Free Stuff..... who needs Flash and photoshop?

Before committing to spend potentially hundreds (for home users) or thousands (for school departments) on licences for Flash and photoshop you may want to try the following online tools.

Lunapic
This was introduced to me by my students who had been using it to customise their myspace sites. It has all the features you would want in a simple graphics package. Features include:

1. Simple interface.
2. Graphics creation.
3. Animation.
4. Drawing tools

I would need more than just this web site if I was doing a graphics specific project, however, our students now see this web site as the first port of call for image manipulation when wanting to enhance presentations or documents.

Flickr

Online community and can be used as a tool to share photos with groups of students. Great way for students to share what they are doing over the summer. Need to be careful with security issues- although is a good way of introducing ideas of online safety and information literacy.

Flaming Text

A site that students have been using for some time, but starting to look a little dated and short of ideas. However, it is still very good at creating text based graphics and buttons. Straightforward and easy to use; and is also a good way of introducing students to different ways of representing colour when creating web sites etc. Works especially well in conjunction with MS Paint.

Cool Text

Your students will love this, no matter what age they are. Very good for students who are struggling to understand the concept of "house style" as there are loads of unusual fonts that are based on album covers, films and the like. They add more authenticity and professionalism to web sites and presentations.

Blogger

Blogger is an excellent tool for allowing students to publish work on the Internet in a safe and controlled way. I would suggest a teacher setting up an account and a blog first and then inviting the students to participate. The blog can be limited to whoever you want to view it- for ICT teachers its a great way of parents being able to participate. A very effective way of allowing students to develop ideas and concentrate on connective writing. Here one that some of my students have been working on. Further insight can be gained at www.weblogg-ed.com.