Digital Mark-Ups: Dressing up Screenshots with Skitch!

An inside look at a recent organizing project...the dreaded make-up drawer!

Yes, I know this is supposed to be an educational blog.  But, for this color loving/scrapbook aspiring/personal organizing wannabe/elementary school teacher, I just had to share my new favorite tool that has great promise in the classroom.  Don't you love it when personal hobbies and professional pursuits come together so perfectly?

Above is a pic of the make-up drawer I recently tackled (I think it's safe to say that these drawers can often be the bane of our existence, right ladies?).   To take my photo-imaging skills one step further, I jazzed up this picture with some handy labels, bright colors, arrows, and image boxes.  Welcome to Skitch! With this free download, I easily took a screen-capture of the image [I had already saved it to my Dropbox!] and began experimenting with all of the neat, yet super easy-to-use design tools.  I also downloaded Jing - a free screenshot and screencast software that enables quick photo sharing via Twitter, Flickr, email, and Blogger, to name a few.  Are your wheels beginning to turn as you envision the classroom possibilities?

I'm thinking about the perfect combination of digital-visual storytelling!  I'm imagining students diagramming historical photos and/or pictures in detail, developing online portfolios with digital images of their work and accompanying annotations, and  documenting class field trips/ special activities with all of the eye-catching tools built into Skitch.  If I was giddy using this neat application, can you even fathom the children's response?

Given the visual world with which our students are accustomed, do you see photo-sharing as a real possibility in your classroom?