Group items tagged

WPClipart is a collection of images for students and others that is free of copyright concerns as well as safe from inappropriate images. There are currently 50,526 images on the site. I can see students in grades K-12 using this resource. The site is easy to navigate and search for images. There are tons of categories such as medical images, geography images, historical figure images, computer images, and on and on which is why I see this being helpful to all students grades K-12 and all subjects. Unlike some clipart sites, there are images on this site that are not cartoon like making them better for older students. According to the terms and conditions, the site is Public Domain and the images can be used and edited. No direct user-uploaded images are allowed. The only concern I see is that this site is trying to get donations through PayPal which I haven't seen on other sites.

Edupics offers free downloadable coloring pages, pictures, and photographs.  The website images are clearly classified and easy to navigate.  There are word search and crossword puzzle image downloads, which would benefit primary and middle grades. There is even a collection of school appropriate animated videos. The color online tools available appear to target the primary age group, however, there is a variety of content appropriate for making any subject interactive. The only limitation I see to this site, in comparison to others is the limited content available.

Free coloring pages, crafts, drawings and photographs. Children can use these images to learn about many different subjects. Pictures for educational use. This site is loaded with pictures, ways to create coloring pages, already created coloring pages, puzzle maker, games, and crafting ideas. This site is geared to the k-5 education setting. You can do a multitude of activities with this site and the resources available. The pictures can be used for any activity. There is no fee listed, and you do have to create a login.

This website is loaded with opportunities for teachers. It is a very well organized, searchable website that contains pictures that may be colored, photos, black and white printables, crafts. This site is Great for all grade levels pre-K through high school. For social studies teachers, it has religious categories, history, famous people... Science- animals, energy, environment and more... Language arts- emotions, fairy tales, film and television...

This is one of the best as a "copyright free" site for image files I found. The only restriction is that these items can not be contributed to other photo libraries (online or off line). The site is originally from England. There are several topics: animals, buildings, nature, places, technology, etc. All items are clear and appealing. (EX. Nature category has 92 pictures of mountains, rivers, flowers, plants, etc.) The file format is jpg with high resolution. A problem might occur when the image is linked to the URL or embedded because the website owner may delete or change the image at any time without notice. I recommend saving the image before using it. Lesson example: Science for 5th grade: 1. Direction: Examine the photo carefully and state how these stones were formed. What history do you see behind these stones? You need to observe the colors, shapes, and sizes of the stone. A group needs to gather knowledge learned in class and use it as evidence to support a group's decision. Resources are to be cited at the end of your paper. 2. Rubric: Final conclusion (2 points), Explanations and reasons well supporting the conclusion (5 points), Resources (texts or images used as evidence) (3 points) 3. Standard: S5CS6: Students will question scientific claims and arguments effectively. (GPS Scientific habits of the mind for 5th grade) A citation of the image I used for a science lesson is as follows. Stones. (n.d.). Coloured stones on a sandy beach. Retrieved from http://www.copyrightfreephotos.com/gallery/nature/3/104852203/

MERLOT which stands for "Multimedia Educational Resources for Learning and Online Teaching" is repository site that contains images, video, as well as audio. The site contains information suitable for all grade levels k-12, however the resources being looked at or 9-12 Science resources. MERLOT is an established community of resources that offers a variety of resources to its members. User can browse for material across many different subject matters. They can also create a collection of resources to use with learning exercises to practice or teach concepts. MERLOT also provides its user with the opportunity to meet and collaborate with expert's virtually form all over.

This website is a government site, so it is a public domain and provides all resources including photos, videos, animations and podcasts for free to the public. The acronym USGS stands for United States Geological Survey, which means the photos and resources on this site pertain to elements of the geologic structure in the U.S. This site would be useful for all audiences of school age in grades 4-12. I chose that range because with the real-life depictions of our country's geography, it could easily bore and audience that was any younger. They are excellent quality resources and precise photography at our disposal for nothing out of pocket.

Here we feature the best movies of the United States Government, from training films to history, from our national parks to the U.S. Fire Academy and the Postal Inspectors, all of these fine flix are available for reuse without any restrictions whatsoever. There are many different topics that would be so helpful for teachers. There is a lot of history available. Showing these to 5th graders would be very interesting for them to see actual footage of specific topics in our curriculum. Specific items would be World War II film. That is covered in 5th grade curriculum. Difficulties with using this sight is that children should not be using them without a teacher previewing the info first. Some of the things may be too graphic.

PHOTO EVERYWHERE: You're asking how can these guys give their photos away for free? Are they ripped off from some else? WHATS THE CATCH??? Yes, they are FREE! - No, they are not ripped off! - This site is funded through the advertising on each page but we can only support our bandwidth fees while you help us by giving due credit (with a weblink or text attribution) where you use our images. For details please read the full terms. If you don't want or can't credit the site when you use the images (and we understand you don't really want a credit to photoeverywhere.co.uk on your business cards!) then there is an alternative: This site is also supported by our images being sold with a commercial license at valuestockphoto.com. If you need to use the images without a credit (attribution/web link) then you can buy a commercial licence and download any of the images found on this site from our travel stock image library at valuestockphoto.com; These images would be a great resource for science teachers of all grade levels. They offer photos from all over the world and could be used in such units like Biomes and Habits. Geography or Social Studies teachers would find this site useful when needing photos of regions around the world. For example: 6th grade studies Europe therefore the user could search photos from European regions to use in the classroom. One challenge for this site is there are so many images it does take some time to locate what you will need to use in the classroom. The website is visually pleasing and relatively easy to use. Post 3 for UWG Photographers

Librivox might be my favorite of all open source, copyright free resources for the Language Arts classroom. Started as a non-profit to benefit the blind, Vibrivox has created an amazing database that allows readers to record individual chapters of a novel or story that is in the public domain. These files are then made available to the visually impaired or anyone in need of an audio version of a written work. I use this resource extensively for students who are reading below grade level or have significant processing difficulty. I have also had several students "donate" their readings to the database as a community service project to benefit the overall community. If you are looking for public domain eBooks for your classroom, Project Gutenberg is another great resource.

This site is more functional than the other two I posted. One of the unique features is its large collection. There are not only objects (photos or illustrations) but also materials/textures available. Another feature is that they have some pull-down menus to narrow down the search. We can select the images by the topic (animal, architectures, etc), dominant colors of the image we want, the number of items we want to see at once, etc. These functions meet the users' needs. The site also asks for donations of the images. The challenge might be the filter set by the districts. Almost all the time this is the case some teachers are discouraged. It is strongly recommended teachers check this site on a school computer before the intended use. If blocked, requesting unblocking may be the next thing to do. Furthermore, as a school or department it may be a good idea to secure several online repositories that are not blocked; therefore, any teachers can use at any time safely for educational purposes. Lesson Example: 3rd grade and above in Visual Arts Direction: In our life there are many signs. Common features of those signs are simplicity (restricted numbers of colors, shapes, lines, etc.) and clearness of a message (directly represented by an object). Suppose you are a professional illustrator and the city has asked you to create a symbol/sign useful to the community. Make sure to provide good reasons to back up your creation. (Ex. how your creation will promote the welfare of the city, reduce the crimes, or promote business, etc.) Search the needs of the city so that your creation is timely and meets the needs of the city. Save the resources. Image citation: Dario sign no baby carriages warning lift. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.imageafter.com/image.php?image=b17dario103.jpg

This resource is for usage of images that could down loaded for the classroom. It could be utilized for making craft projects or graphics for science in the fourth grade. It has graphic photos of animals, insects, plants, and more. It could be useful to other elementary grade levels if they are creating animal or insect habitats and ecosystems. It could be used for other subjects as well. This is a royalty free website where all clip art images are free, with the exception of the banner, and any photographs that will be utilized for resale or pleasure purposes. It is also suggested that the use of more than six of the images not be used on one project. Images may be sold as collage sheets or pintable's as long as the six image rule is adhered to.

With more than 200 million free stock photos, and a very simple and effective search engine, Foter's greatest asset is the sheer bulk of its searchable photo database. All photos are free, but the license may vary from photo to photo, depending on the artist. Fortunately, the license for each individual photo is clearly marked. Also photos are downloadable in a variety of sizes. It has near-limitless potential as a resource for educators. The photos should be suitable for K-12 and beyond, and are suitable for Digital stories, Prezis, PowerPoint, Imbedding in other virtual documents, and Educational websites. Potential problems and Solutions: The problems lie not with the photo repositories themselves, but rather lie in the educator's own ability to think creatively, and to work with raw digital materials. I can think of no better solution than for an educator to spend time examining how the available resources can be used to encourage a student to think about the subject matter. A teacher can plan for an elaborate lesson but discover there is a dearth of photo content; therefore, since time and money are not unlimited, the teacher would be wise to consider this before planning a lesson. Further, a teacher would be wise to search for as many resources as possible and add them to a list, as we have done for this assignment. Quality: A All viewed photos are have been produced by skilled photographers, and all are available in high resolution. Content quality may vary slightly due to the high number of contributors.

OpenPhoto is a free source of stock photos that only require attribution. The photos are searchable and span many organized categories. Some of the photos are high quality, and others aren't quite what I'd call HD, but it's fairly easy to track down what you need. I see no reason why middle school and high school students couldn't use this site. Anytime they needed a picture for a PowerPoint or some other project they were working on, I could direct them to this site to get great photos that are easily attributed to the creators thanks to handy copy and paste instructions on the individual photo's site. I don't see many issues arising with this one. I'm hoping everything here is clean (haven't searched too deeply to ensure it's all school appropriate). Overall, it looks like an easy way to find pictures to add to presentations, projects, and other activities without infringing on copyright.

Bottled Video is a great resource for absolutely free video footage of just about anything you can imagine. They pride themselves on being there for students and other video producers who think that "if only we had this shot we could do complete this project".  Bottled Video could be used by middle school or high school students to add some neat footage to video projects. It's a high quality site with high quality footage so I'd give this resource an A+. Honestly, I didn't even know sites like this existed, but I'm glad to know now. Obviously projects would be the best way to integrate this resource into the classroom. I really think it would be easy to teach the kids to use as well. All they really have to do is include a line in the credits and they're good to go. As long as the school gives them ample amounts of storage to download the videos, I don't see any problems in using this one.

This resource specializes in stock footage from around the world. All of the video clips are free to download and to use. There is no subscription or user login required in order to use the footage. This feature makes it ideal to use for educators looking to provide their students with a ready source of footage that they can use for their multimedia presentations. Students interested in media production and editing could create some fantastic presentations, especially if they have access to editing software and a green screen. The more advanced applications of the video clips could be used by high school students, but I could also see middle school aged students utilizing various clips to help with creating presentations for World History or Biology classes. For example, in my 7th grade Life Science class we do a project on the biomes of the world. Students could use the video files from the "Animal Footage" section to incorporate dynamic visuals into their reports. Students could also use footage from different continents to visually identify the various biomes for the class. Modeling of how to download, edit and embed the videos would be necessary to ensure that the students experience success with this resource, but that is just a matter of scheduling instruction time prior to the final projects being completed. The website is very easy to navigate and all clips are easily imported into any editing platforms. This feature makes it easy to use for educators who may have a variety of software on their school computers, depending on which school system they work in.

To use resources from this site, you will be required to pay an annual fee - at the time of this entry, $25.

Public Domain Photos contains both photos and clipart, and has several thousand of each that are in the public domain. While there are literally thousands to choose from, the search feature on the site isn't that great, and the organization of the images and clipart could be better. For example, if you do a search for 'wonton soup', it returns no results and only show professional images that link to shuttershock, which is subscription based. If you do a search on for 'wonton', it will return a few images from the free images on the site. If you can get past the hurdle of flipping through page after page within a specific category to find what you need, you will find tons of images that both you and your students can use, and lots of clipart options as well. All grade levels and all content areas can find useful images on this site, you just have to willing to sit and browse.

Boasting thousands of digital clip art images, Openclipart does cater to teachers and other working professionals. The collections are sorted for optimum utility. The best part is that the images are all copyright-free and in the public domain, which means that there are no restrictions. There are no perceived limits on usage; resources should be suitable for K-12 and beyond, and useful for Digital stories, Prezis, PowerPoint, imbedding in other virtual documents, and educational websites. Potential Solutions to Perceived Problems: The problems lie not with the photo repositories themselves, but rather lie in the educator's own ability to think creatively, and to work with raw digital materials. I can think of no better solution than for an educator to spend time examining how the available resources can be used to encourage a student to think about the subject matter. A teacher can plan for an elaborate lesson but discover there is a dearth of photo content; therefore, since time and money are not unlimited, the teacher would be wise to consider this before planning a lesson. Further, a teacher would be wise to search for as many resources as possible and add them to a list, as we have done for this assignment. Quality: B If you are looking for good clip art for no money, and with no restrictions, this collection seems much better than anything you will find packaged with a Microsoft product.

This online repository includes hundreds of copyright-free graphics that would be worthwhile for middle-high school students & educators to use to add a multitude of interesting "bells & whistles" to their word documents, multimedia presentations, or websites. In my 5th-8th grade Library Media Center, social studies students are currently completing PowerPoints presenting their research about assigned Middle Eastern countries. I can foresee allowing students who have finished adding all assigned subject content to their slides, use this site to add "spinning globe" bullets, horizontal rule section dividers in the shape of "International Flags" or "Palm Trees," and "Textured Sand" backgrounds. All of the graphics were easy to navigate to from a large table on the index page and everything I experimented with downloaded and inserted easily, the quality of the images was excellent, and many of the animations would be relevant for school assignments. In the "Terms of Use" section, the creators advertise that, "Bellsnwhistles.com graphics are free for your use and if you use them we ask that you PLEASE DOWNLOAD what you need…Do Not link to our graphics." I did not encounter anything on the site that required royalty fees or additional software to load before gaining access. The only problem educators might want to mention to students before using is to make sure they insert only school-appropriate graphics…while nothing on the site was unsuitable for student-viewing, there was a "Foaming Beer Mug" divider and "Dripping Blood" Halloween images that students would need to avoid downloading into projects.

This is a free web-based resource which includes images, audio, and visuals. This resource can be used for all grades. This resource allows anyone to create a free slide show very quickly. You can use your own images and music, or you may use music they have provided. This resource also allows you to add text to the slide show you create, you are able to embed different things, and you even have some control of transitions. This resource can be used to introduce a topic to your students. You could create a slide show with texts and sounds to introduce a social studies lesson. For example, let's say you wanted to teach students about Athens, Greece. You could use this resource to upload pictures of Ancient Greece to display its architecture and add text to label what the picture is displaying. You could also use it in reading as a storytelling slide slow. You could even allow your students to create an "All About Me" project. They would be able to upload pictures of themselves, family, pets, and anything else that allows people to get to know them. This resource can be used in ways. It is a fun, free, and almost effortless resource that allows teachers to easily integrate technology in their classrooms. As I reflect, there could be some difficulties or problems that arise with using this resource. Since this resource is easily accessible to anyone, students may upload inappropriate content into their slide show or add inappropriate music. To avoid misuse, I recommend teachers require students to get their slide show approved by a teacher before showing it to the class or sharing it with anyone else. Also, there is only a limited amount of music available that is provided by the website. Due to this issue, teachers or students may struggle finding and uploading their own music. Teachers should also monitor what content is being uploaded to make sure the slide shows meet the fair use laws. As with any form of media, teachers have to be sma