Digital Design

Combining tech and lit has always been a passion of mine. Now with the amount of photo editing tools out on the market, the passion has become a delightful obsession. The fact that I can take a thought, pair it with a photo, and create a poetic image has taken me far beyond my first days of writing as a child. Let me take you on a brief tour of my digital design process.

Finished Product:

Tools Used:

• Paper and pencil: Low tech tools used for journal / notebook writing show my revision process as a messy one. This is a positive move since I can actively engage in the productive struggle. You can see another one of my digital journal pages in a post that I created for Amy VanDerwater's site, Sharing Our Notebooks. 

• iPhone camera: Original photo of a reflective body of water at Old Westbury Gardens is taken with the iPhone 6. With my rotator cuff injury, I find that the iPhone is a good substitute for my heavier cameras.

• Waterlogue app: I digitalized the original photo to create a dreamy, artistic rendering of the original photo. (Thank you, Margaret Simon for the tip on this photo editing tool.)

• Canva, a free online design tool:  I combined a watercolor-like rendition of the original photo with my finished poem with this tool. 

• PicMonkey, a free online photo editing tool: I often use this tool to create digital images complete with text but this time it was only used to create a border.

• Blogger, a free blogging site: I am able to embed images into my blog site after resizing them for appropriate height and width to fit the post. 

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Visual presentation is an important part of my design process. When designing my online global galleries of artistic design, I work with teachers, students, poets, artists, writers, family, friends and business people to create optimum, appealing messages to be sent across the Twittersphere. Creativity is sparked. Personal artistry is evident. The tech/lit integration is apparent. Possibilities are explored. 

Create your own visual style...let it be unique for yourself 

and yet identifiable for others." 

Orson Wells 

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Join me in opening my newest gallery, Spring's Symphony. June is upon us as is the end of the spring season so explore your limitless possibilities of your creative talents. You can access the invitations here and here. A few Poetry Friday friends have sent in their offerings, so hopefully others will join in. I am now collecting offerings for Spring's Symphony and will be ready to unveil the gallery toward the end of the spring season.

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I am pleased to announce that a team of nine (Debbie Diller, Judy Dodge, Blanca Duarte, Paul Hankins, Trudy Ludwig, Holly Mueller, Margaret Simon, Terry Thompson, and me) will be involved in a roundtable presentation, Igniting Wonder in Students and Teachers: Fueling the Fires of Creativity and Independence in the Classroom at NCTE 15 that is an outgrowth of my conversations about the integration of technology with literacy. I will be keynoting the session and hosting a roundtable talk: REFLECT WITH ME Galleries of Artistic Expressions as Gateways for Global Connections & Creativity.
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Margaret Simon posted a #DigiLit Challenge to create #photoart and I just read her post so being passionate about tech/lit, I will participate. 
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Now please turn your attention to the Poetry Friday Round-Up hosted by my colleague, Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. There you will receive all the latest information on new prompts along with a variety of perspectives on poetry from the Poetry Friday community of writers.