Digitizing Your PDD

Scanning Your Artifacts

Use this tutorial to assist in scanning artifacts for the Professional Development Dossier. The scanning tutorial can be used to scan artifacts for Strand A: the high, medium and low examples of student work; Strand B: examples of work for student Y and student X; and also for Strand C: artifacts to demonstrate your professional development.

These instructions are specific to the Visioneer PaperPort; however, most scanners work very similarly, so the instructions should assist you no matter what software and scanner you have available to you.

Make sure scanner is turned on and connected to your computer.

Place your artifact face down on the scanner and make sure the lid is closed. Do not open the lid while the item is scanning or you can damage the bulbs.

Open the scanner software:

Step 1. Select the twain button

Step 2. Use the scanner settings to select the options you prefer for your artifact, either black & white or color document. Set the resolution you prefer for your artifact. Keep in mind that the higher the resolution, the picture quality will be better but the file size will be bigger as well (graphic files can be large files; you may need to save on your computer’s hard drive).

Step 3. Once you have the desired settings, select the preview button

Step 4. Once the scanner previews the document; you will select the area of the artifact that you wish to scan. Use the 4-headed arrow to drag the “marching ants” around the area to be scanned.

Step 5. Press the scan button. Wait patiently while your document scans.

The scanner usually has to warm up before the first item scans.

Make sure you do not lift the lid on your scanner while it is scanning as the bulbs can be damaged. After the artifact has been scanned, close the scan manager window and the software will revert back to the Visioneer PaperPort main window. Remove your artifact from the scanner.

Step 6. If you want to do some minor editing using the scanning software, double-click your selected artifact (the last scanned item will be outlined in red, make sure it is the only item selected). You can also edit your artifact by using Photoshop, see the Photoshop tutorial for details. If you do not wish to edit the artifact using the scanning software, skip to step 11 below.

Step 7. Double-clicking on the item will open up the Visoneer PaperPort editor. You can use the tool bar to do some basic editing of your artifact. Hold your mouse over each tool and a description of the tool will show up in the lower left status bar of the window. The "erase" tool could be used to delete student names off of each artifact. Look over the other tools to see if they can be used to enhance your scanned artifact.

Step 8. You can select the“text” editing tool to label your artifact while in theVisoneer PaperPort editor mode. Use the labeling instructions given on the state department of education’s website for labeling each artifact.

Step 9. Once your item has been edited, you will need to save the artifact. Select Save As from the File menu.

Step 10. Select the drive where you wish to save your scanned artifact, ie. My documents in a pdd folder, type in a name for the file. It will be best to use a name with no spaces. Select save. You may now use your artifact in your PDD.

Step 11. If you do not need to edit your document, and you skipped steps 7-10 above, you may save your document using the following steps: select the file menu and export to save your document to your computer.

Step 12. Select the drive where you wish to save your scanned artifact, ie. My documents in a pdd folder, type in a name for the file. It will be best to use a name with no spaces. Select save. You may now use your artifact in your PDD.

You have successfully scanned your artifact. You can now import the artifact into your word document by following the Word tutorial.

You can print this tutorial in either PDF format or Microsoft Word Format.

Check out the other scanning tips that are available.