I wanted to find a site that allowed use of famous pieces of art for educational purposes. I found the NGA Images images site which is a repository of digital images of the collections of the National Gallery of Art. On this website you can search, browse, share, and download images. More than 35,000 open access digital images are available free of charge for download and use. On the home page of the site is a simple search box where one can enter artist name or work of art. I typed in Vermeer and found 11 images. Each image had a caption that included the name of the work of art, the medium, and the date created. There are advanced search and collections search options. There is a lightbox where you create mini-collections of art that you choose. This resource can be used for any age and for any subject in my opinion. It might be especially useful for art classes but could be used for history as well. One might choose a recognizable piece of art such as the Mona Lisa, and teach about the historical time period in which it was painted, the style of art, the artist's life, etc. I think it is important that students of all ages be exposed to art, and think that it can be incorporated into many subject areas.

There's nothing like an animated gif to liven up a website, powerpoint, or other multimedia lesson! This website boasts over 13,000 animated gifs and is divided into the following categories: alphabets, animals, clothing, computers and technology, creatures and cartoons, everything else, food and drinks, geography and history, hobbies and entertainment, holidays, jobs and people, nature, religious, science and body, sports, transportation, web design elements, and words. Animated gifs are simplistic and colorful in nature so might be especially appealing to elementary age students. A lesson on creating an animated gif, which is essentially 2 or more images repeated and looped, might be a way to use this resource as a simple technology lesson. If one copies the gif to a computer and double clicks it, it will open and one can see each of the frames that make up the gif. I had a small problem using the download button on the site, but when I clicked into the actual gif link, I was able to drag and drop the gif to my desktop. All that is required to use the gifs is a link back to the web site.

Photopin allows user to search creative commons photos from Flickr by subject and tags. Photopin has a simple, easy-to-use interface: enter a term, go to a page full of thumbnail images, no captions, no resolution, no name, just images. A check box allows user to sort by commercial or non-commercial images and images are listed under headings such as "free to use, link required" to make clear the acceptable use of the photos listed. User can click thumbnail images to go to Flickr photo page where link can be copied.

This resource can be used by any grade level or subject teacher as it gives access to literally millions of photographs. If you can think of a word, you will have a lot to choose from.

Warning: it is easy to get lost searching and looking at images :)

PBS LearningMedia has thousands of digital resources. Resources are aligned to Common Core and national standards and include short videos, audio clips, interactive media, and lesson plans. You can browse by standards, grade level, subject, and special collections. Under each category, such as The Arts for example, media is further organized by grade levels, subject, media type, language, accessibility features, and permitted use.You can favorite and share resources with through folders and social media. Content contributors include over 80 PBS member stations, the National Archives, the Jim Henson Company, Annenberg Media, and the Library of Congress. Under media type, media is divided into sub categories such as image, video, media gallery, interactive, collection, lesson plan, document, audio, and webpage. This site is so well-organized that it is easy to find very specific media types or browse for specific features. The accessibility feature allows one to search media for streaming only for downloading editing. Basic service is free to educators and students. Custom service includes enhanced capabilities, and is available for a fee to districts, educational agencies, and states. The collection is so broad that teachers of any grade level or subject could potentially find valuable resources. Public television, in my opinion, has credible programming and contributors so I believe the resources found here would be worth looking into.