Hands Off, Vanna!

Hands off, Vanna! Giving Students Control of Interactive Whiteboard Learning


Activities and tools for students working with images on an IWB

IntroTips and Strategies • Working with wordsWorking with images
Create/improve/decideTeacher SharingResources


Even though many teacher are verbal learners, our students are often quite visual. Using images can help visual learners to "see" concepts. Images also act as IWB manipulatives --for FREE! Use web sources, IWB software, and digital cameras to find or make images to use the IWB workspace to:

annotate an image, drag image labels, color code image labels, compare images, clone images for quantities/ manipulatives, sort/order/rank images, diagram with lines and drawing tools, draggable drawing elements, arrange image elements, revisit an image and add as you learn, 2D manipulatives, create data visualizations, and more

Working with Images Activity Examples: (Activity format types are explained on the Tips and Strategies page.)

Web imagesLabel/highlight/compareAnnotate/add to images2D manipulativesData visualizations IWB-friendly web tools for images


Web images
  • locate and annotate directly on web pages displayed on IWB (if students know how to save annotations or take screenshots)
  • no copyright concerns
  • quick

Activity format: sidebar during class discussion, such as finding an example of a bridge and annotating triangles as a key structural element


Copy/paste images from the web (cited)
  • paste into IWB software
  • use Creative Commons licensed images if posting products to the web
  • Fair Use allows classroom use of ANY image if limited copies
  • ALWAYS CITE THE ACTUAL IMAGE SOURCE (NOT GOOGLE!)- copy/paste the source URL below picture ("group" it)
  • label, color code labels, drag labels,
  • draw/highlight on top of image,
  • compare and label two or more images

Examples: cells, structures/forces, plant parts, body parts (world languages/primary/esl), insects, compare two animal classifications, compare 2 or more architectural columns, compare homes in different climates, ANYTHING you can compare side by side.

Activity format: center, small group, all-4-one


Annotate and add to images
  • use various IWB drawing tools
  • movable drawing objects are movable/stretchable, rotatable, such as line to show battlelines on day 1, 2, 3 on top of map of Gettysburg
  • anything students can draw, then move, grow, rotate
  • return and revise as you learn
  • record screen as drawings move- if students know how.

Examples: collect and annotate images of several weather systems, adding wind direction and isobars, collect and annotate works of art and annotate the design elements in the composition, annotate advertising images to show how they distort human features or promote a message, annotate a digital picture of a chemical reaction in progress, annotate digital pictures of class plants, leaves, annotate images of steps in mitosis, etc.

Activity format: center, small group, all-4-one, scribe sidebar saved from day to day and revised/added to as students learn more about the concepts.


2D manipulatives
  • many clip art images and maps ready-made in software
  • students make their own from digital pictures or using images the web
  • clone, arrange, sort, rank, group images

Examples: clone money/coins to make specific amounts or change, food groups, make your own pictographs, sort monocots/dicots, sort acid/base, sort vertebrate/invertebrate, arrange stages in life cycle, create and arrange a food web, steps of the water cycle, how erosion happens

Activity format: center, small group, all-4-one. Students Save As or screenshot to save/compare their results to other groups or an answer key. Use as formative assessment, review, or project (creating their own food web, for example).


Create data visualizations (online or on your own)
  • use online examples to get started, such as Information is Beautiful. Search TF for “data visualization.”
  • use drawing tools (simple triangles!)
  • use ready-made graphics, such as states with sizes adjusted to reflect average education level, income, tornado risk
  • a real challenge!

Activity format: center, small group. Students Save As or screenshot to save/compare their results to other groups. A great challenge to differentiate for very bright students who have mastered basics.


IWB-friendly web tools for images
Tool name
What it does
TeachersFirst review and more ideas for using it
Compfight
Find Creative Commons images to use on your whiteboard or in web-based products
Compfight review
Creative Commons Search
Find images with Creative Commons licensing so products can be placed on the web (with credit, of course). Check licensing specifics on images
Creative Commons Search review
Information is Beautiful
(example: Hierarchy of Digital Distractions)
Data visualizations. Examples from all areas of interest -- something for everyone!
Information is Beautiful review
LOC maps site
Find Library of Congress archived maps for history classes IWB activities-- have the students do it! This is where our Gettysburg map example came from.
LOC Maps review
Microangela
insect and cell image site (use under Fair Use—do NOT make more than 2 copies or post on the web)
Microangela review
NEN Gallery
Education copyright-free images, even if placing on the web
NEN Gallery review
Public Domain Clip Art Blog
Find public domain clip art images. Selections are not comprehensive, but if they have topics you need, go for it!
Public Domain Clip Art Blog review


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