Colourapp: an image tool

I have always been keen on web tools and apps related to photo editing, avatars, emojis and anything related to image creativity. Today I stumbled upon one of Bart Verswijvel's tweets about a very interesting app. The colourapp makes use of Public Domain or CC0 artworks which you can modify in an attractive way by adding your own photos. After you click on 'agree' with the disclaimer when you enter the app, you are presented with a number of artworks. You pick one and then you click on the 'pencil' icon. Then the artwork turns into a sketchlike image with five colours. There are five circles with a plus sign just at the bottom of the image, each one corresponding to the same colour section on the artwork. When you click on each of them, you can upload an image from your device. The result looks like a collage and is really fascinating! When you are satisfied with what you have created, click on 'done'. You can share your creation on twitter or facebook. You can also download it on your device. Here are two images I have created:🙆

Creating image designs

Pixteller is an easy-to-use image maker web tool. It is ideal for creating engaging posters, banners, social media profile covers or any other image design you wish. You can use other people's designs and edit them or create your own from scratch. I have signed up for a free account and I think it is quite satisfactory for my needs.

As today is Thanksgiving Day in N. America, I've thought of creating a pixteller image to thank the three most significant persons in my PLN. These are Shelly Terrell, Peggy George and Arjana Blazic. I'm thankful to them for sharing with their PLN their precious knowledge on educational technology. Above all, I'm giving them a shout-out for their integrity of character- always hard-working, tech-savvy enthusiasts but also kind, supportive and encouraging to others.

Google Earth and Google My Maps (Etwinning Learning Event)

I enjoyed my participation in Google Earth Etwinning Learning Event (Nov., 2016) moderated  by Marco Neves . We mainly focused on Google Earth and Google Mymaps.

I started out with downloading Google Earth Pro HERE.

Both Google Earth and Google My Maps are powerful educational tools in the way knowledge is conveyed. They provide students with an unforgettable virtual experience of any subject area they may deal with. The 3-D feature, the visuals and the sound engage and motivate students to deepen their knowledge and further understand a topic. Google Earth, Google my Maps and similar mapping tools also trigger students' exploration skills and promote inquiry-based learning.

Especially, in an etwinning project participants can have a better idea of where their partner school is located and explore their area in detail. Knowing their partners better grows bonds between countries and increases their interactivity and collaboration necessary for an etwinning project. Finally, these tools can facilitate a variety of tasks in an etwinning project. For example, students can share information on their towns or villages, landmarks, museums, favourite places in their country, and so on. 

Here’s a list of the RESOURCES we were provided with in the learning event and some sites I gathered.

Why teach with google earth

Navigation

Searching for places

Exploring Mars

How to navigate in Multimedia track

An example of a KMZ tour recorded as video

Integrating Google Earth in the elementary classroom

Using Google Earth with Literature

Essential G.E. functions

GE blog

Create a GE track

GE Placemarks and marks

GoogleMy Maps –create a multimedia track

MY Maps How to Share and Embed a Map

GE Tour Guide

Placemarks

Record a Tour on Google Earth

Extra mapping tool

How to Use Google Earth Tutorial 2020

Connect an Interactive GeoMap with Google Form Results

Share your Google Earth Tour to youtube via Movie Maker

Google My Maps Track

Google Earth Track

Brainy Box to promote writing skills

One of the ways you can reinforce your students' writing skills in a fun way is by using Brainy Box. This is my suggestion on how one can use it.  Students upload six images of their favourite landmarks, types of food, sports or anything else they are interested in and write a short text below or above the image. At this point, you should make sure they are aware of the Creative Commons licences of the images they use; so they can either upload their own photos or Free Creative Commons ones. The site my students frequently use to download free domain photos is https://pixabay.com/.

This is how the task can be carried out:

The students visit the site: http://www.classtools.net/brainybox/

They click on page 1 and Edit. They upload a photo and write a short text below. They follow the same process for all 6 pages. Then they save the final product. They are asked to provide a code in case they want to edit their presentation later on. They shouldn’t forget to copy the url they are provided with after they have saved their work. This is an example http://www.classtools.net/brainybox/5_D6fmUU. I have taken down my code so that I can modify anything I wish in the future.
To view the presentation, click on the number of each page just below the 'brainy box'. 

 Notice: If you click on 'Share' you get an embed code. I like this feature as you or your students can embed their creations in  a class blog which looks really impressive. There are also more options such as a QR code, a short url and so on.

Images Credits (CC0 Public Domain)

Athens https://pixabay.com/photo-1594689/

Nafplio https://pixabay.com/photo-382583/

Crete https://pixabay.com/photo-497922/

Ioannina https://pixabay.com/photo-1024432/

Mykonos https://pixabay.com/photo-495848/

Meteora https://pixabay.com/photo-465923/