I’m gear­ing up for the Kids Tech Camp in a cou­ple of weeks. That means it’s time to sort through my book­marks and favourite sites like Free Tech­nol­ogy for Teach­ers and SMS Tech Club decide what new tools to incor­po­rate into this ses­sion. The focus is on free, no-registration-required tools. Not because my library doesn’t have a good bud­get, but because I want the kids to learn to use tools that they will be able to access after Tech Camp is fin­ished. The first day is always Inter­net Safety and image edit­ing. Image edit­ing is a foun­da­tion skill that the kids often use in sub­se­quent projects so it is impor­tant that it starts the week.

iPiccy has worked really well in the past so at this point I plan to demon­strate it for sure. Other con­tenders are:
Pic­Mon­key
BeFunky
Iaza

Iaza con­verts file for­mats as well so I can see this com­ing in handy for some of the video and ani­ma­tion projects we do later in the week.

Some col­lage and slideshow tools that the kids will use and I will also use to high­light the kids projects.
Pho­to­visi — col­lage
Pho­to­peach — slideshow

Image gen­er­a­tors are a big hit and work well to use on sub­se­quent days as kids are gath­er­ing. Some fun ones include:

La Pho­to­cab­ine was a big hit in the spring. Looks like the old photo booths in malls, but so much cheaper to retake.

Fes­tisite Money — put an image into money from all over the world. Here I am, hang­ing out in the mid­dle of a Nor­we­gian kro­ner with an extremely large ear.

Zoom.it — allows you to zoom in on details of a photo on the web. Per­fect for see­ing the unique fea­tures of each ter­ra­cotta war­rior.