#10 Online Image Generators

I used Big Huge Labs fd flickrtoys to play around for a while today. I had wondered how to make a replacement image for my wordpress (AKA "other" blog) and found one of those as well as a few other cool tools.

I used to do yearbook advisor in my "spare" time in my first library job. It was more like my life it seemed at times. The class of 1997 had a great vision for what they wanted their yearbook to be. We met with an artist from our publisher and talked about it, but it never really ended up being what the editor-in-chief had in mind. He wanted something similar to Andy Warhol's Marilyn Monroe prints: fd flickertoys will do it. That cover came out okay, but it really just didn't measure up to Peter's lofty plan. This absolutely would have done it for him--and I bet there are schools using many of these tools for just that sort of thing. There are so many tools that would have made our lives much easier back then!

Other options that would be useful from this image generator are the poster, badge, magazine cover, mosaics, CD cover and movie poster makers. Some of these would be especially useful for a project my music teacher is planning with her students (involving research!) I will be sharing this with her for sure.

I tried to use the Comic Strip Generator and while the main page was accessible any of the links were blocked, so I can't use this from school without bypassing the filter. I prefer not to do it; the kids use vtunnel and some of my colleagues do too. I've got an administrator password, but it's not my own, so I'll skip testing this, at least from school. I am frequently disappointed by our lack of access to web resources due to overblocking.

#6 Flickr fun, mashups, and 3rd party sites

I did some fiddling with Flickr tonight and got this montage using the tag "schoollibrary" and I did some doodling with the tool at retrievr and found this adorable stuffed knitted doll. Now I just need to find the pattern she used! :D

I also used fd's flickrtools to create the "trading card" to the right. These are my kids and I always like to show them off. The trading card format is pretty cool. I can tell that my son would love to have something like this created and I may just do something with an existing picture to create custom valentines for his school swap this year. What a fun way to share a picture with family and friends.

As for a way to use this in my library, I can envision using this to create reader trading cards or blogger cards for the students who participate in our student book discussion blog. I imagine they could then be printed and given to the students as bookmarks or awards. I need to begin to think about ways to use my digital camera and promote my library. I wonder if something like this could be incorporated into our LSL grant proposal to help fund a printer, camera and card stock. There's always something more we can do to promote reading in our libraries--but would this truly motivate my students? More food for thought, as always!