Reflectively Speaking: Creating my title banner (see above)--a description of the long, but enriching process

I usually have used PhotoShop and most recently Fireworks and Photoshop Elements to create banners, and I must admit---these programs are overkill for K-12 and post-secondary students and K-12 teachers to utilize to create a simple banner.

And then there are cost and access issues. Although we have site licenses for such programs on our university campus, students and K-12 teachers most often do not have access off-campus. So, although I agree that Powerpoint is a much simpler alternative to developing a banner than the other programs I mentioned, there are still access and cost issues associated with purchasing and owning the application. I never have a good response when K-12 teachers and/or students tell me that they have limited options, as they don’t have a copy of MS Access or MS Powerpoint at home.

Now, I’m not anti-Microsoft---in fact, Microsoft’s corporate headquarters and Bill Gates’ primary residence is but an hour from my home (and he has yet to invite me to dinner, go figure?!), and his Foundation Grants have made a significant impact on education particularly in my current state (Washington). But in the interest of addressing issues of cost and access (and not contributing to the digital divide), I thought I’d take a different approach and use a freeware or open source program to make a simple banner.

Over the years, I’ve read much press regarding Open Office(openoffice.org), which is an open source (read “free”) alternative to MS Office Suite. So, why not use Open Office’s equivalent to MS Powerpoint to create the banner?

The download and installation of Open Office went smoothly, although I did skip the voluntary registration since it required the completion of a 62 question survey. The Open Office presentation package is entitled, Impress. Although the interface was not that much different than Powerpoint’s, there were a few additional icons, which led to new functions which appeared interesting but not sure how useful. With the similarities in interface, it didn’t take me too long to make a banner, and I was pretty pleased with the outcome.

So, now I just save as a .JPEG, and I’m done. Not so fast. Impress does not allow end users to save the file as a .JPEG! But wait—there was an option to save as a .PPT—then I could import into Powerpoint, and then save as a .JPEG. I know—kind of defeating my initial purpose, but I’d deal with the guilt later. Well, I saved the Impress file as a .PPT, but it would not import into Powerpoint. I was not Impressed. Darn. Back to square one.

I then started to search for a freeware paint or draw application via google, and found a number of references to MS Paint, a paint application program available for free as part of the Windows Operating System bundle. (You should be able to find it under "Programs" and then "Accessories"). Yes, it would have been better to choose an application, which was platform independent, but nevertheless I thought I’d try out MS Paint.

In a nutshell, it worked! It had limited functionality compared to high-end graphics programs, but MORE than adequate to make a simple banner. So, I did take the long route in creating my banner, but undoubtedly, reflectively speaking, I am richer for the experience!

Above you’ll find my simple banner, which was created in MS Paint (see below for a screen capture of the interface).