Editing Photos in Google Slides

It's possible to make basic edits to images using the tools that exist in Google Slides. Once you have uploaded an image, you can recolor it, adjust its brightness, contrast, and transparency. A recent update allows you to add drop shadows and reflections. You can also crop and mask pictures. Masking an image allows you to change it into a different shape which means you can be even more creative with your images. 

This video shows you how to make a few of these edits. Please note there is no sound on this video. 

Photos that Changed the World

Photos that Changed the World is a TED Talk that was mentioned by Larry Ferlazzo and Open Culture earlier today. In the short talk Jonathan Klein shows us some very familiar images, some not-as-familiar images, and explains how those images impacted the world. The talk is embedded below.

A word of caution, some of the images may be a bit too graphic for some audiences so please screen the video before showing it to students.


Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
15 TED Talks to Watch Before 2010
Put TED Talks on Your Desktop
Teaching With TED Talks

Big Huge Labs - Create Posters, Magazines, and More

Big Huge Labs has been around for years, but it's worth sharing again for those that aren't familiar with it. Big Huge Labs provides an array of tools for showcasing your digital images in the form of a magazine cover, a poster, a puzzle, and many other forms. Using Big Huge Labs does not require any registration and you can download copies of your creations without creating an account. That said, they do offer you the option to create an account in which you can save your work. I used the magazine cover template to create a cover featuring myself and Jeff Utecht talking at NECC 2009.






















Applications for Education
There are a lot of ways that educators and students could use the free products offered by Big Huge Labs. The magazine cover generator could be used by students as the cover page to a biography or autobiography writing assignment. The poster templates could be used to create posters about classroom rules. The badge template could be useful for the first days of school for students and teachers to learn each other's names and express some personality at the same time.

MyPicsMap - View Flickr Images on a Map

My Pics Map is a mashup of Flickr and Google Maps. My Pics Map allows you to quickly display your own Flickr collection on a map. You can also view on a map the Flickr collections of other users simply by entering their user names. If you don't have any Flickr images your own or you don't know of any Flickr users whose collections you'd like to view, simply click on explore and zoom in on an area to view images for that area.










Applications for Education
My Pics Map could be used by students to discover images related to cities, countries, and regions that they're studying. Students that go field trips and overseas study tours can use My Pics Map to share and provide geographic context of their pictures.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Creative Commons Animal Photos
Find Flickr Images by Tag or Location
Life Photo Archive Hosted by Google

Photos 8 - Thousands of Public Domain Images

Photos 8 is a great place to find thousands of images that are in the public domain. These images can be used in any way that you and your students see fit. There are twenty-two categories of images of which the largest collections are of animals, birds, and sunsets.

I learned about Photos 8 through a great blog post on Making Teachers Nerdy. I encourage you to read that blog post for more public domain image resources.

Applications for Education
Other than using images of your own creation, using images in the public domain is best way to create a digital presentation. Using images in the public domain means that you don't have to worry about what is or isn't fair use or do you have to Creative Commons attributions.

Here are some related resources that may be of interest to you:
Creative Commons Animal Photos
Video Introduction to Understanding Fair Use
Copyright for Educators