Pixlr

Like any educator, I find that images enhance learning. Many lesson plans I create employ images to help my students learn. Some images are even required to explain certain concepts, such as evolutionary trees of animals (technically speaking these are called phylogenetic trees--sorry, I'm a teacher, I can't help myself). How can a student understand such a tree without ever viewing one? So I need an image that helps explain these trees in a way that I want students to understand them. I search Google and can't find a good enough image. Oh well, the lesson probably wasn't important anyway.

Enter Pixlr. When I need an image and can't find the right one on the internet, I create it myself. Pixlr is my go to for this process. I have never learned how to use Photoshop. I picked up Pixlr instantly. Sure, it was slow going at first and I'm nowhere near a master Pixlr-er now, but it gets the job done. It is simple enough and forgiving enough to explore my options and discover how to make the images I need. Remember that Ctrl+Z is your friend.

Pixlr is free. It is web-based, meaning that you don't need any software other than an internet browser to use it (and if you're reading this now you have a browser already). You don't even need to sign up. You save images you make to your computer. You can import images from your computer or the internet to edit them. I don't know all of its features, but for the level of editing I partake in, Pixlr has everything needed. Give it a try sometime.