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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.

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.

BusSongs is that one location (site) where you can go to find many childhood songs for your classroom. The songs can teach students about behavior, holidays, cultures, and many life skills. FCCLA students could use a song in a PowerPoint presentation to keep the students' attention or add them to a cd to use during instructional time. Some songs can be used for PTA meetings or graduation ceremonies.

The owners of this site acknowledge that some of the songs available on this site may be under a copyright protection (ie, these would be for the newer songs, not the older). Therefore, users are advised to communicate with the site to determine what rights protection there may be for music you intend to use. Read here for specific details: http://bussongs.com/about.php.

Soundbible.com is an audio source that provides copyright free sound effects and clips. It also provides royalty free sounds at only .10 per sound. This site would be great to explore if teaching a 10th grade world history or 11th grade U.S. history class. (It has sounds from specific war weapons/planes, etc.) However, it can be used with many other grades and students of varying abilities. It offers nature sounds, animal sounds, etc. These sounds can be used in a PowerPoint or other presentation and the sounds offered are great quality. Be sure to read the following before using their photos: http://soundbible.com/about.php .

This is a site for royalty-free images and other media for use in language classes. "The REALIA Project publishes faculty-reviewed media for the teaching and study of modern languages and cultures. Faculty and students at all levels are encouraged to contribute materials to our searchable, online database. The focus of the REALIA Project is realia: Materials which convey the everyday life of different cultures" (REALIA). After looking through a variety of categories, these photos would be great for a world literature class, history, or economics, etc. This is a royalty-free faculty-reviewed database of images contributed by teachers and students (College and Secondary) of diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. This site is more focused towards modern language based material (for teaching/learning modern language), but states they are open to other content areas. One of the unique characteristics of REALIA is that it was designed with Pedagogy in mind (provides some guidance for instructional integration). The images are exportable to Power Points or individual websites. Another beneficial attribute of this site is the ability to translate the images into English (there are many images that have writings in multiple languages).

The William Blake Archive is a digital repository of images of the works and paintings of Romantic poet William Blake. Many people familiar with Blake's works, such as "The Tyger" or "Jerusalem" are unaware that the poet was just as much a painter and artist as he was a writer. Blake's images are meant to go along with his works, as he hand painted and produced his own folios. It's just as important for students studying Blake to become familiar with his watercolors as they are with his verse.  The Archive's copyright policy: "The Archive as a whole, its texts, and its images are protected under the copyright laws of the United States and the Universal Copyright Convention. Publication (print or electronic) or commercial use of any of the copyrighted materials without direct authorization from the copyright holders is prohibited. The copying of materials from the Blake Archive is permitted only under the fair use provisions of copyright law. You do not need to acquire permission to use Archive materials for in-class teaching purposes, school projects, and assignments. Nor do you need to request our permission to link to the Archive, or to individual items within the Archive. We prefer that your links to the Archive be targeted to our home page (http://www.blakearchive.org) and that any links to individual items within the Archive be accompanied by a link to this home page."

Olga's Gallery is a site created "as a project to help children learn the history of painting, religion, and literature" by Olga and Helen Mataev. It has over 10,000 images of historic works of art that literature teachers would find immensely helpful. For instance, if you're teaching W. H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," having access to Pieter Breugel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is vital to understanding the message Auden's trying to send.  Olga's Gallery Copyright Policy: Use of all artwork on the website is governed by the terms of the Fair Use doctrine of United States copyright law as being non-profit and educational in nature. Our mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of art worldwide. Olga's Gallery is operated on a strictly not-for-profit basis, and all proceeds from advertising and affiliate sales is used to maintain and expand the gallery. We purposely use low-resolution images on our website to prevent potential unlawful for-profit use of the artwork. 

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

8 Helpful Assistive Technology Tools for you classroom

http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-program/ Royalty free music is a paid website that allows educational institutions free access to their website through their Free Music for Education Program. The major obstacle in using this website would be getting over the hurdle or having technology services approve the website and have a link placed on the school's website for students to obtain access. Teachers can use the website to teach students about the copyright rules and laws Once approved students of all ages would have a huge catalogue of sound effects and downloadable music and from a variety of genres at their fingertips. .

Educators who wish to use resources from this site need to visit this page: http://www.royaltyfreemusic.com/free-music-resources.html

This site offers thousands of free pictures that are categorized so you can easily find the image you are looking for. Here are some of the examples of categories you will find on this site: home living, nature, cooking, business, animals, backgrounds, and textures. Within each main category group, the site breaks the groups into more specific categories.
Since the majority of the students I work with as a SLP range in age from 4 to 7 I often find myself needing pictures of common objects to include in my lessons when increasing vocabulary and teaching the concept of categories. This is especially important when working with students who do not only exhibit a language impairment but are also learning English as second language. This site is incredibly useful to me because I have numerous pictures available at my fingertips.

One possible problem with this site is that the pictures are very basic. While this is best for the students I work with, these pictures may not be useful for all students. Also, there is no way to filter what images may appear in each group. While I presume there are no inappropriate pictures, there is no way to ensure this. I feel comfortable using this site however because my students will not be using the site directly be themselves. Anything I retrieve from the site will be done prior to the lesson to reduce the risk of inappropriate pictures popping up.

This is an archive of images that can be used without worrying about copyright. Some images are free and some have to be paid for. In order to use an image you simply click the download button. There are over a thousand different pictures to choose from. This would make this resource wonderful for teachers of any grade level or content area. You simply type in or search for the type of image you are looking for and browse for the one that you like the best. The images are high quality and there is a plethora of images files and types.

This site contains copyright free/royalty free images. The small sizes (267 x 400) are free but if you'd like a larger size you will pay from $3.00 to $10.00. If you use the images, you must have an acknowledgement to FreeDigitalPhotos.net and the image creator. You can search for images by photo, illustration, or ID. You can also sign up to be a member and/or a contributor. Teachers of all content areas could find useful photos to enhance their lessons.

This site has an immense amount of images that are copyright and royalty free and of good quality. Teachers at any level could use them to engage student and enhance learning by incorporating them into their lesson in presentations or as conversation startes for a wide variety of topics. Student can also download and use these images for their own visuals for projects and presentations. For each image used, you must publish a credit to the artist. They only issue I think may come arise with that is if students are using this resource to find images that they could use they may forget to acknowledge the artist. One of the parts of this site that I really loved was it tells you how to recongnize the artist in the media you are using the artwork in. A great teaching moment!

This site is a massive collection of information that is valuable to Foreign Language teachers. It contains links to royalty free clip art, streaming video, radio, and online dictionaries in multiple languages. In addtion, there are links to ACTFL for educators to stay up to date with the current trends and issues in teaching a modern language.

In completing a work-related project, I found some great sites that assist educators in locating open educational resources. Merlot is one of those resources. If you have not used it before, it is a community of resources designed to focus on providing learning materials for faculty members in higher education. As a member of Merlot, you not only have access to the free online resources, but you can contribute material as well. There are also opportunities to become a peer reviewer of the posted content. I think this is an excellent way for an educator to be assured that the learning materials obtained from Merlot has a stamp of approval from others in the discipline.

This resource is for video usage. All of the videos are for the public domain. The resources are free of use. The videos must not be utilized to imply National Park endorsement of a service, product, organization or individual with permission of the National Park Service. You are free to use these videos without a release from the National Park Service. Most of the videos are downloadable or zip compressed Quick TimeH.264 movie clips. The clips can be video editing applications, websites, and projects. This is a great resource for fourth and fifth grade social studies when teaching about the Civil War and Revolutionary War. It's great to assist in learning about monuments, battlefields and historical sites through video.

It's as simple as joining the team. The Copyright Alliance Foundation has complied a library of free curricula to be used in the classroom that actually teach copyright education and can be incorporated across many subjects and grade levels. This is a wonderful tool for instructors who not only have to be careful with adhering to copyright guideline themselves but should always ensure their students have the same understanding and knowledge to adhere to copyright guidelines in media and literacy. The library of curriculum breaks downs activities by grade levels and is catered for grades K-12. This is a robust tool that gives resources but also gives links where to find more resources from the free curriculum they provide like those suggested at www.isafe.org. . This tool is a must for anyone in the K-12 setting. While the site does request donations they are not mandatory and usage of the curricula do not carry any fees.

The link provided is the hidden search engine provided by Google that will enable the user to search for copyright free images. This search engine can be used with a member from any audience but definitely those in the teaching sector. The wonderful part about this search engine powered by the Google Analytic team is that it searches multiple sites like http://www.teachnet.com/how-to/..., http://www.sxc.hu/, http://gallery.schoolcenter.com/, http://www.pics4learning.com/, and http://www.musicgraphicsgalore at one time. Once visited the search tool can even be added to your Google homepage or a blog or webpage. This feature is highly effected and can be utilized by the Advanced search tools in the regular search engine Google also provides. There is no fee to use or add this resource deeming it very effective and a needed resource. Suggested for K-20 sectors.