If you’re like me, you’re always on the lookout for the quickest way to track down information or solve everyday problems.

Google Lens is my go-to tool for recognizing objects, plants, and animals — but it can do so much more. From instantly translating text while you’re traveling to copying text from textbooks, PDFs, or printed pages, it offers quick solutions at your fingertips.

It’s simple to use, completely free, and surprisingly, many people still don’t realize how powerful this tool can be. That’s where we come in!

In this beginner’s guide to Google Lens, we’ll show you how it works, how to get started, and share plenty of tips and tricks to make the most of it.

Google Lens also connects with Google Photos. If you’d like to dive deeper into Google Photos, don’t miss our ultimate guide. 

The Basics – What is Google Lens?

Google Lens is image recognition software released in 2017 by Google. It was originally designed to provide relevant information about an object using visual analysis.

It’s a fast free solution for reading and understanding information within images. The latest version of Google Lens has five modes:

• Auto: Lens automatically provides relevant search results based on the image it sees.
• Translate:  Point at text and Lens provides a translation on top of the original words.
• Text: Point Lens at the text you want to copy.
• Shopping:  Point Lens at an item that you would like to find in a store or scan the barcode.
• Dining:  Scan a menu and Lens can highlight which dishes are popular, provide reviews, or tell you more about a particular dish if you tap on the text.  You can also scan your receipt to get Lens to calculate the tip and split the bill.

How To Get Started With Google Lens

On Android phones, you can install the Google Lens app from the Play Store, use it inside Google Photos or use the Google Lens icon in your Google Assistant.

On iOS phones, you can access using the Google Lens icon inside Google Photos and the Google app.

Identifying objects, plants, and animals

Google Lens is the fastest way of identifying plants, flowers, animals (or their breed), identifying an object and how it might be used!  It can also be used for exploring popular landmarks and places to learn about them and their historical facts when traveling.

Lens options vary depending on your device so I’ve decided to demonstrate how to identify objects using Google Lens inside the Google Photo app since you can use this option on both an Android and iOS.

Here’s a quick video to show how it’s done:

You identify an object, plant, or animal by analyzing a photo you’ve taken inside Google Photos as follows:

1. Open Google Photos.

2. Tap on photo of the object and then tap on Google Lens icon.

3. This launches Google Lens which is their image recognition software designed to bring up relevant information using visual analysis.

4. Results are displayed below the photo.

5. Tap on an image in the related results to find out more.

This search was to find out what the item my husband received in a gift basket was used for.  It had us all stumped!

The answer was:

It’s a ‘Click on leaf-shaped colander’ that you use as follows:

Copy-Paste Text From Textbooks and Documents

Google Lens’ ability to copy-paste text means you now have a fast way to copy study notes from a textbook, or from a document, into your own document.  Its OCR (Optical Character Recognition) allows you to read any character from an image and turn it into editable text.

The easiest way to copy-paste text is by using the Google Lens app if you have an Android phone. The alternative option is to use the Google Lens icon inside Google Photos if you are using an iOS phone.

Here’s a quick video to show how it is done:

Here’s how to copy-paste text using the Google Lens app:

1. Open the Google Lens app (Android only).

2. Point your phone’s camera over all the text you want to scan (so it is all highlighted).

3. Tap on the Text icon.

4. Tap on Select All (or you can tap on sections of text you want to select).

5. Tap on Copy text.

6. Open up the app or document you wish to copy the text into (I use Google Docs on my phone).

7. Long press the cursor in your document to summon the selection menu.

8. Tap Paste.

9. Save the document and open up on the desktop to make edits to the text (if needed). My example needed editing as I was scanning an old document that has faded text.

Tap on the Photo icon on the top right of the Google Lens app if you want to copy-paste text from a photo you’ve taken. 

Here’s how to copy-paste text using the Google Lens icon inside the Google Photos app:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Open the photo you want to copy-paste text from.
3. Tap in the Google Lens icon.

4. Tap on the Search Icon to launch the Google Lens mode options.

5. Tap on the Text icon.

6. Tap on Select All (or you can tap on sections of text you want to select).

7. Tap on Copy Text.

8. Open up the app or document you wish to copy the text into (I use Google Docs on my phone).
9. Long press the cursor in your document to summon the selection menu.

10. Tap Paste.
11. Save document and open up on desktop to make edits to the text (if needed). My example needed editing as I was scanning an old document that has faded text.

Translate Text in Textbooks and on Signs

Google Lens is able to quickly translate foreign words in any image into your own language. Handy for when you are traveling or need to translate text from a textbook.

Here’s a quick video to show how it is done:

Here’s how to translate text using the Google Lens app:

1. Open the Google Lens app (Android only).
2. Point your phone’s camera over all the text you want to translate.

3. Tap on the Translate icon and the translated words will appear over the original words.  Tap on Copy All if you want to copy-paste the translated text into a document.

Here’s how to translate text using the Google Lens icon inside Google Photos app:

1. Open Google Photos.
2. Open the photo you want to translate text from.
3. Tap in the Google Lens icon.

4. Tap on Search icon to access Google Lens modes.

5. Tap on Translate icon.

6. The translated words will appear over the original words.

Scan QR Codes

Google Lens is able to read QR codes so there is no need to install a QR Code Reader.  Thanks to Frank Cademartori for sharing this tip!

In Google Photos you tap on the QR code you want to read once you’ve tapped on the Google Lens icon and the URL from the QR code is displayed below the image.

Inside the Google lens app on an android phone you tap on the QR code to reveal the link and then tap on the link to visit the website.

Any Tips or Questions?

I hope this information helps you get the most out of Google Lens.  I haven’t included instructions for how to use Shopping or Dining mode – refer to the following video to see how these two modes work.

Remember, if you’d like to learn more about Google Photos, check out our complete guide.

Please leave a comment below to provide tips on using Google Lens or let me know if you have any questions.

Google Photos is my favorite photo and video sharing and storage service.

My phone is set to automatically upload photos to Google Photos when I’m connected to wifi.

With Google Photos, I can access my photos across all my devices and it’s packed with numerous features that help me organize, use, share, and manage my photos.

Get Started With Google Photos

One of our most popular posts on The Edublogger is our Beginner’s Guide To Google Photos. It explains how Google Photos works, how to get started, and lots of tips and tricks for getting the most out of it.

This post expands on our guide and explains how you can embed Google Photos albums into your blog or website.

Embed Google Photos Albums

I really love organizing my photos into albums BUT Google Photos frustrates me as they don’t provide an option to embed my Google Photo albums into my website.

I’ve been searching for the solution for the past year and tried numerous solutions including some WordPress plugins.  None suited what I was looking for until now!

Albums are just collections of photos and in your Google Photo account. You can add up to 20,000 photos or videos to an album and you can also add things like maps and text.

Learn more about creating and editing albums in this Google Photos help guide.

Embed Google Photo Album

Here’s how to embed a Google Photos album:

1.  Log into Google Photos on your computer.

2.  Click on the Album you want to embed. Click on the Share icon.

3.  Click on Get Link and then Copy. 

4.  Go to Publicalbum.org

5.  Paste your Google Albums link into the box and press Create Embed Code. 

6. Here you’ll be able to change the way your album is displayed if you wish. When you’re happy, select the embed code on the right and copy it.

7.  In your blog dashboard, add a Custom HTML block and paste in your code.

The method you use will depend on the website or blog platform you use. This is how you do it on Edublogs and CampusPress networks.

8.  Once the post is published you will see the album embedded as a slideshow.

Google Photos Album Embed Examples

Below are two different examples of embedded Google Photos albums so you can see what the embed looks like.

A photo album from Sculptures by the Sea.

A photo album of the Western Mail Centenary Number (1828 to 1929)

Viewing this slideshow on a mobile device allows you to zoom in to read the text.

Using Google Photos Albums In The Classroom

There are many ways teachers and students can use albums in Google Photos.

Of course, before using Google Photos with students you’d need to ensure you have the correct permission. You might also find our post on using students’ photos online handy.

Here are a few ideas:

• You (or students) can take photos of work samples. You can store the photos in albums and share with parents, or use the samples when it’s time to write report cards.
• Albums of student work could be handy to show as examples to your future cohorts of students who might be completing the same task.
• Is your filing cabinet full of important testing, planners, reports, and other paperwork that you think you should keep “just in case”? Consider taking photos of them and organizing them in albums.
• Save photos from throughout the school year in an album and use the collection to make an end of year video or slideshow for/with your students. Tip: We have a guide to making a slideshow style video with music. 
• When you have events or field trips, put the photos in an album and embed it on your blog to share with the school community.

If you’re scanning documents and images, you might find you get a better result with Google’s PhotoScan app. You can find out how to use it in our Beginner’s Guide To Google Photos.

Slideshow style videos can be a powerful way to bring together the best of your school experiences and share with others.

In the coming months, millions of school and college students will be graduating, and many graduation ceremonies might take place virtually. A slideshow video can play a central role in these online events, providing a meaningful keepsake for graduates.

There are many other occasions where special days, events, and milestones can be marked with a photo montage video.

There are many tools out there to put together slideshow videos with music. This post summarizes 7 free online tools and apps. We also look at the legalities of music and copyright. Finally, you’ll find out how to share your completed video with others or embed it on your blog.

The tools and apps we reviewed are:

• Animoto
• Google Photos
• Quik
• Clips
• iMovie
• Lumen5
• Adobe Spark

Another option that’s currently popular with teachers is WeVideo. This is a fantastic tool but was only free to schools until June 30, 2020. So, it’s a tool you might want to explore depending on your timeline and budget.

Comparison Chart

Here’s a quick comparison of the 7 tools we review in this post. Read on to find more details and examples.

Animoto

URL: https://animoto.com/education/classroom
Use on: The web or iOS app (The Android app has been discontinued)

Animoto allows you to create videos from photos, video clips, and music. There are a number of pre-made video templates available that are designed to make the creation process quick and easy.

Animoto is an intuitive tool that allows you to create a professional-looking video in minutes.

Educators can sign up for a free account which allows you to create student accounts as well.

You can embed Animoto videos on your blog. This help guide shows you where to find the embed code.

Here’s some graduation inspiration from Animoto. Do you have a current example we can use? Let us know in a comment!

Google Photos Movies

URL: https://photos.google.com
Use on: Best on the Google Photos app (iOS | Android)

Do you use Google Photos? It’s a free service to store, organize, and share all your photos and videos. If you’d like to learn more about this service that many of our team enjoy using, check out our beginner’s guide.

You might not know that you can easily make a slideshow of your photos with music using Google Photos.

This is best done on a phone or tablet. You can do it on a computer but the computer version only allows you to create a movie from one of the pre-set themes shown below. This is unlikely to be what you’re after.

To make a movie on your Google Photos app on your phone or tablet, tap Library and then Utilities.

From here, you’ll select “Movie” and then “Create movie”.

You’ll be prompted to choose your photos or video clips (up to 50). You can then customize your creation by choosing your music and a variety of filters.

When you’re done, there are lots of sharing options. You can share your completed video with friends, save it to your device, publish it on social media, add it to your Google Drive, or share it to a service like YouTube.

Check out these instructions from Google for step-by-step directions.

Quik

URL: iOS app | Android app
Use on: Phone or tablet
Note: There is also a desktop app but it requires downloading software.

If you like creating on your phone or tablet, check out Quik by GoPro. It’s a free app with no in-app purchases.

The Quik app allows you to make video slideshows with professional transitions and music with minimal effort.

You simply select your photos or videos from your camera roll (up to 200). The app then analyses your footage to make smooth and effective transitions. You can choose from 26 themes and customize the video with 100+ music options. You can add your own music but beware of copyright. You can also add text and titles as needed.

Completed videos can be saved to your device or there are other sharing options like social media or text message.

Here’s a short tutorial video by Richard Byrne of Free Technology For Teachers.

Clips

URL: iOS app only
Use on: iPhone or iPad

If you’re looking for a simple video creation tool to use on your iPhone or iPad, Clips might be the answer.

It’s a very intuitive app that lets you create videos out of photos and video footage. There are lots of additional features like text, stickers, emojis, and filters. Because this app is easy to use and has lots of fun features, it’s always a popular choice for students as well as teachers.

Clips now offers a few options for background music; you can create your own music in GarageBand as well as using their built-in soundtracks. Additionally, you can pull in music from your iTunes account but please be cautious of copyright.

One unique feature of Clips is Live Titles which is a built-in caption feature. Users can choose to have their words appear as they speak. The words can come up all at once as static text, or as animated text with each word highlighted as they’re spoken.

Here’s an example of a short video created in Clips by teacher-librarian Jo Martin from Brandon Elementary. It’s called LEGOmania in the Library.

iMovie

URL: iOS app | macOS
Use on: iPhone, iPad, or Mac computer

iMovie is a step-up from Clips with a lot more features that allow you to create anything from a short video slideshow to an impressive full-length movie.

Unlike a lot of the tools reviewed in this post, iMovie doesn’t do the work for you. There are handy templates to enjoy but you need to add your own photos, videos, titles, and music to put your video slideshow together.

Some of the special effects available include the ability to slow down or speed up footage, as well as picture-in-picture and greenscreen effects. While these are awesome, they may be more than you need to create a simple photo montage.

If you don’t have your own music to add to the video, iMovie offers 80+ soundtracks and there is also the option to add your own voice-over narration.

Here’s an example from teacher-librarian Amy Kincaid. She used iMovie to create a video that condensed her year with Jackson Elementary students into 7 minutes.

Lumen5

URL: https://lumen5.com
Use on: Computer (or on a phone/tablet via the web browser)

Lumen5 is a free drag and drop video creator. It’s most known for its ability to turn blog posts into videos, however, it can also be a handy tool for creating video slideshows using images, short clips, GIFs, and music.

When you log in to Lumen5 and opt to “Create a Video”, you’ll be given three choices as outlined below. You can “automagically” make a video from your blog post, script, or media. 

To make a slideshow style video with music, select “Use your media”.

Lumen5 contains a library of Creative Commons Zero images and music if you need some content to complement your own collection.

This is a fabulous tool with some minor downsides being:

• The free plan allows you to make 5 videos a month in 720p resolution
• The free plan has a Lumen5 watermark
• It’s 13+ (so if you have younger students, they can’t create their own videos)
• You can’t embed your video directly onto your blog. So you have to put it on social media or YouTube first and then get the embed code from there. Or you could download the video and upload it directly into your post/page if it’s a small file. Scroll down for more details on embedding.

In this video, Richard Byrne from Free Technology For Teachers shows how to create a Lumen5 video from a blog post. You can modify the instructions and select “Use your media” if you don’t want to base your video on a blog post.

Adobe Express (Formerly Spark Video)

URL: https://www.adobe.com/express/create/video
Use on: The web or iOS app

If you’re an educator who is going to be using Adobe Spark, you might want to first make sure you’ve signed up for an education account. This will give you free premium features. 

Adobe Spark Video allows you to combine pictures, videos clips, icons, text, voice, and music to create compelling videos.

If you need extra footage or a soundtrack, there is a free database of images and music.

If you’d like to read a “how-to” on creating an end of year celebration video, check out this detailed explanation from Monica Burns.

Here’s an example of a video made in Adobe Spark by teacher Laura Hanser Burkhalter. She used photos that were emailed to her from members of her school community. 

Music and Copyright

When you’re creating a slideshow style video it can be extremely tempting to use popular music that reflects the mood and emotion of the footage.

As you probably know, most music is protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you paid for a song or not, it’s still protected by copyright. It doesn’t matter if you’re only using 30 seconds or less of a song, it’s still protected by copyright.

Normally, you can’t just use any music you like in your video creations.

However, in many countries, you are allowed to copy music to add to a video if:

a) it’s for educational purposes and
b) you’re not sharing your video publicly (or selling it!)*

So, if you make a video with music that’s protected by copyright, it’s not okay to publish this on a public blog, social media, YouTube, and so on. And you couldn’t show your video at a public event. However, it’s okay if the video is just being shown privately to teachers, students, and families at home/school.

It’s also important to note that background music is not considered “educational use”.

Despite the flexibility in these rules for educators, it’s always a good idea to not only think about loopholes but consider ethics and how to be the best digital citizen you can be. As everyone can now be a publisher, copyright is an important topic for educators and students to have a grasp on.

*Note: This is the case in Australia and the US but if you live in another country you may need to check your own guidelines. 

Here’s a brief summary of the above. You’re welcome to share this graphic on your own site, LMS, or social media with attribution.

Copyright Free Music

Luckily, many of the free online tools and apps available now have inbuilt music options that are free to use. All the tools and apps we’ve reviewed in this post have some free music options.

However, if you’re looking for some other copyright free music options, you might first like to check if you district has any subscriptions you can make the most of. For example, Soundzabound.

If this isn’t an option, there are lots of other sources of free music online like YouTube Audio Library.

Let’s take a look.

YouTube Audio Library

YouTube has a great library of music you can use. In case you’re wondering, using an online tool to download music from a YouTube video is not okay.

Visit the Audio Library section in your YouTube Studio to browse the selections.

You can filter your results to find music that doesn’t need to be attributed.

You can preview the music to hear what it sounds like and download the music you want to use.

Here’s an example called Sunshine in my Heart by Jingle Punks.

There are many other ways you can find copyright free music online so please let us know if you have a favorite.

How To Add A Video To Your Blog

Videos can be quick and easy to make but sharing them can be more difficult due to large file sizes.

If you want to share your video on your blog or website, first check whether the tool you’re using offers an embed code. If you’re using an online tool like Animoto or Adobe Spark Video you’ll be able to use an embed code to add the video to your blog quickly and easily. You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide.

If you’re not using an online video tool that offers an embed code, you’ll want to download the video to your device. From there you’ll upload your video to a third party service and then embed it. Most videos are too large to upload directly to your blog or site.

These are third party services you might consider to house your videos:

• An online hosting site (e.g. YouTube, Vimeo, TeacherTube)
• Google Drive
• A Cloud service like DropBox or OneDrive
• Social media (many services have limits on video length e.g. Instagram 60 seconds, Twitter 2 minutes 20 seconds, LinkedIn 10 minutes, Facebook 120 minutes)

If you’re uploading your educational videos to a platform like YouTube or social media, check your school/district guidelines for advice and choose your privacy settings carefully.

Once you’ve uploaded to one of these services, you can embed the video on your blog, website, or LMS, or share a link. If you’re embedding a video, you can use the instructions below.

Methods For Embedding Videos

Videos from video sharing websites can be embedded into posts or pages by either using:

1. The video URL: Paste the URL on a line by itself in your post/page editor where you want the video to appear. This method only works with certain services, like YouTube.
2. The embed code: Find the embed code on the site you’re using (e.g. YouTube) and copy it. Then in your post put your cursor where you want the video. Click on Add Media and then Insert Embed Code. Paste the code and press Insert into post. Note: embedding isn’t available on free blogs to prevent misuse from spammers.

You can find the full instructions on how to embed videos in this Help Guide or check out the PDF below for detailed instructions for YouTube.

Download the PDF of the embedding instructions.

Related Posts

You might also enjoy reading:

The Educator’s Guide To Using Video In Teaching And Learning

How To Deal With Student And Class Blogs At The End Of The Year

10 End Of Year Blogging Activities

This is an update of a post that was first written by Sue Waters in 2013.

Whether you’re blogging, using social media, producing videos, or publishing any digital creations, the topic of student privacy must always be considered.

Information that helps someone identify a student should always be shared with care and appropriate permission must be sought.

Many educators and schools wonder whether they should be sharing photos of students online.

This post gives you some tips on sharing students’ images and other identifying information. Scroll down for a summary poster.

Using Images On Blogs

Even though 99.99% of visitors to your class blog will be well-meaning parents, students, community members, or interested visitors from around the world, the unfortunate reality is that those with bad intentions can also visit public sites.

There are many reasons why educators do not publish images of their students:

• Some educators decide not to use student photographs on their blogs to avoid facing problems with parents, caregivers, or administrators who have concerns about cyber-predators.
• There are also cases where the personal background of a student might mean they need more privacy and anonymity than others.
• Furthermore, some people are selective about their digital footprints and try to limit their information and photos being widely shared.

Of course, there are benefits to sharing student photographs and information:

• It can be fantastic to celebrate student achievements and showcase their learning.
• Photos can help build connections with other students and classes around the world.
• Many families also love seeing what their child is up to during the school day.

Weighing up pros and cons is something for schools to evaluate while giving students and families individual choices.

Whether or not you choose to use student photographs, there are strategies that should be considered to minimize any risk.

What To Do Before Using Student Photos

You can make your blog private, or set it so it’s not indexed by search engines like Google but there are still things to keep in mind whenever any information is shared online.

Before using any student photos online, even on a private blog, you need to:

• Find out your school, district, or Education Department guidelines for sharing student photos online — make sure you follow these guidelines.
• Find out if there are forms caregivers and students need to sign to consent to the use of student photos online — make sure you have all forms signed by parents or caregivers.
• Respect the wishes of caregivers and students while understanding consent to use photos can be withdrawn at any time. If you are asked to remove any student information, act quickly. You can contact us if you don’t know how to remove images etc. from your blog.

Consider Social Media

Remember, it isn’t possible to stop parents, students, and caregivers from downloading photos and sharing them on their social networks, even if you are using a private blog.

If you don’t want a photo shared with others or shared on social media then don’t upload the photo.

Our Recommendations

We suggest you consider using the following approach in regards to photos of students.

• Avoid the use of any photos that can identify individual students. A safe compromise is to only use photos taken from behind students.
• Remember, school uniforms and logos in images can quickly identify your school.
• Don’t use student photos for their avatars. There are many free online tools where students can create a cartoon representation of themselves (find some here in the Teacher Challenge). The students can even draw their own avatar and take a photo of it.
• If you do use photos of students, don’t refer to the student by name (even their first name) in the caption under the photo or in the post.
• Don’t use the student name/s in the file name of the photo. You might not realize this information is visible but if someone inspects or saves the file, the name is available for anyone to see.
• Turn off location services when taking photos on your mobile device. Location services can attach location data to pictures you take. Find out how to turn off location services on your iPhone/iPad or Android device. 

An Example Of A Safe Photo

• This photo has been taken from behind.
• Students can’t be recognized and the photo doesn’t refer to any individual student.
• The file name doesn’t have any identifying information as you can see when you click on the photo and save it to your computer…

What You Shouldn’t Do

• The photo above has been named john_smith.jpg
• It includes the name of the student in the caption and you could identify the student from the photo.
• Anyone could easily find this image in Google Images, due to the file name john_smith.jpg, if the blog was set to ‘Allow search engines to index this site’.

If You Are Using Recognizable Photos…

If you have permission to use photos where you can recognize individual students, and you have decided you want to do this, then we recommend you:

1. Word the photo like the example above so it doesn’t include the student’s name.
2. Remember to not include the student’s first and last name in the file name.

Don’t Forget Comments

Your individual privacy guidelines also need to apply to anyone leaving comments on the blog.

If a family member is writing a comment, they should identify themselves as “_____’s mom” or “______’s dad”, instead of using their name and they shouldn’t refer to name of the student in the photo.

Ensure you make this part of your blogging guidelines and explain the guidelines to students and families.

It’s a good idea to moderate comments and edit them if a commenter inadvertently includes names or other personal information. Then privately remind the commenter of the guidelines so they know for the future.

More Tips

Videos

Many classes enjoy making videos and sharing them on their blog.

This quick tip from Tony Vincent demonstrates how to use the built-in tool on YouTube to blur faces when necessary.

️ YouTube can find, track, and blur faces of people who appear in your video. pic.twitter.com/8IvhvxqiHb

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) June 10, 2018

Blurring Images

Tony Vincent has also shared this visual which demonstrates how to blur faces or sensitive information using an online tool called Pixlr.

Note: This tool will require you to allow Flash but there are many similar tools available. Tell us your favorite way to edit photos in a comment!

Emojis

Some teachers like Keith McCray find it handy to add emojis over students’ faces before sharing publicly on social media. Is this something you’ve tried?

There are many free apps and online tools to add emojis to your photos.

Ss @EasternWCPS are sharing how their perspectives changed after they tried something new! Cheer them on and make their day by sharing your experiences at https://t.co/i014X8MLbe #wcpsmd #comments4kids #globallearning pic.twitter.com/fsIvHgMsbg

— Keith McCray  (@KMcCray85) September 13, 2018

Lesson Plans And Resources

If you’d like to learn more about the topic of protecting students’ data and privacy, check out the resources on Common Sense Education.

Summary

This summary reinforces our key recommendations. Feel free to download a copy, display it on your blog, or share it on social media.

What Do You Think?

What advice would you give? What resources do you use with students to teach students about internet safety and privacy?

Let us know in the comments below!

Recommended Reading

You might also be interested in reading the following posts about blogging with students:

• How To Teach Digital Citizenship Through Blogging
• My Class: Student Blogging Made Easy
• Should Your Class Or Student Blogs Be Public Or Private?
• Different Approaches To Using Student Blogs And Digital Portfolios

Virtual reality has potential to provide greater student learning experiences but is still in the early stages of adoptions in schools.

Here are our tips and resources to help you get started with 360° Photos and Virtual Reality (VR) content.

What are 360° Photos?

360° photos is a photography technique where you capture the entire surrounding of a location instead of just one angle. Also known as VR (virtual reality photography), 360 panoramic photography, 360 virtual tours and photosphere.

A 360° photo consists of a series of images stitch together.  When the photo is uploaded to a site that supports embedding 360° photo the viewer is able to explore the image with the same view as someone that was there when the photo was taken.

Here’s an example:

You explore this image on your:

• Computer – using click and drag.
• Phone – titling to change angles.
• Cardboard Viewer – for virtual reality experience.

Take 360° photos

Virtual reality has the potential to provide students with greater learning experiences but is still in the early stages of adoptions in schools.

There are numerous ways to take your own 360° photos.  You don’t need expensive equipment and complicated software. The easiest way to get started is using Google Street View (available for Android and iOS) on your smartphone.  You can also use photo sphere mode in the stock Android camera or surround shot mode on Samsung phones (open your camera app then tap on Mode > Download > and download surround shot).

The apps on the smartphones all work the same.  Pick an interesting spot where you want to capture a 360° photo, open the app on your smartphone and move your smartphone around to pass over the circles until all images are taken.

Important tips:

• How you hold your smartphone and move affects the quality of your 360° photo.
• Watch how to create a photo sphere video to learn how to hold and move when taking 360° photos on smartphones.
• Start with shooting outdoor nature scenes as there is less chance of stitching errors compared to shooting architecture or areas with geometrical lines.
• 360° photo taken on smartphones are reasonable quality; providing an easy, cheap option to explore how you can use this technology with students.
• Kathy Schrock’s Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the Classroom page includes her VR Camera kit and a link to an article that reviews 360 cameras for those researching camera options.

Sharing Online

To share your photos online you need to upload it to a site that supports embedding 360° photo.

Edublogs and CampusPress users can embed 360° photos and videos in posts and pages using the VR Viewer plugin.  This embeds the 360° photo in a viewer where your readers can explore the image in their browser, via Google Cardboard or using VR headsets like Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, or Google Daydream. Detailed instructions are here.

Other hosting sites include:

• 360 cities
• Kuula – image hosting and Cardboard viewing
• Facebook

Using With Students

Check out the following resources for ideas on using with students:

• A Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Virtual Reality In Education
• Everything You Wanted To Know About How We’re Using Virtual Reality With ELLs, But Were Afraid To Ask
• Virtual Reality By EdTechTeacher
• Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality in the Classroom

Your Tips

Leave a comment to share your tips for creating 360° photos or using with students.

One of the most difficult parts of negotiating blogging is images.

I hate images.

Really, really, really hate images. To me, a picture is a picture is a picture.

Over the last few years, however, I’ve learned that image sizes are one of the most important parts of a blog layout when trying to ensure consistency across devices and platforms.

This means I’ve had to expand my technological capabilities and my vocabulary.

Collage makers are great. Once the collage is completed, however, getting it to look right and be visually pleasing on both desktop and mobile can pose a challenge.

In this post, I’ll walk you through some of the steps to adjusting pictures online using PicMonkey, although Pixlr also works similarly.

Both of these are free web applications that allow you to change and enhance photos so that your website is the best looking version you can make.

Key Terms

Before beginning the tutorial, a few key terms need to be defined.

Crop

This means to take certain areas of a picture and focus them.

For example, if a picture has a chair on the left and a bunch of nothing on the right, and you just want the chair’s image, you crop the image to focus only on that. Keep in mind, this can change the pixel count.

Cropping can also mean changing the proportions of an image so that a landscape image is changed to a portrait image. In other words, a long wide picture and be redefined as a tall skinny picture. This will change the focus of the image, so we need to keep that in mind.

Exposure

Back in the old days, exposure used to mean how much time the shutter was open impacting the amount of light through the lens.

Today, when editing photos, it more generally means playing with the brightness, highlights, contrast, and shadows in a picture.

For example, sometimes you take a picture in a dark room and the figures are difficult to see. With photo editing, you can adjust the brightness so that the figures are clearer. If the image is so bright that you can’t make out the shapes, you can do the reverse.

Pixel

These are small dot like pieces of information that aggregate into a larger image. An easy way to think about them is to imagine coloring in a picture on graph paper. Each box gets one color. You color in groups of boxes to make up the picture.

The smaller the boxes, the more defined the picture is. Pixels in images work the same way. The more pixels there are, the clearer the image is and the more it looks like the original image.

Resize

This seems a lot like cropping, but what you’re doing is changing the number of pixels to making the image larger or smaller. Assume you find a picture that looks great but needs to be wider, using resize you can do this.

However, you need to keep in mind that when you resize an image it changes the pixel sizes and can make an otherwise crisp picture a bit blurry.

Rotate

This basically means moving the image around. Sometimes it means flipping it to the mirror image; other times it means moving it in a clockwise/counterclockwise direction.

Important tip:

• Some software such as Facebook assumes that all photos are taken sideways, in landscape mode, so that when the image is uploaded it may be sideways or upside down.
• Simpliest solution is to hold the device in landscape mode with the home button on the right when taking photos on smartphones and tablets so you don’t have issues with them rotating when uploaded to websites.

Sharpen

Sharpen is great when you’re trying to blend an image into a background. You can play with colors then blur them or sharpen them to make the images fit together visually.

While you can do a lot of other things in photo editors, this is all you really need to know for a beginning tutorial.

Introduction to PicMonkey

Once you have the picture you want, you go to your choice of website to help.

My two favorites are Pixlr and PicMonkey. Mostly I like them because they’re free, but they’re also extremely user friendly.

This tutorial will use PicMonkey because it plays better with my computer although they both have the same free features. PicMonkey also has a slightly easier and more aesthetically pleasing interface making it great for beginners.

So, you have your photo and it looks like this:

The bad lighting and shadows mean that none of the items are clear. I planned to use this photo as a featured image for a giveaway I was running.

This meant that the objects needed to be clear and enticing.

The first thing I did was go to PicMonkey, and click “Edit a Photo.”

This brings you to the homepage that allows you to do your magic. At the top is the “Open” drop down menu.

Clicking on that led me to options such as computer, my hub, templates, and Facebook. The benefit that Pixlr has over PicMonkey is that Pixlr will allow you to edit a picture from a URL.

This option is great for making memes or bringing in images from current events for your students.

Once you click on “Computer,” you’ll be taken to the place where you store all your files whether it’s a hard drive or cloud drive.

Click on “Choose.”

Now your screen should look like this:

Once you click “Choose,” you’ll see this:

The most common feature in photo editing is cropping.

If you crop a photo, you’re focusing on part of it that matter most. For example,

I don’t really need my entire dining room in this picture. I might want to crop the image.

Go into the “Crop” area. You’ll see this:

You can drag those little circles all over the place to focus on the parts of the image you want taken off or “cropped.”

If your picture is dark, like mine was, go to “Exposure” on the left, and move the brightness around.

The further to the right you move the brightness, the lighter the picture gets, further to the left, the darker.

If you want to play with the colors, you can work with the “Colors” tab. Increasing the saturation makes the colors more vivid, decreasing makes them more monotone.

Increasing the temperature increases highlights the warm colors, decreasing highlights the cool colors.

For many blogs, however, the most important button here is Resize.

While sometimes cropping an image can accomplish this task, often times it can’t.

Many blogs require certain pixel sizes to show up on mobile devices or to look good for social media. This means that you need to find a way to match those requirements. The original version of this photo is 3128 x 2346 pixels. That is gigantic. It also takes up a lot of memory on your site and may not be able to upload. This is where you can change that. A lot of website prefer 750 to 1000 pixels in width and 500-750 in height.

If you click the “keep proportions” button, you keep the photo exactly the same only better for uploading.

Like this:

Resize is excellent also for those images that need to be made larger. So you find this great picture online, but the picture is 640 x 426. That picture won’t show up well on your blog because you need it to be 750 at minimum.

You go into resize.

Sometimes, the resizing makes the picture look a little fuzzy.

In the above image, the difference is subtle. If you focus on the front left lily pad, you can see that it’s a bit fuzzier after being resized, same with the reflection.

This is when you want to click on the “Sharpen” tab and use the “sharpness” function not the clarity function. Clarity only increases midtone contrast.

On small pictures this is fine, but if you need to enlarge them later on to fit in a blog post, they’ll look weird.

So, if you want colors that aren’t specifically cool or specifically warm to look better, then you’re going to want to increase sharpness. If you want to increase the sharpness before the sizing, you can do that.

You might even want to play around with the sizing and sharpness functions to see which works better before or after. You can do this easily with PicMonkey because it has an “Undo” button under the picture.

If you at the sharpened images below, you can see the difference between the image above and this one. the edges of the flower are crisper and even the unfocused background looks more

Despite my curmudgeonly approach to images in posts, they can make a post pop or look more professional.

Understanding your blog’s requirements will allow you to work with your restrictions so that the perfect picture can be made to fit them instead of left out of your post.

Your Tips!

Let us know in a comment your tips for editing or creating images for posts.

Learning how to use image editing software can be difficult and time consuming. And, teaching students how to use it can be even more challenging. Luckily, there are several free, online alternatives to bulky editors like Photoshop.

These slimmed-down editors allow novice users to quickly become comfortable editing digital images, and are also excellent stepping stones for students who want to learn how to use more complex editors later on.

Our Top Picks

To help you and your students create your own amazing images, we’ve compiled a list of our 3 favorite online photo editors. In order to be on the list, each of these tools must meet these three requirements:

1. It is free to use.
2. It requires no registration.
3. It provides educators and students with an intuitive, easy-to-learn photo editing tool.

1. Picadilo

Picadilo is a robust yet intuitive photo editor that gives your students the freedom to do almost anything they want with their images. In their own words the Picadilo suite of tools, “consists of many different and unique instruments to help you in obtaining the exact results you want: brushes, selections, effects and anything else that has the power to enhance photographs.”

They offer 100+ fonts, 40+ photo effects, 19 beauty retouch tools, and 140+ unique stickers you can use in your photo compositions.

Pros:

• Just click on the Photo Editor or Photo Collage option to choose what kind of image you want to create.
• Simple one-click or drag-and-drop tools make applying effects very easy.
• The photo collages use several pre-set formats, and can be easily resized. This makes creating a large header image for your blog just as easy as creating a narrow, stacked image to use in a sidebar area.
• The Latest News section on their homepage has “How To” posts that students can click on for easy tutorials for achieving specific effects or creating certain types of images.

Cons:

• Adding text to the picture was confusing. Once you know where to type, it’s OK but it took a minute to figure out you had to type into the text box instead of clicking on the picture to add text.
• The only direct sharing option is to Facebook. While it’s very easy to save a picture and share it wherever you want, most users are accustomed to more built-in sharing options nowadays.
• In the Photo Collage mode, it’s not entirely intuitive to click the red gear icon in order to switch between tools, layout and styles. The Photo editor mode, on the other hand, has a menu that displays all options at once.

2. Pixlr

Pixlr is the image editor for every one. Their site provides 3 different levels of editing that allow you to make the process as simple or as involved as you want it to be.

Pixlr O-Matic is a very simple editor that is very similar to Instagram. Choose your picture, or take a picture using your webcam. Then use a pre-set selection of filters, borders and overlays to customize your image.

Pixlr Express is the next step up. It allows you to pull in an image from your computer, from a URL, or to take one with your webcam. It also allows you to create a collage. The collage mode only allows you to upload pictures from your computer though.

While Express does provide more editing options than Pixlr O-Matic, the editing menu is very simple and the options are limited enough not to become overwhelming. It provides a full selection of adjustment, overlay, border, text, sticker and effects tools while keeping the interface very user-friendly.

Pixlr Editor is Pixlr’s most comprehensive image editor. The interaction in this editor is very comparable to Photoshop, and it is definitely for more advanced users. If you’re looking for a free Photoshop alternative, this is great, but not recommended for the casual user.

Pros:

• Different editors for different skill levels.
• Mobile versions for iOS and Android.
• Help and information on their Blog and Support pages.

Cons:

• No upfront explanation of what each different editing tool can do. You have to click through to find out what is provided at each level.
• No way to easily jump from one editing tool to another if you decide the one you picked is too simple or too complex for you.
• Pixlr Editor level has login/sign up links. Sign up is not required, but if clicked it provides no information on what additional services you get for signing up.

3. Fotor

Fotor is a other easy-to-use editor. Just click the “Edit a Photo” button on their homepage to get started. Fotor provides a set of simple editing and “beauty” retouching tools that give you a lot of options without making it too tricky.

They also have a Cover Photo tool that makes creating a background cover photo for networks like Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ and several others very easy. Many of the background options are reserved for paid users. Still, if you want to create a nice, simple header image using a solid color or one of your images as a background, then this tool will be just fine.

What makes Fotor a little less appealing overall is that they are a little more aggressive on getting users to sign up. It’s not always clear cut what is free and what is not. Most of their tools are free, but you won’t know something is not until you click on it. Their small red diamond icons do show which tools are for paid users, but these icons are hard to see and until you use the tool for a while you barely notice them at all.

Overall, the basic editing tools are great and will satisfy the needs of most casual users. The more advanced options may require you to sign up, or they may just be too hard to figure out on your own.

Pros:

• Easy to use tools for basic editing and retouching.
• Easy to save images with different quality levels: normal, high, or highest. Tells you image file size as when saving.
• Has a collage option with a simple drag-and-drop interface to add multiple pictures and easy layout options.
• Mobile options for iOs, Android and Windows devices.
• Tutorials available on their blog.

Cons:

• Many advanced options are only available to paid users.
• Of all three top picks, this interface feels the least intuitive. It is sometimes not instantly clear how to navigate out of a tool or simply return to your original image.
• Blog and tutorials links are not as prevalent as they are on other two sites.

Sound Off

Have a favorite that we missed or anything to add? Let us know in the comments below!

So, you need an image for your blog?

We’ve spent some time categorizing our favorite sources for free images and organizing them in such a way as to help you find what you’re looking for. Here are the criteria we’ve examined:

Subjects: Does a site focus on specific genres of images, or is it a mass collection of various image types?

High Resolution: Lots of great image resources emerged in the pre-Web 2.0 phase, but it wasn’t until bandwidth dramatically increased that allowed for the uploading of much higher resolution images suitable for editing and printing.

License: The licenses vary extremely from source to source. Some are listed as Creative Commons (with variations on attribution and availability for commercial use), others are Public Domain, and still others have unique licenses that maintain copyright while allowing users to download or embed photographs. To better understand Creative Commons licenses, check out our post on Images, Copyright, & Creative Commons.

Safety: Government sites and many specific subject collections are extremely safe for students to use. But before you start using one of these sites for student blogging, check out our safety note and examine the site to see if you find it appropriate for students. Some sites are terrible for filtering out inappropriate content, while others display advertising from paid stock-photo websites that can often be questionable, depending on the age level of students.

Search Engines

While these websites do not actually contribute image content themselves, they’re able to index images in a way that makes it easier to search for free content. Because the images come from a variety of sources, it is important to note that these websites tend to have a worse track record when it comes to filtering inappropriate content for students.

Category Favorite: Bing Images

When it comes to searching for images for my blog, Bing is the clear winner for one simple reason; while Google and Yahoo also allow you to filter by license types, Bing is the only one that will search strictly public domain images. You can’t beat public domain when it comes to blog images. You can freely modify images, use them commercially, and no attribution (or research into attribution) is needed.

Bing Images

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches a wide variety of sources
High Resolution: Varies, can be filtered by image size
License: Varies, can filter (even by public domain)
Safety: Defaults to safe search

Compfight

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches other sources including Flickr
High Resolution: Varies, variety of sizes available
License: Creative Commons and Creative Commons Non-Commercial
Safety: Not safe for student searches

Creative Commons Search

Subjects: Various
Description: Offers access to popular Creative Commons search services
High Resolution: Varies
License: Creative Commons (varies which particular license)
Safety: As safe as the search site you access

Everystockphoto

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches other sources including Flickr
High Resolution: Usually
License: Varies
Safety: Not safe for student searches

Google Images

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches a wide variety of sources
High Resolution: Varies, can be filtered by image size
License: Varies, can filter by license type.
Safety: Defaults to safe search

HiveStock

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches other sources, identifies color composition of photo
High Resolution: Usually
License: Varies
Safety: Mostly safe

Photo Pin

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches other sources including Flickr
High Resolution: Varies
License: Creative Commons and Creative Commons Non-Commercial
Safety: Not safe for student searches

Yahoo Images

Subjects: Various
Description: Searches a wide variety of sources
High Resolution: Varies, can be filtered by image size
License: Varies, can filter by images labeled for reuse
Safety: Defaults to safe search

Large Crowdsourced Collections

While some sources individually upload original original images, others rely on vast networks of users to upload content that can be aggregated in one place. Crowdsourced collections often offer an API that can be used by other websites (such as many of the search engines, listed above) to search through these collections in a more relevant manner.

Category Favorite: Flickr

Flickr sharing has grown by 170% since Yahoo upped its storage amount to a 1TB per user. As of 2014, its 93 million global users share 1 million photographs a day, many of which are licensed as Creative Commons, and perfect to use in your blog!

Flickr

Subjects: Various
Description: The gold standard of user-submitted photographs
High Resolution: Usually
License: Can filter by Creative Commons licenses
Safety: Defaults to safe search

Wikimedia Commons

Subjects: Various
Description: Hosts crowdsourced media files
High Resolution: Varies
License: Varies, but usually Creative Commons
Safety: Not safe for student searches

U.S. Government Collections

Images that are taken or prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person’s official duties are not subject to copyright in the United States and there are no copyright restrictions on reproduction, derivative works, distribution, performance, or display of the work.

The sources listed below are not the only government sources for images, but espouse some of the largest collections. Almost all images are public domain (unless otherwise noted), of various resolutions, and safe for students to search.

Category Favorite: Visible Earth

Visible Earth is a beautiful collection of land masses, oceans, and atmospheric events as seen from outer space.

DefenseImagery.mil

Subjects: Military

Defense Video And Imagery Distribution System

Subjects: Military, NASA

National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library

Subjects: Marine life

National Park Service Digital Image Archives

Subjects: National parks

NOAA Photo Library

Subjects: Nature, People, Space

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Subjects: Animals, Plants

U.S. Department of Defense

Subjects: Military, Politics

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Subjects: Animals, Nature

Visible Earth

Subjects: Earth photographs from outer space

Unique Collections

These unique collections are contributed by individuals or small to medium-sized networks of users. While the content of these site vary widely, there are some great hidden gems that larger crowdsourced collections do not have.

Category Favorite: Getty Images

If you run a blog and need to access any sort of news-related images: technology, celebrities, or sports, you know that it’s nearly impossible to find the images you need marked as Public Domain or Creative Commons. With the Getty Images Embed program, you can embed images directly on your blog while Getty still controls the copyright. Win-win!

Category Favorite: Pixabay

A vast library of high resolution, public domain images? Yes, please!

BurningWell

Subjects: Nature, People, Textures
Description: A growing collection of photos donated by photographers around the world
High Resolution: Typically not
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Creativity 103

Subjects: Abstract, Background, Textures
Description: A library of creative design elements to use in your own works or for inspiration
High Resolution: Yes
License: Attribution if used commercially
Safety: Yes

DHD Multimedia Gallery

Subjects: Random, Various
Description: An eclectic collection of a few thousand photographs
High Resolution: Varies
License: Free for personal and commercial purposes
Safety: Yes

EduPic

Subjects: Various
Description: A set of photographs and graphics sorted by academic subject
High Resolution: No
License: Free for use by educators and students
Safety: Yes

Freeimages

Subjects: Various
Description: Large collection of crowd-sourced photographs
High Resolution: Usually
License: Can use commercially, terms: Freeimages Terms
Safety: Mostly safe

Geek Philosopher

Subjects: Various
Description: A medium-sized collection of free images
High Resolution: No
License: Free for any purpose in exchange for a link
Safety: Yes

Getty Images: Embed

Subjects: Various
Description: Enormous collection of beautiful photographs, free to embed on websites
High Resolution: Yes
License: Free to embed for non-commercial purposes
Safety: Defaults to mostly-safe search

Gratisography

Subjects: Random, Artistic
Description: New high resolution photographs added each week
High Resolution: Yes
License: CC0 (public domain)
Safety: Yes

Imagebase

Subjects: People, Nature, Objects
Description: Several free photographs listed in very broad categories
High Resolution: Varies
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

morgueFile

Subjects: Various
Description: Crowd-sourced content for creative types
High Resolution: Usually
License: Unique license for creatives
Safety: Mostly safe

Photos Public Domain

Subjects: Various
Description: A collection of photographs released into the public domain
High Resolution: Varies
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Picjumbo

Subjects: Various, Artistic
Description: High resolution photos added each month for creative use
High Resolution: Yes
License: Free use (including commercial), attribution appreciated
Safety: Mostly safe

Pics4Learning

Subjects: Various
Description: Free, copyright-friendly images for students and educators
High Resolution: Varies
License: Free use for educators and students in print, multimedia, and video productions
Safety: Yes

Pixabay

Subjects: Various
Description: Find and share outstanding free images
High Resolution: Usually
License: Public Domain
Safety: Mostly safe

Public Domain Image

Subjects: Various
Description: A collection of photographs released into the public domain
High Resolution: Yes
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Public Domain Photos

Subjects: Various
Description: A collection of photographs most of which are assigned to public domain
High Resolution: Varies
License: Various
Safety: Yes

Public Domain Pictures

Subjects: Various
Description: A collection of photographs released into the public domain
High Resolution: Varies
License: Public Domain
Safety: Mostly safe

Public Domain Review

Subjects: Art, Literature, Publications
Description: Contains truly public-domain images, those whose copyrights have expired
High Resolution: Varies
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Totally Free Images

Subjects: Art, Astronomy, History, Maps
Description: Contains truly public-domain images, those whose copyrights have expired
High Resolution: Varies
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Unsplash

Subjects: Random, Artistic
Description: 10 new images every 10 days
High Resolution: Yes
License: CC0 (public domain)
Safety: Yes

WorldImages

Subjects: Various cultural and artistic photos from California State University
Description: Over 100,000 images displayed in various portfolios
High Resolution: Usually not
License: Creative Commons – Attribution, Non-commercial
Safety: Yes

Specific Subjects

Several image sites specialize in certain subjects. Whether they use the Flickr API, or are a unique collection, these sites focus on organization of content to make it easier for users to find images in a given niche.

Category Favorite: The Getty – Open Content Program

Not affiliated with our other favorite, Getty Images, The Getty Museum showcases thousands of works of art, captured beautifully in high resolution.

Animal Photos

Subjects: Animals
Description: Large collection of animal photos, especially birds.
High Resolution: No
License: Creative Commons
Safety: Yes

Car Pictures

Subjects: Cars
Description: Car pictures indexed by make
High Resolution: Typically not, though a variety of sizes are displayed
License: Creative Commons
Safety: Yes

Free Nature Pictures

Subjects: Nature, Landscapes
Description: Over 1,000 free pictures of nature
High Resolution: Varies
License: Free for any purpose in exchange for a link
Safety: Yes

The Getty: Open Content Program

Subjects: Art
Description: Over 87,000 images available from the J. Paul Getty Museum
High Resolution: Yes
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Hubble Site

Subjects: Space
Description: Explore the universe with images from Hubble’s eye
High Resolution: Yes
License: Public domain (a few exceptions)
Safety: Yes

PhotoEverywhere

Subjects: Geography, Cities, Landmarks
Description: 3600 images sorted geographically
High Resolution: Yes
License: Creative Commons – Attribution
Safety: Yes

Realia Project

Subjects: Culture
Description: Faculty-reviewed media for the teaching and study of modern languages and cultures
High Resolution: Usually not
License: Free use for education and research, attribution required
Safety: Yes

Reusable Art

Subjects: Arts, Crafts
Description: Contains truly public-domain images, those whose copyrights have expired
High Resolution: Usually not
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Rijks Museum

Subjects: Art
Description: This museum in Amsterdam offers images of its public domain artwork for download
High Resolution: Yes
License: Public Domain (where applicable)
Safety: Yes

Clipart

Sometimes you just need a diagram, cartoon, or something other than a photograph to help tell a story in your blog. This collection of sources will provide thousands of clipart images to use for free in your blog.

Category Favorite: Clkr

With a Public Domain (CC0) license and creative online tools to help you create clipart, you won’t want to miss this site!

Clker

Subjects: Various
Description: Crowd-sourced clipart, can make and share designs online
High Resolution: No
License: CC0 (public domain)
Safety: Mostly safe

DK’s Clipart

Subjects: Various
Description: A private collection of thousands of pieces of clipart
High Resolution: No
License: Copyrighted, available for free personal and school use http://www.clipart.dk.co.uk/faq#terms
Safety: Yes

Open Clipart

Subjects: Various
Description: Crowd-sourced clipart
High Resolution: No
License: Public Domain
Safety: Yes

Have any favorites to add?

Let us know in the comments if you have any favorites you’d like to see on the list!

Student photos, and especially linking names with specific photos, is a common concern that comes up when blogging, sharing videos, or using other web services online.

Information that helps someone identify a student should always be shared with care.

What you need to consider

Even though 99.99% of visitors to your class blog will be well meaning parents, students, community members, or interested visitors from around the world, the unfortunate reality is that those with bad intentions can also visit public sites. There are also cases where the personal background of a student might mean they need more privacy and anonymity than others.

Decisions on whether to use student photographs or not is often about protecting educators from having problems with parents, caregivers or administrators who have concerns about cyber-predators.

Before using any student photos online, even on a private blog, you need to:

• Find out your school, district or Education Department guidelines for sharing student photos online — make sure you follow these guidelines.
• Find out if there are forms caregivers and students need to sign to consent to use of student photos online — make sure you have all forms signed by parents or caregivers.
• Respect the wishes of caregivers and students while understanding consent to use photos can be withdrawn at any time.

Remember it isn’t possible to stop parents, students and caregivers from downloading photos and sharing them on their social networks, even if you are using a private blog.  If you don’t want a photo shared on a social network then don’t upload the photo.

Our recommendations

• Avoid the use of any photos that can identify individual students.  A safe compromise is to only use photo taken from behind students.
• Don’t use student photos for their avatars.
• If you do use any photos of students – don’t use their name in the file name and don’t refer to the student by name, even their first name, in the caption under the photo or in the post.

A safe photo

This photo has been taken from behind.  Students can’t be recognized and the photo doesn’t refer to any individual student.

What you shouldn’t do

The photo above has been named john_smith.jpg , includes the name of the student in the caption and you could identify the student from the photo.

Also any one could easily find this image in Google Images, due to the file name john_smith.jpg,  if the blog was set to ‘Allow search engines to index this site’.

But if you do….

If you are allowed to use photos where you can recognize individual students, and you have decided you want to do this, then we recommend you word the photo like the example above so it doesn’t include the student’s name and DON”T rename the file name to include the student’s first and last name.

Don’t forget comments

These guidelines also need to apply to any one leaving comments on the blog.

If a family member is writing a comment, they should identify themselves as “_____’s mom” or “______’s dad”, instead of using their name and they shouldn’t refer to name of the student in the photo.

What do you think?

What advice would you give?  What resources do you use with students to teach them about Internet Safety and privacy?

Let us know in the comments below and we will be sure to add it to the post!

I knew when I wrote The Educator’s guide to Instagram and other photo apps that some people would debate the educational benefits of Instagram and challenge me on the use of Educator in the title of the post.

They did!

So it’s great to see educators using Instagram to document their school activities and develop connections with classes at other schools.

Would you like to join them in an Instagram Challenge?

Their Instagram challenge is based on sharing their food technology learning journey.  But you could be doing this for any learning area!

Here’s how you can join their challenge:

1. Create an instagram account for your class or school (read these tips on choosing your school’s username for the challenge)
2. Upload your photos and tag them #foodatchallenge (here’s information on how to tag)

You can read more about their Instagram challenge here!

Why not create an Instagram Challenge for your area?

Using a common instagram hashtag such as #edinsta or #edinstamaths you can easily share your photos with each other and be interacting in comments.  You could even use a hashtag like #edinsta to tag educational instagram photos.

You could use it for showcasing student work or giving presentation tips! 

Or for discussions on differences between countries and classes:

You’re really only limited by your imagination!