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Learning Matters: Learning Can Be a Slippery Slope
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By Debra Christopher, MSM | January 22, 2015
Director, Professional Learning Systems, ETRThe Colorado Rockies. Snow country in December. Over the holidays, my family and I trekked to the mountains for some snowshoeing and winter hiking. So spectacular!
Our drive home required the navigation of two snowy mountain passes. We were caught in some pretty treacherous weather. My 21-year-old son was driving, and it was stop and go in extremely icy conditions.
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Quick! Free! Easy! Graphics for Your Trainings & Presentations
By Tracy Wright, MAED | February 24, 2015
Project Director, ETR
Finding the right graphic for your trainings and presentations can be a tricky and time-consuming task. Some images have costs associated with them. Others are free to use but may have “strings attached.”
In my attempt to avoid a lot of the hassle around image search, I’ve mostly used what Microsoft Office had to offer. I’d search directly within PowerPoint or Word. This worked well in the past, but it won’t in the future.
See Tracy Wright's updated post on free graphics here. More sites, plus tips from our master trainers on the ways they find and use free images.
In a recent NPR story we learned that Microsoft has said, “Goodbye to Clip Art.” Microsoft closed up the Office.com Clip Art and Image library of over 100,000 images and are now sending customers to the Bing search engine to hunt for images.
Some Tips
An Internet search on “free clip art” or “free images” will yield MANY results. There are a lot of no-cost sites for images and graphics. And there is a wide range of stipulations on use. Be sure to check out the “fine print” when searching for and grabbing that perfect picture.
Think through how to choose the right images for your presentations. Whether your images are free or not, there is an art to getting the right art.
We’ve listed a few blog posts and websites addressing free images below. Check these out and let us know if you end up using any of these sites. Tell us what you liked or disliked about them. Were they easy to search? Did you find useful images for your work? Did your downloads go smoothly?
- Free Stock Photos: 74 Best Sites To Find Awesome Free Images Blog post. You can also learn more about the meaning of “creative commons licensing” and “public domain” here.
- Digital Chalk: 10 (Free!) Stock Photo Resources for eLearning Blog post with some good resources.
- Searching for pictures or clip art online using Bing Instructions.
- Free Digital Photos Site offers free as well as fee-based images.
- Morgue File Creepy name, but includes both free and inexpensive fee-based images.
- Free Images Copyrighted images offered free of charge, with some restrictions (e.g., you cannot use images of a person to endorse products or services).
- Vecteezy Offers both free and “premium” (subscription-based) images.
- Open Clip Art Hosts public domain content, or content with all rights waived. Anyone may use the artwork.
Remember to share your experiences with us!
Tracy Wright, MAED, is a Project Director at ETR. She is a skilled distance learning, eLearning and professional development specialist. She has also served as a health education teacher in both middle and high schools. She can be reached at tracy.wright@etr.org.
