As we push students to create content and synthesize information, furnishing them with an arsenal of tools helps provide choice and encourages creativity. Photographs and images engage readers and enhance any digital story but need to be legal! I’ve been using a site called Pixabay for over a year and consider it to be the best free image site available. If you aren’t familiar with Pixabay, take a look at the choices; all of which are attribution free. Students can choose any image, download it, and don’t have to worry about citing the source. I’ve found the images to be of comparable quality to paid image warehouses. Pixabay also offers a variety of image sizes, and some offer the ability to download the Scaled Vector Format (SVG) students can use for animations.
Quick Step-By-Step Guide for using Pixabay:
- Go to http://www.pixabay.com
- Beside the large search box, click on the down arrow beside All Images
- Now, you see choices type of file, size, orientation, and color
- If specific options do not matter, you can skip the step above
- Type in a keyword that describes the type of keyword you are seeking
- Click the magnifying glass
- Voila!
- Peruse the images to find one that works for your purpose and click the image
- Then, click Free Download
- Select the size of interest. If you aren’t sure, click the size you feel you want and click View to see it in a new tab
- You’ll be asked to type a Captcha phrase. They want to make sure other image sites aren’t downloading all of their images
- Then, click Download
To avoid filling out a Captcha every time, you can register with the site. I couldn’t find any age restrictions, so students can also register.
Need to modify the images? Consider using FREE tools such as Gimp (PC or Mac install) or Pixlr (works on Chromebooks).