Elementary School was a one-room schoolhouse, heated by a wood-burning stove. In 2004, with 30 teachers and administrators and 250 students, this rural school in New Smyrna Beach, Florida is on the cutting edge of technology and is pioneering models for how to effectively integrate technology and visual learning into the classroom.

Using Adobe Photoshop Elements digital image-editing software, Samsula Instructor and Media Specialist Johanna Riddle is bringing concepts to life and dramatically enhancing students' learning experience. Photoshop Elements helps her combine a variety of learning modes and use visual imagery in ways that excite and engage students, and make subjects more accessible than ever.

"Most of the teaching strategies, tools, and resources in media centers today are directed toward linguistic and auditory learners," says Riddle. "Mass media, however, has bred a generation of 'image readers' who must quickly interpret a range of images and icons. Adobe Photoshop Elements is the ideal tool for teaching students to include, interpret, and create communicative imagery in their work."

Benefits

• Enhanced accessibility to concepts and subjects
• Addressed multiple learning modes, involving a wider range of students and learning styles
• Met students' need to communicate
• Turned students from passive observers into active participants in the learning process
  

Challenges

Students learn using a variety of different learning styles and senses, including sight, sound, touch, and movement. According to a 1999 study by researchers Robert Heinich, Michael Molenda, James D. Russell, and Sharon E. Smaldino, students learn best when instruction includes all of these sensory gateways. Traditionally, information has been delivered via auditory means in the form of lectures, combined with visual tools such as textual information and drawing on blackboards. For instructors, the challenge is to integrate multiple modes of learning to reach more students and maximize each student's learning potential.

In addition to addressing multiple learning modes, instructors often find it difficult to transform students into creative participants, not just passive observers. To accomplish this, students need engaging, exciting tools that help them find their own unique creative expressions.

Solution

At Samsula Elementary School, instructors have discovered that digital photography and Adobe Photoshop Elements software help address multiple learning styles, meet an important communicative need for all students, and involve them in extraordinary learning experiences. The software provides an intuitive, easy-to-use solution for image editing and helps students learn more about imagery and symbolism.

For example, Riddle and her students are looking at visual elements in literature and creating ways to interpret the ideas visually. In Crossing Jordan, author Adrian Fogelin uses symbolism to communicate relationships, motives, and beliefs among the characters. After discussing interpretation of the book's symbolism, Riddle challenged students to create photographs depicting the relationship between the two main characters in the story. Photoshop Elements software played an important role in this project, enabling the students to manipulate photographs to communicate or emphasize the ideas behind their images. From that project, Riddle and her students learned that they could craft images to communicate specific ideas in new and powerful ways, just as they communicate using words.

Since that initial project, Riddle and her students have delved into numerous other projects involving Photoshop Elements. In preparation for reading Bud, Not Buddy, by Paul Christopher Curtis, Riddle asked fifth graders to generate questions about the Great Depression, then to select one for research. During this process, students discovered the documentary photographs of Dorothea Lange and became engaged and excited. Students immediately wanted to take photographs of themselves dressed like the people in Lange's photographs and write living biographies about their characters. Some students suggested ways to create and research characters, while others talked about possible backgrounds, props, and costumes. One student suggested videotaping the characters. After agreeing upon the elements of the project, including research from multiple sources, the class went to work with energy and enthusiasm.

"Digital photography and Photoshop Elements have sparked meaningful, independent learning," says Riddle. "Since bringing visual learning into the classroom using Photoshop Elements, my students have become more excited and engaged in the learning process."

Results

By integrating Adobe Photoshop Elements software into the classroom and enabling students to communicate using visual imagery, Riddle and other teachers at Samsula Elementary School are making subjects more accessible and meaningful. When students use Photoshop Elements to manipulate photographs to communicate their ideas, they become engaged and find an important new means of communication. The teachers have also been able to involve a wider range of students by addressing multiple modes of learning, including visual learning. Instead of simply being passive observers, students become more engaged and active in the learning process.

"It's a thrill for me to observe my students using digital tools such as Photoshop Elements for research and communication with such competence and creativity," says Riddle. "Using Photoshop Elements, students are active in the learning experience, and it's exciting to be their guide."

Case Study provided by Adobe.