Tuesday 10 April 2018

Annotate a picture with Pixorize

Today I read a post by R. Byrne, shared on twitter, on tools to annotate videos and images. I like trying out new tools to provide engagement in my classes. I picked https://pixorize.com/, an image annotation tool, which was new to me. I signed up for a free account and created the image below which includes interactive text. I downloaded the initial image from my google drive on my laptop. I had created it as a scene composed of smaller free images using google drawings. Then I uploaded it to Pixorize, added points, selected, by clicking, each point with the selection tool (arrow), added text and clicked on any place on the image. When I finished I clicked on File, save as and gave it a name.

If you want to share your Pixorize image, click on View and share it on twitter, facebook or G+. You can alternatively click on More in the top bar and copy the direct link provided for you or the embed code.
To edit your image, click on create, file, open, double-click on the folder which has already been created for you, select the image you want to edit, click on open image, make your changes and finally, save.  

Thursday 5 April 2018

Safe Search Engines for Kids

Kids are often required to resort to the Internet to search for information to use on their projects or other stuff. However, search engines may come up with unwanted results, such as sites full of ads or even inappropriate content. The best way to protect kids from such pitfalls is to encourage them to search through kids-friendly search engines. Some free safe kids' engines, which tend to diminish the risk of exposing young learners to too many distractions, include:

www.kidrex.org/

www.kiddle.co/
https://www.kidzsearch.com/
http://www.swiggle.org.uk/
http://www.kids-search.com/
http://www.sweetsearch.com/
https://www.safesearch.tips/ 
http://safeyoutube.net/

Nevertheless, if students are at a very young age, it is advisable for them to search the web under an adult's supervision.