I had the most success using Pixaby.com to search for my images. I tried Google Images with restrictions and Photos for Class as well but most of the images I found through those were from Pixaby.com. It felt easier to just go to the source. I decided I needed a little calm in my life so I searched images of mediation and calm. I found this lovely image of a sailboat.

Fuelner, H. (January 19, 2017). Boat Sailboat Quiet Calm Silence Water Boating [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/boat-sailboat-quiet-calm-silence-1992137/ . CC Zero

The second image I found on Pixaby.com was continuing my calming theme. Here is the original image.

Kunze, R. (May 15, 2013). Balance Stones Stack of Stones Reflection [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/balance-stones-stack-110850/. CC Zero

I found Tuxpi to be easy to use even though it was basic. I do think, because it is so basic, it would be an easy tool for students to use. Younger students could use this effectively as it is not complicated and it’s all on one screen, so you are not clicking through to other steps. I also think this would be a good teaching tool to use when students are learning about color. It lets you play with many of the elements that Reynolds (2014) talks about in his chapter on color such as saturation and hue.  

Here’s my edited phot from Tuxpi. I added text. Then I played with the saturation and the hue.

Pixlr was fun and had lots of elements to play around with. I found this site easy to navigate but seemed like a fair number of things, especially the stickers, required you have a paid membership. I do think school age kids would like this one for the extra things like the stickers and the filters. Here’s my Pixlr photo. I cropped the image, added a sticker and a filter.

Big Hug Labs was overwhelmingly filled with ads. I liked that it was unique, but the excessive ads made it hard for me to enjoy. I think using something like this with students you’d have to be vigilant that the younger ones weren’t clicking on too many ads. I also didn’t like that you had to scroll down to find things. It was clearly trying to trip you up and get you to click on an ad.

I think Fold Play would be fun it you were doing a project to send home to parents. Father’s Day is coming up!

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References

Fuelner, H. (January 19, 2017). Boat Sailboat Quiet Calm Silence Water Boating [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/boat-sailboat-quiet-calm-silence-1992137/ . CC Zero

Kunze, R. (May 15, 2013). Balance Stones Stack of Stones Reflection [Digital image]. Retrieved from https://pixabay.com/photos/balance-stones-stack-110850/. CC Zero

Reynolds, G. (2014). Presentation Zen Design: A simple visual approach to presenting in today’s world (2nd ed.). New Riders; Pearson Education.