Graphics – Where to get great images
Obviously, for a teacher, images directly from your classroom are crucial to creating the continuity between the physical classroom and the online learning platform. This continuity is important in a regular school year, and even more important when we find ourselves in a circumstance such as the Covid-19 suspension of classes.
But classroom photos can’t make up the entirety of your website. If you are wanting to spruce it up with some additional images, there are many fantastic resources out there. You want to ensure that you have the authority or permission to post the images you select on your site, so we are offering some tips here to assist you with this.
On our Ed Tech Framework, in the blog, we have a number of sites that contain Creative Commons Licensed (royalty-free) images for free. The blog is searchable, and is updated regularly.
In addition to those resources, there are some excellnt sites that provide a simple interface for beautiful graphics creation. Adobe Spark is used by many webmasters and social media managers to create visually appealing, captivating graphics. Another well-used site is Canva. These two sites offer slightly different features, so you may choose to use both sites depending on what you are creating.
Bitmoji is the utility that creates a miniature version of you, and slipping the occasional cartoon-version of yourself into your website can enhance the feeling of being in the right place for your students.
Finally, if you want something really fancy created (a stunning banner for instance), fiverr is an online network of freelance designers who live everywhere on the globe. You can post a description of what you want to have done, and graphic designers from around the world will bid on the job. Fiverr got its name from the fact that for five bucks, you can get your job done. And that’s no joke, you can have a job done for around five bucks. There will be designers who charge more, that is permitted, but you can look at the design portfolios of the people who would like to do the job for you before you select one. And if none of them meet your criteria, you are not obliged to hire anyone.