TESOL CALL-IS's List: Visual Literacy

Pixabay was recently updated to make it easier than ever to find quality public domain images. Now when you visit the search page on Pixabay you can filter your search according to image type (photo, drawing, vector), image orientation (landscape or portrait), and image category (subject matter). Still, it's a time-consuming process.
T/H to R.Byrne

"Imagine an engaging 3-minute video that captures every day of the upcoming school year. Now imagine an app that makes it easy to create such a video with minimal effort and no video editing. Even better, the app is free: 1 Second Everyday for iOS and Android. " T/h to N. LaFave and edtechpicks.org.
You could also have students write up the story of the year, either a month at a time, or as a year-end project.

DeepArt.io is a fun, creative tool that transforms your photos into works of art in the style of famous paintings. Just upload your photo, choose your favorite style, and DeepArt’s algorithms will “paint” your masterpiece. T/H to Nick LaFave

"Description: A nice iOS/Android/Windows app for creating stop-motion animation. The basics are free allowing you to record and add sound to your animation and to export it in many formats and places. In-app purchases available to allow you to do more if required."

"Click here to download Your Guide to Finding Copyright-Friendly Images for Educational Use" Linked from the site.

"his is a truly amazing iPad app which replaces a whole TV crew and studio. Capture your video and audio use like adjusting the sound levels, an in-build teleprompter and green screen effects to make spectacular footage. Edit your video directly in the app and add images, websites and Twitter feed as cutaways sections of the screen."

"The process of creating and publishing videos can be a great way to get students excited about researching, storytelling, and sharing their work with an audience. For teachers who have never facilitated video creation projects in their classrooms, choosing the right style of video and the right tools can be a bit confusing at first. To help bring clarity to the styles and tools, I have a rather simple outline that I use in my video creation workshops. That outline with suggested tools for creating videos in each style is included in the PDF embedded below. You can download the PDF here."

Excellent lesson plan suggestions for this important item in education. Collaborative, creative, connective, communicative. Includes film, print, and online media.

The software iStopMotion is fun to use and suitable for kids. See other articles on stop-motion animation and the TED-Ed videos at Animation Basics 101: http://blog.ed.ted.com/2016/07/13/animation-basics-101/

Stop-motion animation would be a great project for middle school and high school students. Teaches planning and patience.

"Youtube Downloader & Youtube to MP3 converter.
(also works with Vimeo, Soundcloud and many more)"
Just paste in the link to the video you wish to download. Create your own localized list of videos.

A kind of Instagram/blog board that lets you use photos, video, and voice recordings, sharing with others.

A videocasting and recording app that can be used on mobile or desktop devices. You can add text, and hotspots to make presentations/video interactive, with a wide variety of editing tools.
"Professional Camera Controls
Turn your iPad or Desktop into an HD video recording device.
Switch between the front- and back-facing cameras on the iPad or between multiple HD cameras on the Desktop
Adjust focus and mic levels.
Import video and place vApps and graphics over the existing video."

"Short videos from YouTube and other sources can be quite helpful in introducing topics to students and or reinforcing concepts that you have taught. Watching the video can be enough for some students, it's better if we can call students' attention to specific sections of videos while they are watching them. "
R. Byrne discusses helpful tools for commenting on video. These can be great for flipped/blended classrooms as discussion starters.

R. Byrne: "Wideo is a nice tool for creating Common Craft-style videos. You can create animated videos on Wideo by dragging and dropping clipart and text in storyboard frames. You set the position and animation sequence for each element in each storyboard frame. When you have completed your storyboards Wideo generates a video for you.
"This week Wideo added a new feature that allows you to build interactive buttons into each frame of your video. The buttons can be hyperlinked to any webpage that you like. When people are watching your video they can click the buttons to be taken to the webpage you want them to land on. For example, clicking the buttons in the video embedded below will take you to the website of my favorite animal rescue organizations."
Older students could, of course, create videos themselves to instruct others. The new interactive button might also lead to a quiz on Quizlet or in Google Docs, for example.

A great collection of links with many tools and ideas.

"Yesterday, I published a post about the Google Sheets Add-on called Online Rubric. This morning I had a couple emails from folks with questions about how to use it. The video embedded below provides an overview of how to create a rubric in a Google Sheet."
t/h R. Byrne

EDPuzzle let's you insert questions, add notes, and make the flipped classroom more interactive at home. You need to use one of the video sites that EDpuzzle offers. This YouTube video shows how to crop a video, add recorded audio notes, and so on. A real gem!

A Pinterest-type site with short reviews of lesson plans for teaching with film, and descriptions of films that might be used for education, especially those with cross-cultural interest. Will take some willingness to hunt, though there is a search engine.