Photos can be added to blog posts in different ways. In this post I'll explain how to add a photo as a linked image on a free (and ad-free) KidBlog.org site.

To reduce the amount of time students spend (and possibly waste) searching for Internet images to use in a blog post or other digital project, it's a good idea to have them find and identify their photos before class. These image links can be saved in student email, as comments to a blog post, in a Google Document, or in another way.

By creating a photo gallery of images using a free web service like Picasa or Posterous, a teacher can create a designed place / website for students to obtain their images for a project. Students can link to this photo gallery site from the teacher's homepage, and/or a direct link to the photo gallery can be created on student desktops or a screen of the iPad / tablet device students use.

I recommend both teachers and students use the free Chrome web browser from Google for these steps. Chrome is the fastest web browser on both Windows and Macintosh computers, and also has helpful features (like a "copy URL" option when right clicking / control clicking images) which is very helpful for these steps.

STEP 1: Copy the Image URL

The first step is to find the image you want to insert into your blog post and copy the direct URL or link to the image. In Chrome, do this by right clicking (control-clicking on a Mac) and choosing COPY IMAGE URL.

STEP 2: Click Insert Image

Press enter or return to create a blank line where you want to insert the image. Then click the INSERT IMAGE button above the post format tools.

STEP 3: Paste the Image URL

Click in the field next to image URL and paste the full link address you copied in step 1. Click below it so KidBlog can "verify" the link works. If desired, choose an alignment option. Click INSERT INTO POST.

STEP 4: Publish

Add additional text as desired to your post, along with additional images. When finished, click PUBLISH.

It is a good idea to give attribution credit to the original source of the image you are linking by including a direct link to the source website at the bottom of your post. Image websites like Wylio create attribution links right below images using Creative Commons license terms. If you want to create a properly formatted image citation, consider using a free web tool like Bibme.org. At a minimum, include the direct link to the original website at the bottom of your post to give credit to the original source website. It is better from a copyright perspective to use this technique of direct linking / embedding images you use in blog posts rather than downloading and re-uploading a copy of an image to your original website. With the method described in this blog post, you are NOT making an actual copy of an image when including it in a blog post. Not all websites permit images to be embedded in this way. School librarian Joyce Valenza has a good list of copyright-friendly image sites to use.

To successfully help students create different kinds of media products which represent their knowledge and skills in various content areas, teachers need to build a strong "virtual foundation" for digital learning inside and outside the classroom. The cornerstone of this digital foundation can be a moderated and interactive classroom blog. Another important corner is a "classroom photo sandbox." This is a digital space where teachers and/or students can upload and access photos publicly. Instead of searching the Internet for photos when working on a media project, students can visit the teacher's classroom photo sandbox to save and use relevant images. Instead of individually labeling and organizing images, teachers can upload ALL the classroom photos from a digital camera (as long as everything is appropriate, of course) and make these images available for students to use. In advance, students and their parents should sign required permission forms to post student photos and work. (An example is available.) In this post I'll share the steps to create and utilize a free classroom photo sandbox using Google's free service, Picasa.

If your school already uses Google Apps for Education and Picasa is not available on your custom portal, ask your network administrator to turn it on so it's available. While there are many other photo sharing websites and services available, Picasa's availability inside "the Google Apps universe" makes it an ideal platform to serve as a photo sandbox for many classrooms and school districts. Site content can be managed using existing Google Apps userids and passwords, which is a big plus from the IT standpoint.

There are two ways to use and interface with Picasa: Via a free, downloadable software application (available for Windows and Macintosh computers) and via the site's web interface. Both methods have advantages. If you can, I recommend downloading and installing the free Picasa software program on your laptop or desktop computer since it permits image resizing before uploading. This can increase the number of images you can upload to your site and make available to students, since each Picasa account has a limited "quota" of free web space. Although the screenshots below are for a Windows-based computer, these steps are the same on an Apple computer. (Picasa software was updated on February 23, 2012 and includes several new features.)

While Picasa should work fine in any web browser, I recommend downloading, installing and using Google Chrome (free) for this and other browser-based activities. Chrome is the fastest web browser (as of this writing) on Windows or Apple / Macintosh computers.

STEP 1: DOWNLOAD AND INSTALL

Visit picasa.google.com and download Picasa software. After the download finishes, open the installer program and click to agree to terms / install the program. When it launches for the first time, Picasa will search through your computer and find available images. These should be organized by year and date in the left sidebar, if date information is saved with the photos from the digital camera used to take them.

STEP 2: IMPORT PICTURES FROM YOUR CAMERA

Plug the USB cable for your digital camera into your computer and camera. Turn on the power for your digital camera. Click the IMPORT button in the upper left corner of the Picasa screen.

STEP 3 CREATE A PUBLIC WEB ALBUM

Click on a photo you'd like to share in a public web album. Hold down the CONTROL key (on Windows computers) and click on additional photos you'd like to upload/share. Then click the SHARE button.

Log into Picasa with your Google userid and password when prompted. All settings for the web album can be left at their defaults except two things:

1. Click the NEW button at the top to create a new web album for your photos, and assign an appropriate name.
2. Click to change the visibility of your web album. Make it PUBLIC so students and others will be able to view it and use the photos.

Click UPLOAD to transfer your photos into your new web album.

STEP 4 ACCESS YOUR PHOTO ALBUM ONLINE To view the photo album you just uploaded, click VIEW ONLINE after your upload completes.

If this button doesn't work, click the arrow beside the word SHARE at the top of the album and choose to COPY the URL / web link to your public album. Then paste this address into your web browser.

Note the default setting for sharing LOCATION information about your uploaded photos is PRIVATE. Unless you click the checkbox on the right sidebar of Picasa, when viewing an album, your photo location information will NOT be shared publicly even when you have an album's privacy setting on PUBLIC.

The easiest way to permit students to access your public web albums is to LINK your main gallery homepage from another website, like your class blog or wiki. Find this link by clicking PHOTOS in the upper right corner of the screen when viewing an album or individual image in Picasa.

If you have or create a "classroom photo sandbox" website using Picasa or another photo sharing tool, please contribute it to the Student Media Examples website. The Western Academy of Beijing's Photo Sharing site (photos.wab.edu) is a great example of a school-wide photo gallery website. More details about it are available.

(cross-posted from Yukon PS Instructional FAQs)

Sometimes as a teacher you need to download a video from a website for temporary use with your students. There are different reasons this can be important, and there are important copyright considerations to understand depending on the site hosting the video and the context of your use. In the case of TeacherTube videos, the site's terms of use specifically permit teachers to make temporary copies for personal or classroom instructional use. In this post I'll describe the steps to download a TeacherTube video and convert it so it's playable on your laptop.

First of all, log into the TeacherTube website and create an account if you have not already. You'll need to log in to view the DOWNLOAD link for the video you want. It should appear in the left sidebar of the webpage, below the video.

Depending on the type of web browser and computer you're using, you should see a message asking you what you want to do with the Flash video file from TeacherTube. Choose to save it.

Next you need to locate the saved file on your local hard drive. Again depending on the web browser and computer you're using, you should be able to choose to view DOWNLOADS from the menu bar of the web browser.

Right click (control-click on a Mac) and choose to view the file on your local computer hard drive.

Move this file to a folder on your computer desktop or another location you want. If you have a free program like VLC Media Player installed on your computer which can play FLV (Flash) video files, it should open when you double click the file and you should be able to make it full-screen for students to view.

If you don't have a program on your computer that can play FLV files, you need to convert it to a format you can use. There are many alternatives, a few free options I like and recommend include:

• On a Mac, use TubeTV to convert the file to M4V format which will play in QuickTime player.
• On any computer, use the free website ZamZar to convert the file and obtain a download link via email. (Uploaded videos must be less than 100 MB in size)
• On a Windows or Macintosh computer, use MPEG Streamclip to convert the file to MPEG4 or another format. The video and compression options on MPEG Streamclip can be confusing, however, and the file sizes it creates can be VERY large depending on selected settings.

The easiest option is to install a program like VLC Media Player on your computer so file conversions are not required after you download a FLV video from TeacherTube.

In this 3 minute screencast, Wesley Fryer explains the steps to add a new user to a free classroom blog on KidBlog.org.

View more screencast tutorials relating to "Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing" on:

http://playingwithmedia.com/tag/screencasts

Cross-posted on:

http://faqs.yukonps.com/2012/04/add-new-user-to-classroom-blog-on.html

Today to kick off our "Playing with Media" professional development day in Yarmouth Schools in Maine, superintendent Judy Paolucci created a 90 second video trailer on her iPad. With assistance from technology integrator Mike Arsenault, Judy learned how to use the latest version of iMovie on Wednesday and interviewed different students to create this movie using the "Video Trailer" iMovie template on Thursday. Well done, Superintendent Paolucci!

More information about the eBook, "Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing" is available. :-)

Be sure to check all ALL the great session resources and links shared by Yarmouth teachers (in grades K-12) on the PD day Google site.

This morning in Yarmouth, Maine, Cathy Wolinsky and Mike Arsenault created a 106 second video using "Explain Everything" on an iPad to share expectations and directions for teachers for tomorrow's district-wide professional development day.

This video was inspired by Paper Slide Videos, but rather than shooting a "one take" video (Common Craft style) they created a narrated slideshow using photos of teacher-drawn art. Contributing artists included Alice Barr, Melissa Noack, and yours truly. Mike and Cathy also contributed drawings. The plan is to share this video tomorrow following my keynote ("Why Play With Media?") before breakout sessions begin. All the breakouts (except mine) are being led, facilitated, and taught by Yarmouth teachers. You really should check out the Google Site Alice, Mike and Cathy have put together for this district PD day. It's exemplary. More schools should follow the lead of Yarmouth Schools and offer an "in district conference day" with rich, elective choices for teachers which are teacher-led. Thankfully the hand-drawn art in this video was a collective effort. If we'd used my version of "Nuts and Bolts" (the bottom picture in the image below) I think we'd lose LOTS of credibility with teachers tomorrow at the opening session. Thankfully Melissa Noack (a true artist as well as teacher) was here to save the day with her drawing!

This was a fun project and will hopefully both model "playing with media" for Yarmouth teachers tomorrow as well as communicate district expectations for this day of learning in a timely way. Learn more about "official" paper-slide videos on paperslide.wikispaces.com. Have you used similar video techniques to share messages with teachers and students at your school? If so, please share your links as comments.

The past few weeks I've been teaching students as well as teachers how to create enhanced/multimedia eBooks. To provide a "digital sandbox" to share four of the five enhanced eBooks I've created with others since January 29th, and to provide an open space where others can share eBooks as well, this weekend I created a new website connected to the PlayingWithMedia.com domain: "eBooks Sandbox: a space to share free eBook experiments!" This site is available on ebooks.playingwithmedia.com, and is connected to the "Student Media Examples" site (share.playingwithmedia.com) as well. Currently the site includes four different enhanced/multimedia eBooks, all available as direct downloads to an iPad from DropBox:

• Snowflake Gets Lost (29 Jan 2012)
• Technology Today (28 Feb 2012)
• Great Day of Learning (3 March 2012)
• Dreams of Opera (9 Mar 2012)

The "about" page of the site explains its purpose, goals and scope:

This website is a space to share FREE ebooks. If you, your children, grandchildren, or students create eBooks and you'd like others to check out / download your creation, share it here! All submissions are moderated / reviewed before they are posted publicly. As the submitter, you are responsible to verify your local copyright laws have been followed during the creation of the eBook you're sharing. The POSTING POLICY for "Student Media Examples" applies here as well. Use the provided CONTRIBUTE form to share an eBook. Provide a direct download link to your eBook on your own website or in your public folder using Dropbox or Box.net. (More information about this process is available.)

I created this "contribute" form using the free TDO Mini Forms WordPress Plugin. Please:

• spread the word about this site
• use the FREE ebooks linked on it to help educate others about the possibilities and power of eBooks
• contribute links to eBooks you make or facilitate others to create
• make suggestions about how this site could become more useful, including new/different eBook categories which could be included

Have you created an enhanced / multimedia eBook yet? How about a "standard" (text/images only) eBook? If not, it's time to jump on the eBook bandwagon. Multimedia publishing is only going to get easier and more powerful in the months ahead. As educators, it's incumbent upon us to be "the experts' when it comes to eBooks and digital learning tools!

In this 3.5 minute screencast, digital learning consultant Wesley Fryer demonstrates how to use the $4 iPad application "eBook Creator" to export an enhanced eBook (in ePub format) to the DropBox application, and then email a public link to the ePub to a Posterous blog so it will "post" as a publicly accessible link for anyone to download. The following iPad apps are required to follow these steps:

eBook Creator ($4)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ebook-creator/id448273828?mt=8

DropBox (free)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dropbox/id327630330?mt=8

iBooks (free)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ibooks/id364709193?mt=8

A free blog on Posterous.com is also required:
http://posterous.com

View the example enhanced eBook from this screencast on: http://our-stories.posterous.com/the-minecraft-story-by-jakari-ebook

Learn more about "minimal click" ways to share digital text, audio, images and video in Wesley's eBook, "Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing."

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ - click to view more info about 'Day 125 / 365 - iPad ebook demo at Web 2.0 Expo SF 2010' or find free 'ebook ipad' pictures via Wylio">http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/" width="500" style="float: none; margin: 10px auto;" />

(Cross-posted to Instructional FAQs for Yukon Public Schools)

AudioBoo is a fantastic website and free mobile application to use for recording and sharing student voices. AudioBoo does not, however, currently support "comment moderation." This means anyone can leave a comment on an audio recording you post to your AudioBoo channel and it will immediately show up "live" for anyone else to view.

As a classroom teacher in the United States, it is a good idea to always use "moderated commenting" on websites where student work is published and other school information is shared. AudioBoo recordings can be linked and embedded on other websites, like a classroom blog with KidBlog, which DO support comment moderation. Since AudioBoo doesn't support comment moderation, a "best practice" for classroom teachers is to turn OFF comments on each AudioBoo. Unfortunately, it is not possible to select "comments off" as the default setting for all AudioBoos. Currently, AudioBoo comments must be turned OFF on a post by post basis. Here are the steps you need to follow for this process.

STEP 1: Login, Click on Your Boo, and Click EDIT

STEP 2: Click to UNCHECK the box beside "Enable Comments."

STEP 3: At the bottom of the page click SAVE.

Now commenting should be turned OFF for that specific AudioBoo post. You will need to repeat these steps for each new AudioBoo you post to your AudioBoo account. While the free AudioBoo mobile app for iOS and Android supports publishing and listening to AudioBoo recordings, users cannot presently edit published Boos to turn off comment moderation.

For more suggestions of websites and applications to use for student audio recording, see the "No Edit Podcasts" page of the website, "Mapping Media to the Common Core."

View examples of student audio recordings of essays and interviews on the Yukon Public Schools Learning Showcase website.

ShowMe is a free application for iPad which permits anyone to create narrated slideshow videos which can include telestrator ("John Madden") style annotations. The following twenty-five images highlight the steps to follow in the ShowMe iPad app, using a photo gallery in Picasa (free from Google) as a virtual image scrapbook for project images.