Graphics for Viewing

The simplest use of graphics in the classroom is to illustrate concepts much as pictures in a book

You may wish to show graphics that you have obtained from some site on the Internet to your whole class. There are four ways of doing this besides having the class come to the computer and all try to see the screen at the same time.
* Connect you computer to a TV monitor
* Print out the image. Obviously a color image will look better if you have a color printer. However, even an ordinary printer will print a color image in shades of grey. You can also print the image to an acetate sheet for overhead viewing.
* Connect your computer to a liquid crystal display on top of an overhead projector. Most displays, except for the very expensive ones, do not portray color accurately.
* Small projection units are now available that can be connected directly to a computer and project the image on the computer screen onto a wall. While they are still expensive, in time they are likely to become standard AV equipment in schools.

Your students could be given the opportunity and practice, incorporating graphics obtained from the Internet into written reports. Word processors and desktop publishers both have the capacity to embed graphics in a text document. However, in many schools the standard written reports are being replaced by multimedia presentations utilizing software packages such as Linkway, Hyperstudio, and the Web itself. Graphics are one resource for this type of presentation.

When using graphics from the Internet, remember that may of the images are copyrighted. Review the copyright information given in Lesson 10 of the Online Mentoring course.

Activity
1. Obtain a graphic file from some Internet site and print it
2. Find a way to display a graphic file to your whole class by connecting your computer to a TV monitor or to a liquid crystal display.