What is Pic Forward?
Pic Forward is a global green screen challenge for students, teachers and schools. The idea is to have people all around the world edit our monthly green screen photos, then to “Pic Forward” or “pass it on” via social media to other classes so they can participate too. My grade 4 & 5 students are leading this project and want to try to spread creativity around the globe.
So far we’ve had Pic Forward participants from 7 countries! Check out our participant map below:
How Can You Participate?
Taking part is easy, all you need is an editing app and some creativity! The website I built with my grade 4 & 5 students has everything you need in order to participate in our Pic Forward Global Green Screen Challenge! My classes made an introduction video, nomination video, digital flyers, rules, and a “how-to edit” page to help promote the project. You can check out what previous participants have created here. Interested? Please fee free to follow us on social media channels – @PicForward on Twitter, @PicForward on Instagram and Facebook. We hope you’ll be in touch!
Pic Forward Templates – Edit Your Green Screen Images with G Suite
Here’s a video tutorial you can share with your students to help them get started with Pic Forward Templates, it’s easy peasy!
If you’d like to learn how to make transparent backgrounds using iOS, Chromebooks, or any device check out this blog post.
Check out bit.ly/PicForward to participate in the fun today, we can’t wait to meet you and see your creations!
How it All Started
During our school’s Halloween celebration last year many students were dressed in amazing and original costumes. I decided to capture their creativity on camera, so I pulled out my homemade green screen, hung it up in the gym and took pictures of dressed up students in front of it. They loved that we could change the background to add context to their costumes!
I wrote a post on our Lord Lansdowne PS school blog to share all of the Halloween green screened photos, you can check that out here. The children loved it so much that I wanted to come up with a way to continue this beyond Halloween!
It was actually a physical education challenge called Burp It On that my students and I had participated in the year before that inspired the idea to go global with Pic Forward. I thought, why not take photos in front of the green screen then see what backgrounds other students and teachers around the world would put into them. It was like a modern-day Flat Stanley or Postcard Pete, do you remember them? (Thanks, Michelle Armstrong for making this connection and reminding me of our old-school paper friends!) By participating and running Pic Forward my students get to travel the world without leaving our classroom, plus it lent to creating potential relationships and collaboration with classes in other provinces, states, and countries.
Curriculum Connections
As a Media Literacy teacher, my goal is to encourage my students to make responsible and positive decisions regarding their use of technology. Many of my lessons are centered around {digital} citizenship, positive digital footprints, healthy living/relationships and global competencies. My overall teaching goal is for my students to be excellent global citizens online and in life in general. I can’t think of a better way to introduce these topics than with an authentic project where we can think critically about social media and our uses of digital tools.
Some of the main themes and topics my classes will touch on through the course of this year-long project are:
Digital Citizenship
Internet Safety
Communication
Problem Solving
Collaboration
Digital Fluency
Reading and Writing
Media Forms & Literacy
Positive Digital Footprints
Healthy Living
Critical and Creative Skills
Global Citizenship & Character
You’re nominated! What’s your green??
A huge thank you to everyone who has already taken part in our project, we’re looking forward to many more creative pics in the future.
My students recently decided they want to share their Green Screen learning with a student blog. Check it out here: www.picforward.wordpress.com
Check out more info about Pic Forward when I appeared on the TLC Ninja Teachers podcast here.
*Update* Our Pic Forward project will be featured in Todd Burleson’s new book that is set to launch in November 2017 entitled The Green Screen Maker Space Project Book – McGraw Hill. 
Happy green screening!
This is fabulous! Thanks for sharing your work.