Digital Storytelling - Ideas for illustrating stories

I had the privilege of creating and running an online digital storytelling course for the African Storybook project. Here are some suggestions for illustrating stories that I gleaned from the course participants.

1. Hand drawn pictures
Hand drawn with kokis or pencil crayons and scanned into the computer.
Example: A noise in the night

2. Use cutouts
Create a background in some way. Then cut out figures and objects and place them on the background. Take a photo. Then for the next page move them around again and take another photo.
Example: Emily and the Seagull

3. Take photos
Take photos of different scenes. (Remember that if there are people involved in a photo you need to get permission from the people in the photo if you want to use it on the web).

Example 1: Andiswa Soccer Star

Example 2: On Safari

4. Use collages
Use a mix of drawing painting and odds and ends stuck on and a picture taken.

Example 1: Nonyane

Example 2: Lion collage

5. Lego people
Use lego picture templates, cut them out and past them on a piece of paper. use a scanner to upload them. Example: http://mattbgomez.com/lego-family-labeling/

6. Line drawings clipart
If you type into Google for example 'horses clip art line drawings' you'll be taken to a page like this http://goo.gl/IKqrX8.  Print what you want and then cut it out and place it on a sheet of paper and draw around it. Colour it in.

Example: Khotso goes to the zoo

7. Public domain clipart
This is clipart that is free to use. I have given some suggestions in a blogpost
‘Finding royalty free images on the Internet’

Example: What on earth are you doing?

8. Use a free computer application
Use a free computer program like PAINT or PAINT.NET or something else to draw pictures and colour them in.

Example: Elephant’s new home

There's a very simple application called  Queeky.com. You just open it and start drawing. Then you save it and add the picture to your presentation template

http://www.queeky.com/app

9. Ask friends, relatives or children to draw for you.
Why not ask others to do the pictures for you?

Example: The adventures of Meerkat and friends

10. Paint a picture

Example: A Value Painting Exercise



11. Use large almost abstract like cutouts

Example: Art Ideas for Inspiration: Illustrating Plot of a Story

12. Use cartoon-like figures
I would suggest uploading to a programme like PAINT or a similar application to colour them
Example: How to make illustrations even if you can’t draw

13  Draw childlike pictures 

Example: Draw your story – the illustrated journal

14 Ask one of the children in your class to draw for you

Example: Sipho signs away

15. Use stuffed toys
Use stuffed toys, move them around and take photos.

Example: The mystery of the vanishing books

16. Use a computer application from school

Example: Monsters under my bed

17. Foliage art

Create art foliage collages and scan them in http://goo.gl/NM9XsC

18. Tracing pictures

You can trace pictures and draw/colour them in your own way. http://www.ehow.com/video_4955159_art-ideas-inspiration-tracing-layering.html. Here is another example: http://www.wikihow.com/Illustrate-a-Children's-Book

19. Use black and white pencil drawings

You can even use pencil drawings. Here is a great collection of free p[encil drawings http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/8fZBPc/etc.usf.edu/clipart/ 

20. If you are an artist - hooray!

Here are some ideas for those who are already artists and can illustrate their own books.

http://www.ehow.com/video_2372052_illustrate-children_s-book.html

Something you cannot do

One thing tat you cannot do is simply use any clipart you find and give a link to it. The clipart must have a Creative Commons license attached for you to be able to do that 

Enjoy your illustrating!

How to easily convert different time zones to local time

What do you do when you want to hurriedly convert time in your country to another time zone? Perhaps you want to listen to a webinar from the USA or another country which is announced in their time. I want to know the South African time for the online Microsoft's Hack the Classroom event that takes place today at 08:00 PST.

All I know is that South Africa is on GMT+2! There must be many good applications to use to convert time, but I usually go to: timeanddate.com found at http://www.timeanddate.com/ and there I look for Time Zone Converter. It works well.

Step 1: Go to http://www.timeanddate.com/

Step 2: Search for Time Zone Converter and open it

Step 3: Add the time of the meeting or event you wish to attend
After that select the place to convert to. and press the green button labelled Convert Time

Step 4: Read the answer

The conversion shows that 08:00 PST is at 6pm this evening in South Africa!

It's wonderful what technology can do! The world is truly is becoming more and more of a global village!

Holiday writing task for Grade 4 using Microsoft Word

This is a cross post from the SchoolNet blog which I also write for.

In the first week back after the holidays I asked the Grade 4 class to write a short text about their holiday.  Instead of using one of the usual applications for this I decided to use a Microsoft Word template from the fabulous site Oakdome which was in the form of a phone.  We had a short oral session first and then we went to our computers to write in the Microsoft Word template.

The task
Describe, in around 200 words or less, one or two events from your summer holiday. You'll do this as though it is a phone message so although your report back has a beginning, a middle and an end you won't use paragraphs. Add an image related to your story.

Two student examples

Evaluation
The students loved using this template. 

African Storybook website #5: Some lovely new stories

Every couple of months SAIDE who administers the African Storybook project sends out an update. This is a one of those updates.  This is a crosspost of the post I wrote about the update on the SchoolNet blog. This project is worthy of being known by teachers everywhere.
This week the African Storybook Project sent out a newsflash showing their most recent story updates. We have displayed them below with links to their spot on the website.

Have you visited http://www.africanstorybook.org/, the home of the African Storybook Project (ASP)? It is a truly amazing, local website.  The stories, which are all for the younger grades,  can be read on site or downloaded to print and use. Their current collection of Featured Stories on the website home page is a great reflection of the ASP's growth and diversity after just one year in existence. The aim of the African Storybook Project is to provide Creative Commons-licensed stories for the children of Africa in all the local African languages as well as the languages of wider communication used on our continent.

Do click on the links below and read the English versions of their  latest offerings shown below:

Anansi and Turtle http://goo.gl/RrwRhV	A very tall man http://goo.gl/CRLB3R
'M'e Maneo's pumpkin http://goo.gl/GLrlmH	Hen tricks Eagle http://goo.gl/59fRhl
Elephant and Chameleon http://goo.gl/b3Smco	Colours of a rainbow http://goo.gl/qZez62
A Tiny Seed: The Story of Wangari Maathai http://goo.gl/HiuaCd	The animals dig a well http://goo.gl/lJIlxn

Blended learning - visit classrooms via video

In recent times I was doing some research on blended learning for a course I was writing for an educational company. I was really excited after watching a number of different online videos on the topic which I had discovered on various sites; and want to keep a record of them on my blog. Blended learning, to me, sounds ideal because students learn at least in part through the delivery of content and instruction via digital and online media with some element of student control over time, place, path, or pace (Wikipedia).

One interesting thing that I discovered about blended learning is that there are many versions. The one that appealed the most to me is called  the rotation model. It is said to be the most popular version. and the most common one used in the primary school classroom. This is likened to the ‘Learning Stations’ pedagogy that many primary school teachers use in their classrooms. Here are five really interesting videos that allow one to visit a blended learning classroom and see it in operation.

1. Blended Learning in Spokane Public Schools
An increasing number of Spokane Public Schools teachers are using Blended Learning, which employs online learning, student pacing and small group instruction to give a more personalized educational experience. Learn more at www.spokaneschools.org

2. What Blended Learning Looks Like in the Classroom
This video was made in Ontario, Canada. Ontario has been engaging in a province-wide collaborative research study on effective technology-enabled teaching and learning practices. This video shows the reflections of the Huron-Perth Catholic District School Board.

3. Blended Learning: Making it Work in Your Classroom
This is one of the Edutopia videos in their Blended Learning page on their blog. It shows a high school classroom participating in Blended Learning instruction. However the focus of the video is that it illustrates how a school-wide approach to blended learning allows teachers the flexibility to define and implement online instruction that meets their students needs.



4. Redesigning the school day at KIPP LA using a Station Rotation
This video has been uploaded by the Khan Academy. It shows a second grader class doing their blended learning programs throughout the day.

5. Aspire ERES Academy: Blended Learning in Action
Aspire Public Schools is one of the nation's top-performing large school systems serving predominantly low-income students. Aspire seeks to transform underserved communities and it has a track record of success, with 100% of graduating seniors accepted to four year colleges. Always pushing the boundaries on innovation in teaching and learning, Aspire decided in 2011 to introduce blended learning into two of its schools. This video showcases blended learning in action at Aspire ERES Academy, a K-8 school located in Oakland, CA.



6. Blended Learning in Spokane Public Schools
An increasing number of Spokane Public Schools teachers are using Blended Learning, which employs online learning, student pacing and small group instruction to give a more personalized educational experience. Learn more at www.spokaneschools.org



All these videos highlight some of the benefits of blended learning, the main ones being that students are engaged, they can work at their own pace and get help from peers as well as from the teacher,  and they can direct their own learning.

I love Google #39

Every week I like to keep a record of what educators and others are posting with regard to Google.  Here are 11 from this week.

Great Google posts this week #39

View more lists from Fiona Beal

Digital storytelling - Finding royalty free images on the Internet

This is a cross post of a post I wrote for the SchoolNet blog last year. 

When you are creating anything on the Internet it is a good idea to use free images of one kind or another. If you want to use already created clipart images to create a story we will need to be looking mainly for royalty free images. Here is a collection of resources to peruse.

Larry Ferlazzo is a great curator of the web – he has a whole list of ‘Best of series…” sites which you can find here. So here are Larry Ferlazzo’s picks for The Best Online Sources For Images (not in order of preference). I think it is best to go for royaltry free/public domain pics.

Here’s a list of places to look for pictures. Some have comments at the side

	The Sites	Comments
1	100 (Legal) Sources for Free Stock Images	is another incredible list of resources.
2	180+ Resources sites to download Royalty Free Stock images
3	25 Places To Find Awesome Stock Photos from Lucy Gray,	Larry Ferlazzo says “decided to add some of the sites on that list to The Best Online Sources For Images.  The “25 Places” post has concise and accurate descriptions of the sites, so I’m just going to quote from them.  I’d also encourage you to check-out their entire list.”
4	Mashable has just posted a great piece, 26 Places to Find Free Multimedia for Your Blog.	Larry Ferlazzo says, “I’ve already included in this post many of the resources they list.  However, they also listed some sites that are new to me, especially the ones that have freely-available video.  I’m also sure that a ton of additional sources will be accumulating in their comments section.  Because of that, for now, instead of just selectively adding some of their sites to my lists, I’m going to include a link to their post here.”
5	30 Websites To Download Free Stock Photos
6	4 Free Photos .	is another website that offers a good selection of public domain images
7	All Our Stock.	has a bunch royalty-free images
8	Behold	Here are two more simple ways to search for Creative Commons images
9	Big Foto	It has a large selection of royalty-free images.
10	Burning Well
11	Clip Art ETC	from Florida’s Educational Technology Clearinghouse offers over 38,000 pieces of clip art for students and teachers.
12	Copyright Free and Public Domain Media Sources	provides a nice collection of image resources.
13	Dreamstime
14	Edupics	is one more source of clip art for use in schools.
15	ELT Pics	is a project initiated on Twitter to collect photos helpful to English Language teachers.
16	eleven sources of copyright or royalty-free images.
17	Finding and using public domain photographs	comes from Public Domain Sherpa, and contains quite a few sources of good images that are new-to-me. In addition, the site offers helpful advice on using each source.
18	Flickr Creative Commons	is another way to find Flickr images offered for use with a Creative Commons license.
19	Flickr Creative Commons Search tool.
20	Flickr Storm	is search tool for the same photos (be sure to click “Advanced Search” to make sure your results include only those with a CC license) — just perhaps in slightly more engaging way.
21	Free Clip Art by Phillip Martin	Larry Ferlazzo says, “seems to be a pretty impressive site for clip art that’s free for non-profit use. The art seems a cut above many other clip art sites I’ve seen, and appropriate for many subject areas (that’s how they are categorized).”
22	Free Digital Photos:	Larry Ferlazzo says, “Free Digital Photos has a good search function, which is very important when you’ve got this many images under one resource. Photos are nicely grouped into categories for easy and quick browsing.”
23	Free Foto:	“Freefoto is made up of 117,600 images with over 150+ sections organized into 3,285 categories. There’s a search function, and usage is completely unrestricted. All you have to do is include an attribution link back to Freefoto.com.”
24	Free Historical Stock Photos:	“Free Historical Stock Photos contains various historical images, including many by Matthew Brady (Civil War) and Dorothea Lange (Great Depression). This site also includes paintings and vintage posters. The images are gracefully categorized and easily findable with the use of a search function.” (Larry Ferlazzo)
25	Free Images	has 6000 original stock photos — all you have to do is credit the site when you use them.
26	Free Media Goo
27	Free Stock Photography
28	Google free images.  You can get fuller text description of how to use this option at Google’s site.	One can search for images on Google that are licensed for “reuse.” Google says if you use it, its “results will only include pages that are either labeled as public domain or carry a license that allows you to copy or redistribute its content, as long as the content remains unchanged.”
29	Heritage Explorer You can read more about it at the Kent ICT blog.	has hundreds of thousands of British-related images available for free educational use.
30	Humanline	is ….a visual library of history, art and science that is free for educational use. You can download images and use them in classroom environment in any way that you want. Currently there are more than two thousand high-quality images and new content is being added every day.
31	Image After	is a great place to find free stock images (you can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s blog).
32	Public Domain Pictures
33	Image Base.	Richard Byrne has posted about this site for public domain photos called It’s worth reading his post about it.
34	Ken Thomas has lots of nature photos in the public domain.
35	Kozzi	has thousands of royalty-free images that can be used for anything — at no charge — without even having to give them attribution. You have sign-up for the site, but registration is free
36	Morgue File	Mathew Needleman suggests this site because “it has quite a few images and it’s not blocked in school”
37	NASA has begun releasing collections of great photos	that can be used with no copyright restrictions, and more are on the way. You can read more about it at the Los Angeles Times.
38	Nations Illustrated	has 8,000 images from around the world, and also provides an E-Card feature.
39	ookaboo	is a new site for free images. Paul Houle, its founder, writes: Although I started it just last July, Ookaboo already has 510,000 images of 283,000 topics… and it gets better all the time because it adds 8,000 new images each day. Unlike many “free photo” sites, all images in Ookaboo are public domain or creative commons and can be used freely for both commercial and non-commercial purposes. I think it’s perfect for students and teachers to use for schoolwork, handouts, web sites and other creative projects.
40	Open Clip Art Library	has thousands of examples of clip art that can be downloaded and used for free.
41	PD Photo	has many photos, with the vast majority being in the public domain.
42	Photl.com	has 160,000 copyright-free images available.
43	PhotoPin	is a new search engine for Creative Commons images. It has a very nice interface, and I especially like it because you not only get the photos, but it also gives you the exact attribution to copy and paste. Thanks to TechCrunch for the tip, and you can read more about the site at their post.
44	Pics 4 Learning	is specifically designed for teachers and students, and has thousands of images that can be used freely.
45	PicFindr	lets you search many photo sites simultaneously and, in addition to defining the image you want, you can define the restrictions for use. For example, I typed in that I was looking for a picture of a lion for educational use, checked the “none” box for licensing requirements (which means anybody can use it — even without crediting the photographer) and got several hundred images to choose from.
46	Picapp,	a site that has millions of images that can be used on your blog — for free. You can read more about it at Raman Job’s blog
47	Picture Of A	is a new site where “all photos are completely free to use and are open source!.
48	Photos 8	is the newest addition to this list. It has thousands of high quality public domain pictures and is easy to search.
49	Public Domain Photos:	“Public Domain Photos is exactly that: a photographer’s domain for public display, all arranged by corresponding categories. There’s a really good search function available, as well.”
50	Search by Creative Commons	provides excellent explanations about what Creative Commons licenses are, and offers a way to search throughout the web for images that have them.
51	Simple CC Flickr Search	Search for Creative Commons images: and
52	Smithsonian Images	provides access to that incredible collection, and also allows you to use any of them as E-Cards.
53	Stock.xchng
54	Stockvault
55	Teaching students about Creative Commons and appropriate use of images.	Kathleen McGeady’s excellent post on
56	The Educator’s Guide To The Creative Commons.	Darren Draper’s excellent post (including additional resources)
57	The Japanese Language Course Support Site	is a smaller, but useful, source of language-learning images.
58	The Noun Project	collects, organizes and adds to the highly recognizable symbols that form the world’s visual language, so we may share them in a fun and meaningful way.” It’s really quite an impressive collection.
59	The Royalty Free Clip Art Collection For Foreign/Second Language Instruction	from Purdue University is another place to find images useful for teaching English Language Learners.
60	The University of Victoria Teaching Clipart Gallery	has three thousand images specifically designed for language-teaching.
61	Unprofound
62	Wikimedia Commons	It has four million images, and their reuse agreement states Public Domain Pictures
63	World Images,	according to its site, is a “database that provides access to the California State University IMAGE Project. It contains almost 75,000 images, is global in coverage and includes all areas of visual imagery. WorldImages is accessible anywhere and its images may be freely used for non-profit educational purposes.” (Larry Ferlazzo
64	WP Clip Art	has a whole lot of attractive clip art that “…may be used for commercial as well as personal projects without attribution or linking.”
65	Wylio	is a new site for bloggers to find photos for their blogs. In seconds, it finds a Flickr Creative Commons photo, resizes it to exactly what you need, and provides an embed code, which automatically includes an attribution to the photographer..
66	Here’s the main link to Yale Digital Commons.	“Yale University has one of the larger collections of art, objects and documents of any organization in the U.S. Now, digital images and audio files of the collection are free to access by anyone in the world online, according to an announcement by the university’s communications office.Yale Digital Commons has debuted with just under 260,000 images and no licensing agreements..