PAY ATTENTION

Fiddling with ScrapBlog

My first trial with ScrapBlog.

Choose a given theme.

No second guessing who I am going put in. JD!!

I do not have to upload photos. I have the choice to take it from my online album. CooL.

Now to choose the photos Since this is all done ONLINE, –CAUTION- don’t do it on a slow bandwidth.

Done

Finally it is online.

12 best places to get FREE images

Article taken from : http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/web/12-essential-sites-for-great-free-photos-624818

12 best places to get free images for your site

Get top quality photos at these comprehensive libraries

By Mike Williams

Wednesday at 11:13 BST

Photos on Flickr have a range of rights – so make sure you’re allowed to use an image before you download

Adding a few high quality photos is a great way to improve a website, article or presentation – but be careful.

A search engine like Google Images will quickly locate just about any shot you could ever want, but using them will almost certainly violate someone’s copyright. What’s more, search tools like TinEye mean there’s a very real chance that the original photographer will find out what you’ve done. Which could be embarrassing, and maybe expensive, too.

Fortunately there’s a simple and safe alternative. Just look for your free images in a library of stock photos, where the photographer has already given away most, or all of their rights. There are plenty of online libraries just packed with excellent free images that you can use, even commercially, for no cost at all – and we’ve found 12 of the very best.

1. Stock.XCHNG
This fabulous site has a library of almost 400,000 images covering every topic, and is probably the best place to start your search for free images. Stock.XCHNG has a more complex image license agreement than some of the competition, though, so read that carefully before you start.

2. Openphoto
It first appeared back in 1998, and so it’s no surprise that Openphoto has now built up a solid collection of stock photos. They’re neatly arranged into well-chosen categories, and clicking any of these leads on to a thumbnail gallery of related shots.

3. Stockvault.net
Stockvault has a small but very high quality collection of stock photos, as well as logo templates, clip arts, textures and backgrounds. It’s the perfect site to find graphics for your website, then, but beware – Stockvault‘s images are free for personal, non-commercial use only.

4. Unprofound
This site has some great photos, with no significant restrictions on their use. You don’t have to register to download images, and Unprofound is strictly non-profit, so you won’t be hassled by the usual collection of annoying ads. What’s not to like?

5. Free Media Goo
You can browse the tiny library at Free Media Goo in just a few minutes, and the images are relatively low resolution. There are some undeniably impressive photos, though, along with some handy textures and audio samples, and there’s no need to register – just download anything that appeals.

6. Morguefile
This site’s best feature is its excellent search tool. You can filter by categories, keywords, size, rating, even colour, so it’s easy to bypass irrelevant shots and zoom in on the photos you need. Morguefile‘s licence is generous and no registration is required.

7. Pixel Perfect Digital
This interesting site includes over 4,000 stock photos, neatly organised in categories from Abstract and Animals to Places and Transportation. The best part of Pixel Perfect Digital is the collection of digital art and illustrations, though; stylish images that are hard to find elsewhere.

8. Image*After
Image*After didn’t impress us with its conventional photos, but the more abstract efforts – everything from electronic components to brick walls and artistic blurs – are much more compelling, especially if you’re looking for an unusual background image.

9. Freerange
The Freerange site search has an annoying habit of returning photos that have nothing to do with your keywords. But keep trying, and whether you’re looking for animals or objects, people, places or arty, near abstract shots, you’ll find a suitable high resolution shot here.

10. Free Digital Photos
There are just a few images here – searching for "cat", say, returns only 13 photos – and only the relatively low resolution (around 640 x 480) versions are free. Free Digital Photos requires a credit if you use one, too. It does have some excellent shots, though, and could be just what you need to spice up a personal website.

11. Free Photos Bank
The Free Photos Bank site provides a typical range of free photos – people, animals, landscapes and so on. They’re better at abstract shots, though, backgrounds and digital artwork, so this is a good place to start looking for those more unusual images. There’s no registration required so downloading is easy, whatever you’re after.

12. Flickr
As the biggest photo sharing site on the web, used by some of the world’s best photographers, your image search really isn’t complete without a quick check of what Flickr has to offer. Not everyone allows their photos to be used commercially, though, so visit the Advanced Search Page, then check "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content" and any other license-related options you need before you begin. And when you find a photo you like, check on the right-hand side for a link like "Some rights reserved", and click it for details on what you can – and can’t – do with the shot.

Moving to Digital Student Portfolios

Entry taken from http://langwitches.org/blog/2009/08/15/moving-to-digital-student-portfolios/

Thank you, Sakina for sharing.

 

by Langwitches ~ August 15th, 2009. Filed under: 21st Century Learning, Learning.

by Kevin Yezbick

I remember sitting down in a tiny chair at a tiny table during parent-teacher conferences at my daughter’s Pre-School class. Her teacher pulled out a folder filled with papers: drawings my four year old had made, her first attempts in writing her name, a checklist of whether she knew how to tie her shoes, recite her address and phone number, sound out certain letters and count to twenty. I guess you would call that folder my daughter’s first academic portfolio. At the end of the school year, that folder was sent home and some of the items ended up in a scrapbook/keepsake album I kept for her.

14 years have passed since my daughter was in Pre-School. The days, that her teacher collected her work and discussed them with me have long gone. Once an assignment is handed in, a report or project presented, it usually disappears forever in some teacher’s bin or in the trash after the grade was received.

What about the work that was put into producing the assignment? What about reflection and evidence of learning from progress between previous work and current work?

Judith A. Arter states in Portfolios for Assessment and Instruction ( You can download the Full Text PDF version):

Portfolios are scarcely a new concept, but renewed interest, fueled by the portfolio’s perceived promise for both improving assessment and motivating and involving students in their own learning, has recently increased their visibility and use. The definition of a portfolio varies some, but there seems to be a general consensus that a portfolio is a purposeful collection of student work that tells the story of student achievement or growth.

She divides the reasons of doing student portfolios into two categories:

1. Assessment:
   -keeping track of what students know and can do
2. Instruction.
   - promoting learning–students learn something from assembling the portfolio.

What caught my attention was the statement:

Portfolios are not folders of all the work a student does.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my thoughts about the change from traditional Paper-and-Binder teacher dossier to the  Digital Teaching Portfolios. A natural sequel to the post would be the move towards digital student portfolios from the collection of work in manila folders.

How can we set up an electronic hub to store and display student work? Looking at the statement above “Portfolios are not folders of all the work a student does.” this is not enough though. We need to find tools  that allow students to easily access, view, add, edit and share their work.

The reasons FOR doing a portfolio as mentioned above (assessment and instruction) have not changed just because we are going digital. I want to look at the reasons WHY we should look into digital portfolios and WHAT platforms are available to us.

I see the difference and advantage of going digital in:

• Media: Ability to include diverse media in addition to text and paper (think audio, video, collaborative work, etc). Media that students are comfortable and identify with.
• Accessibility: A digital portfolio can be made available for access for all of the student’s teachers, parents, administrators, college recruiters, potential employers and other involved professionals in their lives regardless of time and geographic location.
• Revisability: Easily editable and revisable. Being able to connect artifacts and documents as they are being created and added to previous ones.
• Communication: Facilitates discussion between students and those interested in their progress.
• Transparency: Shows what students are learning and their progress (Related and linked to Accessibility)
• Continuity & Portability: Students work and add  on to their portfolios from elementary through middle and high school giving an organized overview of their learning journey and accomplishments.
• “Creativity: New non-linear formats and the integration of various media types allow students many ways to creatively express their professional knowledge and skills” (from Digital Portfolios).
• Reflection: Able to include a wide range of personal as well as outside reflection and feedback from a variety of sources and media.
• Going Green: Less copies, less papers, space saver (Thanks @81teacher)
• Digital Literacy: Learning to work with a variety of media tools (digital expression- Thanks @glazaro), Information Management (Personal Cyber-Infrastructure- Thanks @tuchodi) and creating an academic  digital footprint.
• Durability: The digital portfolio can’t burn (Thanks @suzieswimz), be swept away by a hurricane or get lost in a pile of other paperwork.
• Productivity: Less papers to keep track of for teachers (Thanks @jmiscavish), able to use RSS to keep track of and organize students’ contribution

If you want to get started in using digital portfolios for your students, consider some of the following platforms.

Blog Platform

• Blogs are web based, allowing students to log in and edit or view their portfolio  from any internet connected computer.
• Can be used as a hub for their writing, links to documents they produced or to embed other media files such as presentations, images, video and audio.
• Are organized in reverse chronological order with the newest post being on top.
• Each post or article  can be categorized and tagged.
• Encourage comments by others
• Have customizable themes that allow creativity and personalization in design.
• Free blogs for students: blogger, edublogs, wordpress, 21classes

Wiki Platform

• Wiksi are web based, allowing students to log in and edit or view their portfolio  from any internet connected computer.
• Can be used as a hub for their writing, links to documents they produced or to embed other media files such as presentations, images, video and audio.
• Are easily editable websites. Students can create different pages that can be linked to each other and to external sites.
• Easy to revise and edit.
• Not as much customizable design and theme options as a blog, unless students have design code knowledge
• Free wikis: wikispaces, pbwiki

Google

• One google account allows students to create documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
• Each file is accessible on any internet connected computer and able to be shared with other viewers and/or collaborators.
• Files can be stored in personalized folders and are easily searchable for keywords.
• Google Sites: students can create their own websites. (Thanks @amyhopkins for example site.

VoiceThread

• VoiceThread allows you to upload images, videos and documents
• Students can add text or voice comment to each “slide” to reflect, analyze or narrate.
• Can be shared with other interested parties, who can be invited to leave comments as well.

More resources about Digital Student Portfolios:

• EssentialSchools.org Digital Portfolios
• Principal’s Thoughts on Digital Portfolios
• Chrissy Hellyer, teachingsagittarian, is breaking grounds with digital student portfolios in VoiceThread .

Please share digital student portfolio examples, platforms, ideas and YOUR thoughts on taking the plunge of going digital with your students’ portfolios.

Children Programme:ToddWorld

  

http://www.taffylive.com/shows/toddworld/episode_guide.php

EXTRACT:From Knowledgable to Knowledge-able: Learning in New Media Environments

Stumbled upon an interesting summarized article within my FB network.

Went hunting the FULL version and FINALLY found it.

Decided to SHARE with others.

Wesher: From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-ABLE

A very STIMULATING article.

EXTRACT:Eportfolio video style

EXTRACT: Portfolio CheckLIST

This is
taken
from:http://groups.google.com/group/eportfolios-and-plts/web/eportfolio-success-criteria—learner-perspective?pli=1,
at 09 July 2009

We will
know if we have successfully integrated ePortfolio processes into everyday
practice if our learners say:

Supporting
my personal development and progression

By working
on my ePortfolio I have had to think about what information about myself that I
should should put into the public domain, what I just want to share with my
teachers and what I want to keep private for myself;

I find that
I can easily record my plans, my thoughts about my learning, my development and
my achievements;

I can use
my ePortfolio to store evidence of my Personal Learning and Thinking Skills;

I can use
my ePortfolio to store evidence of what I can do outside of school and of
things that I have achieved, but have not got a certificate for;

My
ePortfolio has made me more interested in my work;

My
ePortfolio gives me enough space to store all the stuff I want;

It provides
me with a structure that I can use to store multimedia evidence – audio, video
and photographic formats, in addition to written evidence;

It makes it
easy for me to search for my evidence, and lets me present it in an interesting
format;

I think
that other people will understand me better when they can see how I think and
reflect on what I have done, learnt or achieved;

It has
provided me with a digital record/story that shows how I have developed, like a
timeline of my studies;

Using my
ePortfolio helped me to prepare for interview/review meetings;

I can keep
my ePortfolio when I move on to college/university or get a job;.

My
ePortfolio impressed the potential employers that I showed it to, as it helped
them recognise the positive attitude that I have towards my work, helping me to
stand out from the competition;

I believe
that my ePortfolio helped me when I was searching for a job, as my employers
were impressed by the depth and breadth of my work;

When I
wanted to start my own business, my ePortfolio helped me show to funding
organsiations that I have the right attitude and skills and it helped me get
their initial backing and help;

It shows me
at my best.

Developing
personal communication skills

I find it
easier to capture multimedia evidence using digital devices than it is to write
down what I have planned, done or achieved;

It has
helped me to become a better writer, and to get my ideas across to others by
using varying forms of media;

I find it
helps me to remember and explain what I have done when I have to talk to my
teacher or other students;

My
ePortfolio has helped us to give feedback on each other’s work;

My
ePortfolio is good for showing my progress to other people;

My
ePortfolio helps me to be confident;

My
ePortfolio gives me new ways of presenting my work using technology;

My
ePortfolio helps me to show people what I’m really good at.

Collaborating
and Working with others

It means
that my teachers and mentors take more interset in me as an individual and I
feel comfortable knowing that they are following my progress, offering advice,
support and guidance when they think I need it;

I find it
easy to access my web-based portfolio at home and can let the people I have
allowed see the evidence that I decide that I want them to see;

Collaboration
is a good thing.  I can think about the
opinions others have about my work and then build upon their ideas to improve
my own work;

I find it
useful to store my portfolio evidence that my teachers need to assess in my
ePortfolio;

I have
enjoyed sharing evidence of what I have done, achieved, or created with others;

My
ePortfolio is good to do things with other students;

My
ePortfolio tells me about what my friends are learning;

It is my
digital theatre – where the audience is by invitation only.

Enjoyment
and creativity

I enjoy
using my camera phone, iPod, computer and social software to help me to develop
my ePortfolio;

My
ePortfolio helps me to be creative;

I enjoyed
showing my ePortfolio to my parents and tutor during my review meeting and they
were pleased with what I had produced;

I have
enjoyed customising and working on the organisation of my ePortfolio as it
helps people who look at it to get to know something about me, my character and
style;

I am proud
of my ePortfolio because it is something that I feel that I own;

It provided
me with an opportunity and a reason to experiment with, and to be creative with
multimedia tools;

At home, my
parents take more notice of my schoolwork through my ePortfolio.

Supporting
my learning

By thinking
about or reflecting on what I have learnt, what I have found difficult, what I
have done well, I think that I understand a little more about myself and what I
can do, and by thinking about my abilities, experiences, qualities and skills I
can see how I have progressed and what I have achieved, so I can plan what I
need to do to improve;

When I have
new evidence to store in my ePortfolio I have to look at the evidence that I
already have in it and decide where my new evidence should be stored and how it
should be linked in, which helps me understand a little more about myself and
how I have learnt and developed;

I think
that my teacher now spends more time talking to me about my learning,
achievements and planning which has helped me and made me think more about what
I have done and what I should do;

I need only
store a piece of evidence once but I can use it for different purposes and
subject based assessments;

My
ePortfolio helps me think more about my own learning;

My
ePortfolio makes me take more care with my work;

My ePortfolio
helps me be better organised in my work;

My
ePortfolio has helped me understand my work better;

My
ePortfolio has made me pleased with my progress;

My
ePortfolio has helped me to learn;

My ePortfolio
forced me to do things that teachers would have done for me.

 

Skills
Development

My
ePortfolio helps me to plan how to improve;

My
ePortfolio helps me judge whether I have improved over time;

When I
reflect upon my work, I can decide which items are still relevant or no longer
needed;

By working
on my ePortfolio, I have practised and developed ICT and multimedia skills
which I can now use in other subject areas too;

I can work
on my ePortfolio when and wherever I want to;

I find the
ePortfolio tools easy and intuitive use, as I did not need  a lot of help or teaching before I found that
I could use it.

Teaching teaching & Understanding understanding

Directed by Claus Brabrand and Jacob Andersen
19 minute award-winning short-film (DVD) about Constructive Alignment.
Aarhus University Press, University of Aarhus, Denmark, 2006.