Elements of the methodology of teaching the theme "Raster computer graphics" with the help of the GIMP free graphic editor at the level of basic general education

Abstract

The article describes the framework of the methodology for teaching basic school students the technology of both processing digital photography and creating raster graphic images from scratch. As a software tool, it is proposed to use the free GIMP raster editor. Raster computer graphics is more complex in relation to vector graphics, since a large number of tools are used in raster graphics, and brush graphic tools (Brush, Pencil, Airbrush) are also actively used, the effective use of which requires user of basic artistic skills. The choice of the free graphic editor GIMP is due to a number of significant advantages of this software tool over analogues. These include the GNU GPL license for its use, cross-platform, relatively low system requirements, functionality close to professional raster editors, as well as a significant stack of educational and methodological literature on the technology of using GIMP in the educational process, that is generally not typical for free software. The complex user interface of the GIMP editor is due to the large number of tools and the full functionality of this software and can be mastered by basic school students, provided that an effective methodology for teaching raster graphics is used in the educational process. When creating a framework for teaching schoolchildren about raster graphics, the technology for using all groups of GIMP editor tools is demonstrated in the process of conducting practical work aimed at creating various raster graphics, the complexity of which gradually increases in proportion to the number of tools mastered by students. Also, the proposed teaching methodology takes into account all the main structural elements of professional raster graphics, namely: the technology for the effective use of the group of operations for selecting image fragments, the technology for the effective use of the group for the transformation operation, the technology for the effective use of the group of drawing tools, image layers, color channels, contours, built-in filters, creation of text elements, creation of GIF-animation.