BP8_2009112_Researching and Blogging about Web 2.0 Tools 2

http://sketchfu.com is this really simple and easy to use drawing tool that would be great for my Journalism class. A lot of High School Newspapers use Clip Art or Creative Commons for ALL of their visuals in their papers, but I like the students to actually create their own graphics. I think graphic arts is such an important skill to have and could really enhance their career opportunities later on in life if they had those skills. Indesign and Adobe have great drawing programs, but sometimes they are a little too complicated for beginners, but sketchfu is a really simple websites that beginners could use as a way to start learning how to create drawings online. It even gives you prompts if you can't think of what you want to draw next, so you could have your students go on daily as a warm up and draw the prompt given on sketchfu. I am not the greatest artist myself, but I found sketchfu simple and really user friendly. I think it is a much less daunting place to start with your students, other than Indesign. I think it is most useful for beginners as it is very simple, but I think more veteran graphic artists could also use it as a way to just practice their drawing skills in a fun and easy to use, online environment. What is great about the site too is that you can then share your drawings with friends, so after your students had drawn a picture they could do online critiques of each other's work. Once again, this Web 2.0 tool is a great device for teaching both the skills students need in your classroom, but also tech skills that will benefit them forever.

(2009). Sketchful. Where you can design and share. Retrieved November 8, 2009, from http://sketchfu.com/