Although Photoshop and illustrator are typically the graphics tool of choice, never underestimate the power of PowerPoint. Many schools in Australia have signed up to use the Adobe Creative Cloud, but for those who haven’t there is a very strong chance that your school computers have PowerPoint on them and with the following tips provided by Tom Kuhlmann – probably my favourite e-learning blogger and coach.
http://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/5-ways-to-use-powerpoint-as-an-image-editor/?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTlRrMFlUSTRPVGszWm1SaiIsInQiOiJ0NkJLVnRiNzM2bGx2azZJXC9yWXpPXC9sY3ZLZCtoYWtFSXlYaDFVR2VsaHdUcWFocnQ0WGh3R3hmeUo1UElrT0o4czZlS2dzNTlrTDBQNFZmc0NueklMYlk4dGpEcnZDMGsyYmdVUDdRXC9XcFFTMVJNangyR1hERDJXT21tb1luMSJ9
Within the context of the NT Department of Education (and Department of Health, Primary Industry and other government agencies) we use Articulate products to create learning products which are housed within our learning management system – which in the case of the agencies mentioned above is Moodle, developed right here in Australia and used all over the world.
One of the things I use PowerPoint for is the creation of badges in Moodle. I have a series of standard crests, ribbons and shields which I can tear apart, add new titles to and export as a badge. I keep and distribute the PowerPoint file so other people can create their own badges easily and quickly.
Another thing to consider is that there are many useable (from a license perspective) graphics in “wmf” format which stands for Windows Meta File. These files can be imported into PowerPoint and you can break them apart and combine bits from other files (A fish eating a hamburger from two pictures) – they are scalable without pixelation and by regrouping, right-clicking on the resultant picture you can export it as a png or jpg.
Great to use in class or at home.