In line with their mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible, Google has partnered with LIFE to offer an online photo gallery as part of its image search function. Starting with about 2 million images, Google plans to add to the gallery to eventually include all 10 million images from the LIFE magazine photo library. The majority of the images (according to LIFE – 95%) taken from the 1750s to today have never been published or seen by the public. The collection can be searched using key words and browsed by decade or category to see works such as the Zapruder film of the Kennedy assassination; The Mansell Collection from London; Dahlstrom glass plates of New York and environs from the 1880s; and the entire works left to the collection from LIFE photographers Alfred Eisenstaedt, Gjon Mili, and Nina Leen.

Teachers are able to use in these images in face-to-face classroom instruction and student projects as long as they don’t republish that material online (or sell it, or anything else that falls outside of the boundaries of fair use). In their blog, Google states that users are able to print the images for personal use although there is a LIFE watermark on each image. There is also a link for each image for ordering prints.

Users can find the LIFE images within the Google image window or click here to go to the Google/LIFE web site.

OK, I have a confession to make…math has never been my favorite subject. Just one of those things I have always struggled with. However, with cool resources online, it makes it so much easier. Be sure to check out Create A Graph (http://nces.ed.gov/nceskids/graphing/). This online tool guides you through five simple steps on creating a graph. First, you can select how you want the graph to appear (such as bars, lines, pie, area or xy). Next, enter the data, and finally, assign the labels. The fourth step is a preview, and the final step is an opportunity to print and/or download. Each step includes a help menu that explains the various options available in each step. There is also an icon that uses dice to teach probability.  

Ben Rimes, a colleague of mine on the MACUL Board, recently wrote about this tool on his blog, The Tech Savvy Educator. Thanks Ben!

If you’re looking for a way to teach searching the web to students, this might be the answer. Although the primary audience is elementary/middle school students, it could be used by anyone. According to the site,

Boolify makes it easier to for students to understand their web search by illustrating the logic of their search, and by showing them how each change to their search instantly changes their results.

Once you begin the process by selecting a puzzle piece, the software prompts you to enter a term. After that, you build the search by adding terms or using and, or, not. The user immediately sees the results of their search “string” below so they can see what happens as they add terms or use “not” to restrict.

Search results are presented through Google’s “Safe Search STRICT” technology. There are two important caveats: a) no filtering technology is 100% secure, as this blog posting astutely points out and 2) we are unable to control or modify the results that we provide, beyond the filtering settings available through Google.

Since comments on posts are rather hidden, I thought I’d copy this comment on the previous post from Renee Hobbs for you to see…

“Also, teachers will enjoy using the lesson plans, video case studies and “schoolhouse rock” style videos we created to support the teaching of copyright and fair use, based on the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

They are available at:
http://mediaeducationlab.com”

One site that I’ve recently read is from the Center for Social Media at American University. This site contains links to several resources including these publications:

• The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education

• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video

• The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy

It also has links to other resources such as pdf documents on Fair Use Classroom Tools and digital videos to view or download.