National Geographic: Stock your palette

National Geographic Stock is a great way to find photos or pictures which are available for you, or your students to use. The photos on NG Stock are royalty free, which means that you won't have to worry about copyright - these are all copyright free!

One way to search for photos on NG Stock is to use the cute colour wheel which is located on the home page - this gives you a sample of photos in the colour range of your choice. All you have to do is click on the colour you like and a range of photos will come up. If you have something more specific in mind that you want to search for though, you can always use the search bar on the right hand side of the screen. All you have to do here is type in what you would like to search for and click Explore.

Herald Sun's Top 5 Apps

I apologise for the delay in posts recently. As you might have noticed, we've had quite a few adventures and things going on in the Library from the start of this year, plus we've been dealing with internet blocks.

 I recently noticed this list of top 5 iPad Apps in the Herald Sun and thought I’d share them with you. I’ve actually used a couple of these myself, and have found them quite good.

1. Wonky Donkey

This best-selling kid’s book now comes in an interactive version for iPad. Kids can run their fingers over the text to hear the story or how any word is said or spelt. They can also colour the pages with the paint palette mode.

Price: $5.49

App Store Rating: 5/5

This is clearly too young for most kids at Salesian, however it may be great for some of the struggling readers. It also shows how far eBooks have come along, and there are other books out there which would be more suited to older readers.

2. Houzz Interior Design Ideas

Need inspiration for a spot of home redecorating? This app has a huge database of design ideas, with more than 200,000 high-res photos. Browse photos by style, room or location and save your favs to your virtual idea book.

Price: Free

App Store Rating: 5/5

This app sounds like it would be great for any students studying art, or design.

3. Pay Assistant

If maths wasn’t your strong suit at school, this app can help stop you short changing yourself at shops and restaurants. It includes calculators to tally up savings at sales, tips and your change.

Price: $1.99

App Store Rating: 5/5

4. Please Touch the Exhibit

Celebrate Melbourne Museum’s 10^th birthday with this app. It takes you behind the glass cases of some of the treasures on display, including Phar Lap, the creatures of the Dinosaur Walk exhibit and the animals of the Wild exhibit.

Price: Free

App Store Rating: 3/5

I haven't had a chance to download this app yet, but I really want to. It sounds like it gives you a chance to see exhibits in the Melbourne Museum without actually going there and seeing all the information in relation to them. Definitely worth a look I think!

5. Melbourne Literary

Discover the literary treasures of Melbourne, the second UNESCO City of Literature. This app is a guide to book shops, literary locations and monuments, ‘hip lit’ cafes, writers and books set in the city.

Price: $2.99

App Store Rating: 5/5

This is one of the apps that I have on my iPhone (as well as the Melbourne Historical App) and I really like it. It allows you to find little gems around Melbourne which you might not have found normally, including shops, momuments, cafes etc.

Google Art Project

Google has created a site, called Google Art Project, which is specifically focused on things artistic.  It links many notable and popular art galleries and museums from around the world, allowing the viewer to explore hundreds of famous artworks and gallery collections online.  Navigation choices are between Explore the museum and View artwork.  The surfaces of selected artworks can be scrutinised in high resolution by zooming in using a sliding bar, the scrolling button the mouse, or selecting the plus or minus sights on the left of the screen.  Expanding the panels reveals information about the artwork, details of other works by the artist and inks to related Youtube videos.  Additional exploration of galleries is available through the interactive Navigate floor plan and Visitor guide.  Students will enjoy viewing the videos provided and expanding their own collections using Create an artwork.

Syllabus classification:  Creative arts, K – 6, Visual Arts 7 – 10

Top Apps

I had a chat yesterday with a staff member who showed me a few of the apps he has on his iPad. I was really impressed with some of them so I thought I'd share them with you. These are all available for download through iTunes.
Life:
(Free)
Life Magazines photography collection is now available through your iPad/iPhone. Through this app you will be able to explore Life's archives as well as view their most recent photos. The photos are of excellent quality, and would be great not only for photography or art students, but to use in English and Humanities classes.

Qwiki:
(Free)
Qwiki is a great little app that I was very impressed with. You can search for information about any place, person or thing that you can think of, and Qwiki gives you an interactive summary about your chosen topic. You can even explore the area that you are currently in, to find out more about it. We did a search on Rupertswood, as the app could tell where we were, and it opened up a little video with pictures and information about Rupertswood. This would be great for those needing information on different countries or places they plan on visiting, or just if you need basic information on the fly. Qwiki contains information on over 3,000,000 topics!

Wikipanion:
(Free)
Wikipanion is a great, fast and easy way to access Wikipedia through your iPad. It allows you to bookmark your favourite topics, view your history so you can go back to a certain topic, save images to your photo library and more.

Planetary:
(Free)
This app is more for fun than for any educational purpose. But I really like the idea. Through Planetary you are able to explore through your music collection which has been presented in a 3D universe. Suns represent bands/singers, Planets represent albums, and moons represent songs in this very cute app available only through your iPad.

Aweditorium:
(Free)
Another music based app, however this is directed at those who want to find some new music to add to their collection or to find out more about a particular artist. Aweditorium brings together photography, lyrics, videos and interviews related to an artist, all in the one place. This could be another fun app, but would also be great for music students needing to find information on a particular artist, or to be able to experience various types of music.

Garage Band:
($5.49)
Garage Band turns your iPad into a full recording studio, giving you access to a collection of touch instruments and allowing you to make your own music. The instruments available at the moment are pianos, organs, guitars, drums and basses. A great app for music students (or teachers) or any artists in the making!