In high school we had a space for upper classmen called The Commons. Students could ‘hang’ anytime, socializing, eating, sharing…and yes, letting loose and being ourselves (within reason). The Creative Commons is similar. People engage with one another freely by sharing images with personal meaning. After perusing several providers, I chose Unsplash. It was easy to narrow my searches, download the images, and their license is such that all images are free, and can be used/edited for personal use. They ask that you credit the author, and a pop up to send a personal thanks appears after each download. The Creative Commons is well used in the public library on advertising flyers, blogs, calendars, and program presentations. Our library has a subscription to a premium account with Canva. Any images used from it do not have a citation. While this is convenient, the account may not be in other library’s budgets. Using Unsplash or Pixaby for images, and then image tools like Tuxpi, Pixlir, or Pizap you will be able to create the presentation, activity, or advertisement you are looking for.
I explored four image tools. Pixlr was challenging to navigate. It had generic icon tool pictures. Ok great, but what will my image look like after I use one of the editing tools? This was time consuming as I had to try, delete, try another, delete… It did have one option called Photosmash. I used this on my wagon of pumpkins picture. Editing the background, color families, and gradient, as well as cropping my image gave me an interesting and unique image. I could see this being used in an art class, or as an addition to an assignment requiring an image. Next was Pizap. It is a cut out tool, which can ‘cut’ an image out of a photo. For example, I ‘cut’ my face out of a photo, and superimposed it on the pumpkin cart as if my head/face was just another pumpkin. Weird? Yes. But fun. The downside was, my cutouts did not remain on the editing page. Again, it was try…delete…try…delete. Tuxpi was my favorite. Along with the editing tools were actual examples of what an image would like after editing. I didn’t have to try to figure out what Lomo & Dreamy meant…it showed me. If you are looking for fun things to actually do with images, head to Big Huge Labs.
Big Huge Labs! An outlet to exhaust even the most creative of us. Which idea to use first? Jigsaw, Mosaic, Magazine cover, Trading Cards? I went with the Cube. Using Unsplash, I uploaded my images easily on to the cube. The directions are very clear. The site automatically resized the pictures for me. One less tedious step! BHL automatically saved my work. Children roll the dice…the image it lands on is the setting for their creative writing project. Design more cubes with plot, character, and conflict ideas, or even story openers to choose from…’Scaling the walls of______________’. Why not indulge in children’s creativity, and give them greater ownership of the entire assignment by allowing them to work collaboratively to design each cube. *Laminate the cubes.
Edited from the following images:
Bezanger, J. (2021). [Photograph of hut in New Caldonia]. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/5PXIezJ9frs CC Zero
Iga, A. (2016). [Photograph of Hobbit House]. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/7XKkJVw1d8c CC Zero
Leon, M. (2019). [Photograph of tree house in the woods]. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/BwITbaWSPjk CC Zero
Mollison, C. (2020). [Photograph of Eilean Donan Castle, Scotland]. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/anWlOaUaAD8 CC Zero
Trapani, T. (2020). [Photograph of lighthouse on shores of Lake Superior]. Unsplash. Retrieved from https://unsplash.com/photos/QvDCesCi3wg CC Zero
Vispute, V. (2021). [Photograph of houseboat]. Unsplash. Retrieved from unsplash.com/photos/PYXgS098W-w CC Zero
CUBE-deas
- Photo cube of places studied in history, number cube…tell that many facts about the place
- Photo cube of classroom/library jobs…child rolls dice to choose
- Photo cube of stretches/yoga poses to do during a break
- Photo cubes with people, places, and things…tell the corresponding Dewey number