A Short Summary of Best Practices for Using Images in Blog Posts

Freeport, Maine - July 2014

In Wednesday's post, What Is Hotlinking? I gave an overview of the potential problems associated with linking to images on the web. At the end of that post I included a short summary of best practices for using images in blog posts. Since it was buried at the end of a post that was otherwise fairly technical and lacking of a catchy title, I think it is worth sharing those best practices again in this dedicated post.

Best practices for using images in blog posts.

1. Always try to use images that you own and upload to your blog. 
2. If you don't own a suitable image then look for images in the public domain. Pixabay is a good place to look. Download the image and upload to your blog. 
3. If you cannot find a suitable image in the public domain then look for images that have Creative Commons licenses attached to them. Photosforclass.com makes this easy to do. Download the image, upload it to your blog, give proper attribution to the owner of the image. Alan Levine's CC Attribution Helper also makes it easy to format image citations. 
4. If items 1, 2, and 3 above didn't provide you with a suitable image then you can attempt to use an image under Fair Use guidelines. Fair Use is a murky water so Fair Use should be your last resort. If 1, 2, and 3 failed to produce a suitable image, repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 until you find a suitable image.

Disclosure: Photosforclass.com is owned by StoryboardThat, an advertiser on this blog. 

The Week In Review - Time to Start Planting

Good evening from the FreeTech4Teachers.com world headquarters in Woodstock, Maine. May has arrived and so has some warm weather. It was so warm today that as I was impulsively motivated to plant some new shrubs in my yard. I now have pink lemonade blueberries planted in my yard. I didn't even know that there was such a thing as pink lemonade blueberry plant until I went to the garden supply shop today. I hope they taste as good as they sound. That was my Saturday. Wherever you are this weekend, I hope that you had a great day too.

Here are this week's most popular posts:
1. Two Good Mathematics Glossaries for Students - One in English and Spanish
2. What is Hotlinking? - Why You and Your Students Should Avoid It
3. Pros and Cons of Using Social Media for School Announcements
4. Pros and Cons of Using Text Messages for School Announcements
5. Tools for Creating Animations in Your Browser or On Your Tablet
6. GeoGebra Quickstart Guides for Desktop and Tablets
7. Pros and Cons of Emailing School Announcements

PD Opportunities With Me

• I am offering a three online courses this summer. Teaching History With Technology, Getting Going With GAFE, and Blogs & Social Media for Teachers & School Leaders.  
• On May 7th I will be in Gimli, Manitoba to speak at the Riding the Wave of Change conference. 
• If you would like to have me speak at your conference or school this summer, please click here to learn more about me and my PD offerings. 
• The Practical Ed Tech Summer Camp is sold out, but I have plans in the works for an online version of it. Stay tuned.  

Please visit the official advertisers that help keep this blog going.
Practical Ed Tech is the brand through which I offer PD webinars.
BoomWriter provides a fantastic tool for creating writing lessons. 
Storyboard That is my go-to tool for creating storyboards and cartoon stories.
MidWest Teachers Institute offers online graduate courses for teachers.
HelloTalk is a mobile community for learning a new language.
Discovery Education & Wilkes University offer online courses for earning Master's degrees in Instructional Media.
PrepFactory offers a great place for students to prepare for SAT and ACT tests.
MasteryConnect provides a network for teachers to share and discover Common Core assessments.
The University of Maryland Baltimore County offers graduate programs for teachers.
Boise State University offers a 100% online program in educational technology.
EdTechTeacher is hosting host workshops in six cities in the U.S. in the summer.
SeeSaw is a great iPad app for creating digital portfolios.