I love it when I can tackle a couple of assignments at the same time. This reminds me of multifaceted assessments that help inform me in a number of areas rather than one single focused skill.
My weekly webinar with Australian friends, Jo Hart, Phil Hart, and Jo Freitag, challenged me to use a tool I test drove last week called Fotor and to create an artifact while using it.
#Kinderblog14 asks people to choose/write a post on one of a couple options. I am choosing to do “Option 2: How do you feel about where you live? This could be your house, your neighbourhood, your city, region, even your country. What do you love about it? What do you hate? What would you change if you could?”
So, I will try to present one of my favorite places that I call home, Bald Mountain Campground, and the seasonal site where we keep our trailer. I will use the Fotor app and site then embed the product here.
First I opened Fotor and messed around with images I have taken of the place. I opened the folders on my pc and was reminded once again that I really should organize photos in a more coherent way. There are just too many options for folders and programs. I have 1000’s of photos of school and home that are still too blended. I know I am lazy about naming pictures because you can only tag them with a unique identifier. From the pc, I only found 3 images and uploaded them to the project. Full stop! Not enough pictures for a project.
Next I went to my iPad and looked for more images. Of course that required a download of an app in order to work with Fotor. Quick enough, now I had to learn to use the app…
WOW! That took some effort. What I am not successful with yet, and what I really need to know is, can the projects be synced between devices and saved anywhere within Fotor? No luck with that yet so it’s choice time. Since the iPad had more images, I will work with that device.
It also saved my projects in the photo album and in the app. Again, that is not syncing to the pc.
I found a number of good images and saved some of my favorites as a 9 cell collage. There are many options for cell layout and number. You can also adjust the images within the cells and expand or reduce the cells as needed. I was not able to add the images from the pc to the images from the iPad. The project you see below was completely created on the iPad. I loved that I could edit the images to get higher definition.

What do I love about it?
- It is only 75 minutes “away.” I can leave the worries of the world behind me for a couple of days each week and be ME in a more true sense. Some days I am alone and that has a completely different feel to it.
- The sky gets really dark without nearby or distant city lights polluting the sky.
- The state parks are literally right next door and down the road a piece.
- I have marvelous neighbors who share conversations on human related things in a positive way. They also share eggs!
- There are strangers (in the form of transient campers) who always provide interesting interactions.
- I have my wifi. That is not something I want to be away from.
- Campfires, glow necklaces, and sky lanterns.
- It is by a river and I love being near water in all forms and majesty.
- A walk around the campground is a 1 mile loop. Lots of people are walking throughout the day.
- Bigger lots than usual.
- Animals are allowed and they are almost always quiet, well behaved, and picked up after.
- The local area has tons of recreational opportunities.
- Vermont people are wonderful!
What do I hate about it?
- My phone doesn’t get a signal so I worry about not being in contact with loved ones. Email works but only if I check it obsessively and reboot.
What would I change if I could?
- While the trailer sleeps 7, it isn’t very cozy when it’s full. It really only sleeps 5 comfortably and two of those are narrow bunks.
- Low water pressure means longer showers for rinsing off.
- I would have a site directly on the river bank AND still have sewer hookup AND still get wifi. Neither of the latter are available on the river directly at this time.
- AT&T would have cell reception. Sorry AT&T but you are becoming a bigger drawback by the day.
Now back to playing with Fotor. I actually continued the post here but it got to be really long and unwieldy to navigate so I cut and pasted it to a new and dedicated post.