Thousands of Getty Photos Free to Use

One of the first things we explore in our Multimedia Apps & Tools course is Copyright and Fair Use. It's one of the most complicated concepts to understand particularly finding out;  if, when and how we can use other's work.  Today I read in the BBC News that...

Getty Images, the world's largest photo agency, has made vast swathes of its library free to use, in an effort to combat piracy.

You can go to their website Getty Images and use any image as long as you use the embed code.


More articles...

Bloomberg Business Week

Creating a Visual Message

Visual Literacy

This week in our Multimedia Apps and Tools class we are focusing on Communication, and "Visually Literacy." After reading about Visual Literacy in Garr Reynolds blog PresentationZen, and watching videos by George Lucas and Martin Scorsese, students will create their own visual message. Considering Martin Scorsese’s statement that we...

“need to know how ideas and emotions are expressed through a visual form. We have to begin to teach younger people how to use this very powerful tool...because we know the image can be so strong, not only for good use, but for bad use.

Digital Literacy Tools

Students will either use their own photographs/images or find one from the many copyright free websites available to them (https://www.diigo.com/list/emccarthy/Photos/16th57ti9) to create a simple visual message. While I don't pretend to be an expert, I do think it's important to participate in the learning activities in my class and share my work. So, here is my visual message...I hope it begins to convey an emotional message about the Great Irish Famine. I would work on the text and it's layout...I think there are too many words and the little images in the top right don't seem to work as I had intended. Any suggestions are welcome to make this a better visual message.

I use my own photograph from Ireland and edited it with a free Chrome App called Pixlr Photo Editor.

Going Back in Time

As a child from the 50’s/60’s, I often remember the educational movies we were shown in school. The classic male voice, so serious with melodramatic background music, flicking and snapping across the film as it rolled through the reel. After the teacher got the projector threaded, lights went out and after 5 minutes I’d be asleep at my desk. Try showing clips from one of these movies from the Prelinger Collection on education to your students as ask them what they think, they might get a kick out of going back in time and seeing what it was like to be a student way back when.

Educational movies from the Prelinger Collection from archive.org.

Here is a good one that you might use as a kick off to 1:1 computing (proper care of the fountain pen) or a writing class when you talk about the many different digital tools available to communicate their ideas and messages... “TRACES DEVELOPMENT OF WRITING & TOOLS OF WRITING. SHOWS VARIOUS PARTS OF A FOUNTAIN PEN & DISCUSSES ITS PROPER CARE & USE.”  It makes me think about how writing has changed over time and what it mean to be literate in a digital world? What skills and dispositions do our students need in today? Are we still teaching reading and writing from the 19th century model?
Here is a copy of the same video on YouTube for quicker viewing...

Simple Photo Message

This is an example of a photograph with text added, it was created to convey a simple message. In our online class, we will be creating many different types of digital media as a way to communicate simple and complex ideas. 

Acer c720P, is a touch enough to bring happiness?

My new Acer c720P Touch Screen Chromebook arrived yesterday. I thought I’d be happier with it than I am, though it’s hard to express exactly why reality didn't meet my expectations. I don’t think it’s rooted in so much in functionality of the machine, though I did have to call support immediately after logging in thinking the screen was defective but more on that later. I’m thinking my disappointment is based on the fact that the design seems old school. The dark gray square case looks like an old IBM machine I had years ago. Its not sleek and thin like my Samsung Chromebook which takes its looks from Apple’s MAC Air Pro, and we all know that Apple is all about design and how our devices make us feel.

I had been waiting for an affordable touch screen Chromebook since the Chrome Pixel came out. I decided I couldn't justify $1200 for another Chromebook just because it has a touch screen. Why I thought the touch screen would make a difference, I can’t tell you, maybe I thought it would combine the best of the computer and tablet worlds. It’s too early to tell on that score but my initial reaction is that it doesn't completely have the same functionality as my Nexus 7...no screen rotation and I’m trying to figure out what exactly the pinch open and pinch close works on. I haven’t gotten it to do anything yet but that could be just my ignorance.

Which brings me back to when I first opened and logged into my new Chromebook. The initial setup went fine, I was able to touch my way through links on the shiny new screen but as soon as I logged into my account the screen was zoomed in so far all I could see was white space at the bottom left of the Google search page with no menu or navigation anywhere on the page. After what seemed like hours, I was able to inch the screen over to get to the settings and look at the zoom and screen size settings but nothing looked abnormal. Several times I shut down and started the process all over again only to find the same results. Thinking it was a defective touch screen I went online on my Samsung Chromebook, and found the Acer support chatting with them about my problem. After troubleshooting for another hour they concluded it wasn't a hardware problem and therefore not covered under warranty. My excitement over getting a new Chromebook diminished to anger over getting a lemon. I told them I’d just send it back to Amazon. But during our conversations, I had the feeling they didn't know what they were talking about and weren't really familiar with a Chromebook. After another hour of researching and struggling to change the super zoomed in screen, I found that the Accessibility setting was enabled for the screen magnifier. I hadn't changed this setting and can only conclude that for some reason it had been enabled in the factory.

I’m now trying to get over my negative experience with my initial use of my Acer Chromebook and the fact that it looks like a boring business machine. This morning’s HangOut might be enough for me to like it, the connection and picture quality was excellent. I’m still wondering if a touch will be enough to bring happiness, or was the anticipation and excitement too much to expect that.