Tag: Images

12 of Google Photos’ Most Amazing Features


“Google Photos has grown into an awesome service. From automatically backing up your phone’s pictures to letting you easily share your photos, there’s a lot to love for anyone who works with photos. Whether you want to make a mini stop-motion animation or just make a slideshow of related pictures, Photos can help. Select the Animation button under the Assistant tab, and you can choose from 2–50 photos to add. Once you’re satisfied, click Create and you’ll have a neat little GIF ready to share.” — Ben Stegner

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Why You Should Be Using Google Photos


Google Photos “takes your entire photo library — every photo you’ve ever taken on your phone, as well as screenshots and photos taken within Instagram and whatever else — and uploads it to the internet. The photos remain private, hidden behind your Google account information, but now you can access them anywhere. On your laptop? Yep. On a new phone? Yep. On your tablet? Yep, there too.” — Ben Gilbert, Business Insider

360-Degree Cameras in Education: A Quick Introduction

Guest Blogger
Kasey Kennedy

Some say 360-degree cameras may be the next big thing in education. What is a 360-degree camera? It is a camera that allows you to capture photos and videos in a spherical format. The spherical format allows the viewer to pan around the entire image or video in a 360-degree fashion.

View this 360 degree image to get an idea of what these kinds of cameras can do.

Enjoy this video, What Happens in Your Body?, and enjoy a 360-degree exploration of your circulatory and digestive systems. Follow the directions below the video to navigate this spherical video.

Click on the following image for a 360-photo of the North Pole.

Using 360-Degree Cameras in the Classroom  

Virtual Field Trips: Take a moment to view this video. You could create a video to go along with whatever you are teaching, and the students could work themselves through the video to get more information. Another example could be using a 360 video to help students explore the cells of the body.

School Events: What if you could play the camera on the stage while a student performed? This would let the students view their work, and see the performance as the audience sees it.

Parental Involvement: This would be a great way to get parents involved. Most cameras will only record parts of the room, unless it is carried around. By using a 360 degree camera, a parent could pan around to their child, and watch their child the whole time. This will help the parents see what is going on in the classroom, and it will get them more involved.

Outside of the Classroom Field Trips: When on a field trip, the camera could be used to take pictures, or a video, and the teacher could replay it for the students as they do their reflections. This could also be an opportunity for any students who missed the field trip to receive the same experience. (Source)

Tips for Using 360-Degree Cameras

Geoffrey Morrison shares six tricks for getting the best photo and video spheres. 

I also recommend 10 Things I Wish I Knew before Shooting 360 Video by Vanessa Hand Orellana.

360-Degree Virtual Tours

The Lincoln Memorial

Luray Caverns

The Secret Annex of Anne Frank’s Home

Rainforest

Ideas for Using ThingLink in the Classroom

ThingLink Logo

“ThingLink is an interactive media platform that empowers publishers, educators, brands, and bloggers to create more engaging content by adding rich media links to photos and videos…Use ThingLink to create interactive news photography, maps, posters, family albums, infographics, and shoppable product catalogs in minutes” (Source).

Getting Started

The following video will help you start using ThingLink.

Setting up ThingLink for the Classroom

This playlist, compiled by Susan Oxnevad, contains tutorials for setting up ThingLink channels, embedding Google docs, setting up student accounts, organizing students into project groups, and more.

Educational Connections

ThingLink can be used:

  1. To communicate the directions and expectations for class projects, small group activities, independent learning, etc.
  2. With book reports, research projects, and science projects.
  3. To add narration to images.
  4. For teacher and student introductions at the beginning of the year.
  5. To develop interactive posters to communicate with students and parents.
  6. For student reflections.
  7. To integrate multimedia and dynamic data with maps, infographics, Wordles, and other images.
  8. For organizing and sharing professional development resources.
  9. To organize online scavenger hunts and webquests.
  10. As interactive digital bulletin boards.

Examples

U.S. Regions

 

Home of the Cardinals

 

Animal Cells: Their Composition and Functionality

Extended Learning

Creating ePortfolios with ThingLink

ThingLink launches Virtual Reality Lessons App For Education

VR Lessons by ThingLink – iOS App

Interesting Ways to Use Thinglink in the Classroom

ThingLink in the Classroom – One image. Tons of possibilities.

20 Ways to Use ThingLink in Education

10 Innovative Ways to Use ThingLink in the Classroom

Historic Images are Everywhere

Photo Chat: The View from Here #edchat #edtech #idt7078 #viewfromhere

As I mentioned last week I started teaching a 7-week graduate seminar, Learning with Web 2.0 and Social Media. We are having a lot of time investigating how current and cutting-edge technologies can facilitate learning and promote thinking and creativity. To provide an immersive experience related to the course content the class is housed in a Google Site and the bulk of our social interactions is being supported by our Google+ community. We are already deep into the ideas of teaching for understanding and visible thinking, while developing a strong understanding of Web 2.0, social networks, and social media.

Throughout this 7-week learning journey I’ll be requesting your assistance in helping make this a rich experience for the teachers and instructional designers in my class. Today I’m asking you to help me showcase the “fun side” of online networks and social media. Below is a photo that I shot using my iPhone. It depicts the view from my current location. Would you please take a similar photo and share it using one or more of the following strategies?

  1. Post a link to your image in the comments of this post.
  2. Post a link to your image in the comments to this Google+ post.
  3. Share it via Google+, Twitter, or Facebook and tag it with #viewfromhere.

View from Here

Picture It! – Photo Scavenger Hunts in the Classroom

I’ll be facilitating one of the opening workshops today at the Arkansas Association of Instructional Media Conference. I’m excited to be back in Arkansas as I went to college and spent my first two years teaching in this state. The AAIM Conference is in Hot Springs which is one of my favorite Arkansan (Pronounced like “Are Kansan”) towns. I’ll be speaking a couple of more times throughout the 3 day conference. Here are the resources from today’s workshop.

Workshop Description
Photo scavenger hunts get students moving while engaging them with course content. Well-designed photo scavenger hunts integrate 21st century skills and promote higher-order thinking.

Workshop Resources

View more presentations from Clif Mims

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (TAISTI)

I’m back in Nashville today for the TAIS Technology Institute. I’m excited about having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more. I’ll be sharing a workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.

Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media (NCTIES)

I’m enjoying the North Carolina Technology in Education Society’s 2010 Conference in Raleigh, NC. I’m excited about being one of the featured speakers and having opportunities to work with and learn from classroom teachers, media specialists, administrators, and more.

Today I’ll be sharing a pre-conference workshop on Multiple Representations of Understanding through Digital Media. This energetic session will demonstrate that with freely available digital technologies students can demonstrate their understanding of course content in multiple ways (images, audio, video, presentations, artwork, and more). Each student’s end product (learning artifact) allows them to personally self-express their understanding/mastery of the content/skills. Although teachers may not be comfortable using all of today’s technology it is important to consider allowing students to use it to communicate their understanding as they are often more naturally able to more fully express themselves with digital media. The PowerPoint presentation is below and the full workshop notes are available on my wiki. Note that the links and logos in the PowerPoint presentation are clickable.