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First up is a tutorial on Jellybean Writer. The video is embedded below. Jellybean Writer is a free tool for creating picture books. Students can import pictures from their computers then write captions for each image. All stories can be saved online or downloaded and printed. If picture books are too simple for your students, they can skip using pictures and select one of the text only templates for the pages in their books. As you will see in the video below, teacher can create and manage student accounts in Jellybean Scoop.

Turn simple photographs into videos using this site. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people.

Turn simple photographs into videos using this site. Once you sign up (it's free) you begin by choosing a video template and then adding your pictures from Facebook, Flickr, or your computer. You can set the order of your pictures, add captions to them and add text slides if you wish. Next you add music, either from their library or add your own from your computer. Your last step is to add a video title and any additional text and you're done. Completed videos can be uploaded to You Tube or Facebook and can even be embedded into a website or blog. The site does have a 30 picture maximum but that is long enough for most people.

"A new project is printing Braille picture books for visually impaired children. Each page turns the pictures from the original book into raised 3D shapes alongside traditional Braille text. "The advantage of 3D-printing is really about making one-of-a-kind objects,' says Tom Yeh, who heads up the Tactile Picture Books Project at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Later this year, Yeh's group will work with the National Braille Press in Boston to offer children a copy of Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin that has a page customised with the child's name in Braille."

You can explore historical pictures and documents that have been digitized from the NYPL's collection. They are in the Public domain. You only need to click on the picture to access its page. You can download links on the right, The citation details are on the left, under the picture.

The photos and drawings are sourced from more than 600 million library book pages scanned in by the Internet Archive organisation. These images have been difficult to access until now. Internet Archive Book Images Visitors to the site are free to copy and make use of the pictures without charge. Most of the images that are in the books are not in any of the art galleries of the world - the original copies have long ago been lost. The pictures range from 1500 to 1922, when copyright restrictions kick in. "

"A list of the best 4 web tools for creating screenshots. Besides being free, these tools are very simple to use and are also student friendly. They will allow you to  capture your screen, crop and annotate your pictures using  arrows, colours, shapes, text and many more." It is always great to have visuals as part of any explanation to students (or for them to use as well)> These 4 are briefly explained and look easy to use.

You can explore (US) historical pictures, maps, and more in the digital collections from the Library of Congress. The option to download of images is available. Any citation must be created by the user. "The LOC concentrates on its most rare collections and those unavailable anywhere else. The services are a gateway to a growing treasury of digitized photographs, manuscripts, maps, sound recordings, motion pictures, and books, as well as "born digital" materials such as Web sites. In addition, the Library maintains and promotes the use of digital library standards and provides online research and reference service"

"In our digital society, the concept of what to share in public is hard for kids to understand. And it's harder for adults to pass on sage wisdom because we're also still figuring it out ourselves. While students are grappling with, "Should I post that picture of myself dancing absurdly at that party?", teachers are grappling with the question, "Should I post that picture of myself dancing absurdly at that party?" Teaching about citizenship is an excellent opportunity for teachers to be learners alongside their students." Ideas on how to learn and share are suggested in rest of post.

"This post offers a few resources on guidelines, and then a list of the top sites for open source images that are safe to get pictures from. "

I liked this for the Lego Creation Stationhowever there are more ideas here. "At this station, I have pre packaged 4 different ziplock bags of 100 legos each.  Students will choose the lego bag, and take a planning sheet.  Students are asked to draw and write about what they are planning to create.  (The boys in my class are crazy about lego so I thought this would be a great motivator for them.)  Students then will build their creation using their blueprint.  When they are finished, they will take a picture of their creation, add it to the class book that I have created on the Book Creator App and write a summary of their creation and how it compared to what they had originally planned."

"... turns any ordinary quotes texts into beautiful quotes picture for Facebook, Twitter header, Google Plus, E-Cards, Wallpapers, Pinterest, Posters and other print design."

"When the best new media tools are expertly selected and appropriately used with children, such tools can support and enhance adults' role in supporting development of the whole child, especially three-to-eight year-olds, the focus of this article. Used to complement rather than replace print, the finest ebooks, enhanced ebooks, and book apps (collectively referred to here as "ebooks") on the market put traditional picture book content in new containers that-like traditional print books-educate and entertain."

Printable Reading Bingo containing 24 reading challenges that will help you read more and have more fun with it.

"Why Digital Citizenship is No Longer Just an "Elective" As teachers, it is now part of our responsibility to lead by example when it comes to sound digital citizenship practices. As soon as children have devices in their hands, they should be educated about digital citizenship and their digital footprint. Think about this: even before babies are born, they have a digital shadow, because pictures and other media are shared about them via various social media outlets."

Snap: Teenagers connect and express themselves via digital media but might be less conscious of how the footprint that follows their photos, videos and posts will affect them as adults. Pictures and comments posted online leave a public trail of digital footprints, and it can be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to remove the bits we don't want others to see.