Blogging images

We work hard to help our students understand the importance of ownership and copyright when they're searching for images and other digital content online. This is particularly important for students who have their own blogs. We have a responsibility to consider the moral & legal aspects of what we use.

Finding high quality images for our blogs has recently become so much easier. Google image search now includes an easy to use menu. Within Search tools there is now a menu for Usage rights so you can search for images where permission has already been granted for use. 

Another method comes from a startup company in Singapore called imgembed. This site host thousands of images that can be embedded directly to your blog. All are free for personal / educational use.

And today it was announced that Getty Images, one of the world's largest stock photo suppliers, has released 35million images that can now be used free of charge for non-commercial use. So that makes it  perfect for student blogs. The images have to be embedded directly from Getty, and include an attribution - a label saying who owns the image. The image below was embedded from Getty.

Now there's no excuse. We have access to millions of high quality images that are 100% legal for us to use.

More Global Connections

 

The children in Yr2 have been learning about 'Our Wonderful World', and this gave them an ideal opportunity to connect with other children around the world.

When I popped into their class they were chatting with children in a small international school in a very remote part of Russia (on an island in fact). They were able to share stories about their lives and identified the many ways in which they were just the same. Other aspects of our lives were also very different, and the children were all very curious about some of these.

Our Global Connections

Year 7 have been exploring their digital online lives. We've considered our roles & responsibilities, issues of safety and security, and the concept and importance of our Digital Footprints. Today we looked at hoe technology allows us to easily be connected to our friends and family. The map below shows some of the connections we have around the world.

View Global Connections in a larger map

Digital Citizenship in the Library

Our students use an online library system called Destiny Quest. As well as looking up books and writing reviews, it also includes a messaging feature. The kids can look up other users and send them a friend-request. Once accepted, that are able to communicate with each other - in theory sharing views on books or making recommendations to their friends. Of course, they could message each other about virtually anything.

Our librarian, Miss Mandy, has used this as the perfect opportunity to introduce the children to the importance of being sensible and politer hen communicating with technology. Within this 'safe' online environment, they can practice using social media in a protected space, which is managed and monitored by the library staff. Hopefully, this will lead to a culture of safe and responsible online use as they grow older.

Online Discussions

With our International Week coming up fast, some of our classes have been thinking about what it means to be International Students.

To facilitate this discussion, Year 6 decided to use a Forum on Schoology, where students can express and share their views with their peers. A discussion forum allows everyone to have a voice and is particularly good for those kids who don't like speaking up in class. Students can also respond to what others have said - agreeing or disagreeing with statements or ideas. This provides an ideal opportunity to practice being good digital citizens - using technology to contribute appropriately and responsibly.

Having read through the comments, I'm impressed by the way Yr6 have responded to the question What does it mean to be 'International'? I wonder if we would see so many thoughtful ideas coming out if this was just talked about in class, or written on paper.