Software

The software we used was RM Colour Magic 2.1. This is an attractive and childfriendly paint program with different levels appropriate to different age groups. It has several image editing and manipulation facilities which made it easy to achieve the results we needed. However, we had a particular problem with colour printing from Colour Magic on the school network so had to move files into Microsoft Word to print. We realised that the whole project could also have been achieved by using Microsoft Word (or First Talking Word, a child level version of the same program). It was decided that if possible existing software should be used so that the project could be accessible to other schools without more advanced software.

Children learned skills in selecting, re-sizing, cropping, rotating and straightening images, tileing, saving, file management, file duplication and printing. We aimed to promote the children's autonomy in using ICT through the acquisition of these skills as the project developed. All these generic operations are available in a wide variety of software available to schools.

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