Visual Resources   Sometimes it's easiest to use existing resources in a project. You can find cartoons, drawings, buttons, arrows, photographs, and many other kinds of visuals on the Internet. Before you use any of these visuals, be sure to check the copyright notice on the website. You may or may not have permission to reuse these visuals.   Rather than using general purpose search tools to find graphics, seek out specialty search tools when locating visuals. Use expert starters, special search engines, indexes, and specialty sites such as museums, educational resources, personal websites, and commercial materials.   If you do use the standard search engines, look for advanced features that might allow you to search for visuals. In addition, try using words with your topic that might help focus on visuals such as the words diagram, photo, clip art, artwork, drawings, or others that might provide a specific reference to the type of visual you seek. Digital Glyphs Menu Visual Literacy Digital Visuals Visual Resources Return to Eduscapes Starting Points A good place to start is the Webclipart site at About.com. They provide an alphabetical listing to web clip art websites by subject area. The Image Finder links to a dozen sources of photographs. The Amazing Picture Machine is easy for students to use. They enter a word and it links to a page with a picture. Be sure to read their copyright discussion before using pictures.   For simple clip art for kids, start at Discovery Channel's Clip Art. Probably the best place for kids is Yahooligan's Downloader. This website also has sounds and videos in addition to picture links. The most popular starting point for teens is Ditto. When using these sites with students, be sure they have a specific task, otherwise they'll be likely to get caught up in the entertainment section rather than the area of your content. FreeFoto is an excellent starting point for subject area visuals. However be careful NOT to go to FreePhoto. It is an inappropriate site for students. Other good starting points including Free Graphics, Clip Art Review, and Barry's Clip Art.   Specialty Sites Sometimes you need a series of pictures on a particular topic such as weather, current events, travel, geography, history, art, or science. These photos could be used in student travel brochures. If you're looking for simple maps of the world, check out Graphic Maps. If you'd like satellite photos of places around the world, explore Terraserver.   There are many government and museum sites that contain wonderful historical photos. Check out the Library of Congress' American Memories collection. The Prints and Photograph room is an area of the Library of Congress. The photo section of the Smithsonian contains photos in many subject areas. Many local newspapers contain photo archives that might be useful. University faculty often sponsor photo sites such as this one on history. Northern Arizona University contains an excellent collection of photographs from the west. The California Museum of Photography is a good source for varied collections and exhibits of photography on topics such as Mark Twain. Often a university will specialize on something of local significance. For example at the University of Arizona you will find an excellent collection of photographs about life in the Japanese Relocation Camps during World War II. The Thinker website contains artwork on a range of artists from a museum in California. Students can search for a particular artist or piece of artwork and zoom in to see the details. Many older works of art are also available online. For example, Gray's Anatomy of a Human Body is now online as well as more recent Human Anatomy projects with photographs, XRays, and line drawings. One of the best topics for student projects involves animals. You can find many websites with nature photography such as Nature Gallery.   Some of the best quality photographs can be found at well-known websites such as National Geographic and NASA. Another good project involves biographical sites such as the Visual Archives site.   As you develop projects, consider preselecting the visuals students will be using or at least bookmark the best websites ahead of time. This can save a lot of time. The ARS Image Gallery site contains pictures of plants and animals. Rather than having students search this site, bookmark the plant page if you're doing a project on fruits and vegetables.   Focus on a Project As you develop a visually-rich project for students, think about the project and the needs of your students. Ask yourself: How much time do students to have to explore? Do students need specific or more general pictures? How will students use the photos?   For example, if you're doing a project on social issues, consider using the Yahoo Gallery. You can do a search for topics such as civil rights and poverty. If you're doing a career project, look up a particular career and find good visuals.   Conclusion My final example is also a reminder. Even though we've focused on Visual Literacy in this project, all literacies are important. The key is to think of ways to use the most effective tools for communication. When you read, it may be from a book or a computer screen. When you think of pictures, they may be photos, line drawings, still pictures, or motion pictures. Let's end with a book by Will Hobbs called Kokopelli's Flute. Set in the Southwest US, the book explores ancient ruins that include interesting rock art. For ideas about using the book in your classroom, go to the eduscapes project page on the book. As you explore the page, look for ways to incorporate text and visuals into the book. It might be an article about packrats. You might find a photo on the Kokopelli or a piece of line art and an article. Visualize the setting of the book with a trip to the National Park Service Mesa Verde page. Try a Native American webquest and create a concept map. Learn more about the author, Will Hobbs, and how he came up with the idea for the book. Finally, link to some of the websites that he suggests for the book such as a project on California History that involves students in brainstorming visually and using maps.   Digital Glyphs Menu Visual Literacy Digital Visuals Visual Resources Return to Eduscapes Created by Annette Lamb, 04/01. Updated 3/02.