Taken from a painting of Kapiti Island at Sunset.
by Sonia Savage.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Images


Images? Images are great to use in a post. I like to use an image to liven it up. I like it to point to something in the post.

When I first started blogging I didn't know anything about creative commons and using photos correctly so I have done my share of using images incorrectly. However through the Edublogs students challenges, I have a far better understanding. When I begin blogging with students now, one of the first sessions will always be about the use of images. Otherwise it is more difficult to break the bad habit of just using what they like.

If you are still unsure about this, Henrietta Miller a teacher from Australia on her blog, Techiebrekkie  has an excellent post on creative commons, and includes wonderful links. There is a lot to explore and learn in this post.  I have spent some time on this post and will be going back for more.
Richard Byrne also has an excellent post.

I keep a list on the side of my class blog of places where the students and I can go to get images we can use. I recently was alerted to Site point , which lists a number of places that include creative commons. Some of the following come from this, and I will be adding them to my class links.
Open Clipart
Animal Photos
Creative Design Elements
Explains Creative Commons
Attribution on Flickr Search
Veezzle

Image Coder is something I had not come across before. I have not explored it very much, but have tried using it for the image at the start of the post. When you put the url for the Flickr photo, it gives you a code with the attribution.  When you then click on the photo it takes you to the actual Flickr photo. Maybe I will use it again!

I know another controversial topic around images is how we use images of students in posts and in blogging. We have a broad policy at our school, we can use student images with parental permission. We just endeavour to ensure that no students name is linked to a photo. Once last year when I was naming some students who had been selected to participate in a district challenge, I put their avatar pictures.

In my classroom last year we used Photostory 2, free software where we were able to place our photos, add voice and music.  It is a very easy piece of software to use for the students, and we made good use of it.  One of the activities we did was to make book trailers.  I won't put the examples here because I think we should have put attributions at the end and we didn't.  It's all a learning curve, and when you do it, you  can then look at what needs to be improved. Following is a short piece of work some students and I put together in October last year. 


You will notice this is on You Tube.  We do have You Tube open at school, to staff and students, however I now use School Tube.


Finally I had a little quick fun on Animoto, which I also use at times in my class, the Education deal is very good! Free!  And you can link a number of students through your account.

8 comments:

  1. Hi there. Since I'm using your blog roll to visit other Teacher challenge bloggers, you know that I'll always stop by yours. (There's one reason to have a decent blogroll.)

    Good post - combination of personal experience and leads to other good resources. I'm leaning more and more to have a Resources page - you know, a collection of links of really useful stuff. There's only so much blog tags can do.

    In case you're inspired to check out something a little different, you can check my post on images

    cheers,
    Malyn

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  2. Thank you for this great post. You have lots of resources and links here for further investigation. Wouldn't it be wonderful to be given one week per year with time off from school to explore all these wonderful sites and resources. I also like photostory and think you are so lucky to have youtube open at school. There are so many wonderful video clips there for school use.

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  3. Malyn
    You are always welcome. Yes I agree on you about the resources page. And its a way of keeping your side bars clear for other things!

    Murcha
    Yes a week off for that would be wonderful. As it is not how all we Australian and New Zealand teachers are spending their holidays! And I am sure US and Canadian etc, do the same!
    Kathryn

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  4. I apologise for the spelling mistake in my animoto. I am imperfect! Sigh!
    Kathryn

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  5. Great post Kathryn! Thanks for the link to some creative commons reading! Very valuable for us to know about when blogging, and also to pass on the the students!

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  6. Thanks for the links to resources, I've bookmarked the post so that I can return to it later!

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  7. I love the idea of a film about a day in school. I think I might try that. I notice there are no names of students, and no real close-ups of faces. Did you do that on purpose? I love your animoto about your home too! I love the picture of the chair, where you read, and then the pile of undone ironing! Sometimes mine lasts forever!

    Thanks- Nancy

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  8. Nancy
    I never worry about close ups but I try to avoid at all times linking names to faces,
    thanks for taking the time to watch the animoto and the video about a day in school. Yes tell me about the ironing. In fact my house deserves a good clean but I just could't get going in the holidays. Some school adrenalin xt week witll be the story!

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