The Visual Word

"Benevolence" by Justin Lewis

2008-07-06T22:37:00.001+08:00

Watch this short film "Benevolence" by Justin Lewis. There is something gospel about this...

Short Video Clips for Teaching

2008-05-23T02:33:00.003+08:00

Here is a really nice site which provides short movie clips which you can use for teaching purposes.

URL: www.wingclips.com

Line Drawing Source

2008-04-07T01:17:00.005+08:00

Here's a nice site where you can download line drawings. Actually, what is amazing is that you can create line drawings out of actual photos which you upload

Here's one I created - the identity of the person I used is secret!URL: http://www.caricature-software.com/gallery/index.php

Comic Resources

2008-02-26T22:43:00.003+08:00

Comic resources are great for conversational starters or for catching attention in a lecture because they reflect human interests and life situation so well.

A wonderful one stop comic resource you can visit for comic strips is Go Comics. There are many strips you can view for a week after which they go into a pay to view archive.

URL: http://www.gocomics.com/

Holy Lands Photos

2007-04-21T06:24:00.001+08:00

This is a really nice site which provides free high quality pictures of Bible Lands taken by Dr Carl Rasmussen. Those of you who are familiar with the Zondervan NIV Bible Atlas know that Dr Rasmussen was the author of that volume.

The site allows you to browse in three ways: a) Daily Life and Artifacts, b) People and c) By Region. What is nice is some of these images are ready sized available for use in Powerpoint teaching.

Here's a research question: In the Bible, there are passages which describe the Tabernacle. Where are these passages to be found and how would you describe the tabernacle?

OK, here's the answer. To the question, "Where are these passages to be found?", go to www.biblegateway.com Clue: Check "Exodus".

To the second question, visit www.holylandphotos.org. Go on the top right corner and click on Daily Life and Artifacts>Religion>Tabernacle.
Here's one of the sacrificial altar outside the Tabernacle but within the curtained area of the Tabernacle structure.
URL: http://www.holylandphotos.org/

Bible Lands Dot Com

2007-04-20T16:13:00.001+08:00

URL:

Emerging church cartoon

2007-04-07T10:31:00.001+08:00

I just couldn't resist sharing this cartoon from http://www.cartoonchurch.com

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

Colouring pages for Sunday School

2007-04-07T08:38:00.003+08:00

Sometimes, Sunday school teachers wish they could find instant resources for their kids to colour.

Here are links to some sites.

a) Sermon for Kids Colouring Pages
John the Baptist
URL: http://sermons4kids.com/colorpg.htm

b) Touch of Fire Site
Scroll down to the bottom third of the webpage where it reads:
"Free! Our Bible A-Z coloring book is ready for download. All the stories from our book are available for easy download and print. This is free (all our downloads are). There are about 120 high-quality A4 size pages with lovely pictures and text."

There you can get nice pdf files of Bible stories, each of which contain a few pictures from a story. Here's one of Balaam and the donkey!
URL: http://www.touchoffire.com/

c) Christian (Bible) Coloring Pages
Ruth gathering her sheaths
URL: http://www.coloring.ws/christian.htm

d) TeacherHelp Coloring Pages
This is a great resource because it has compiled many links to different sites which offer free coloring pages. No lack of choices here! The first link, which is the link to Calvary Chapel provides a very comprehensive curriculum for teaching bible to kids. That is to say, its not just coloring pages, its a whole curriculum plus ideas to help promote learning which accompany the pictures.
A page from the story of Hagar and Ishmael
http://www.teacherhelp.org/color.htm#bible

More Asian face pictures in Flash Face

2007-04-06T00:37:00.000+08:00

Here's a face created with changes in hair style and lip shapes in http://flashface.ctapt.de. I then created 4 powerpoint slides, inserted the images and the text, saved the slides as gif images, and then made an animated gif of the 4 gif images.

Recognize the potential of creating such images for learning? What if I created an animated gif which was a dialogue between bible characters? What if I created an animated gif of ordinary people talking about issues in the Bible which invited discussion/study?
Growing bald!

An experiment with Asian faces on Flash Face

2007-04-04T22:36:00.000+08:00

Guess what? The Flash Face site can create great Asian faces. Here's my sketch of an Asian male.

I love this site. Go discover the really nice features! I think I will only focus on creating Asian faces as well as imaginary Biblical characters.

URL: http://flashface.ctapt.de

Oh, remember that by manipulating just the eyes and mouth (and occasionally the nose), you can get so many different possible facial expressions.

Flash Face

2007-04-03T05:34:00.000+08:00

Flash Face is similar to the Face Game. Here is a picture that was sketched in a few minutes. The site is great!

This one is entitled "OT Prophet...or emo guy?" Suddenly, any one can be a sketch artiste....

URL: http://flashface.ctapt.de

National Geographic's Face Game

2007-04-02T21:46:00.000+08:00

The Face Game is a image generator that allows you to create "realistic", photofit type pictures by chosing different face shapes, hairdo, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc.

This is Jane...

URL: http://natgeochannel.co.uk/play/faceGame/

URL: http://www.mono-1.com/monoface/main.html

Caricature Generator Site

2007-03-19T22:49:00.000+08:00

Here's a nice site which allows you to be a "talented caricature artist."
Why so sad?

URL: http://www.magixl.com/heads/poir.html

Tombstone Generator Site

2007-03-17T23:54:00.000+08:00

Here's a site you may want to use to get people to reflect on lives and how they live it. Tombstone Generator allows you to write your epitaph. What would you want people to remember you by? What, on the other hand, would someone else who really knew you write on it?

URL: http://www.jjchandler.com/tombstone/download.php

An iCard Generator

2007-03-06T05:31:00.000+08:00

Here's a site you'll like. You can create free e-cards (here called i-cards) and send them to friends or even yourself. I send them to myself all the time to use as visuals in powerpoint/blogs.

Here's one I created to promote the idea of developing the discipline of listening to the Word of God for the ipod/postliterate generation.

URL: http://www.mac.com/WebObjects/iCards.woa?aff=consumer&lang=en (then click on the iCard tab)

Mr. PicassoHead

2007-03-05T22:26:00.000+08:00

Bring out the artist in you. Here's a unique site which allows you to create different artistic expressions on a canvas (presumably in the style of Picasso, but in the manner of Mr Potato Head where you stick together the different parts of the body.

My picture here ( created in just 3 minutes) illustrates James 1:19 where we are called to be slow to anger and slow to speak, but quick to listen. After all, didn't God give us one mouth and two ears?

URL: http://www.mrpicassohead.com/

Creating your own comic characters

2007-03-04T21:37:00.000+08:00

Here is a great site for create your own comic character. The site allows many variations on the same character which is great for illustrating plot development and characterization.

URL: http://www.dookyweb.com/avatars.swf

Garfield Comic Strip Creation site

2007-02-26T18:41:00.000+08:00

Here is a site for creating Garfield comic strips.
OK, I am not a great fan of Garfield, but it might work for some of you.

URL: http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/public/sleep/starslp/missionz/comic.swf
(Click here)

Comic Creation websites (i)

2007-02-25T14:35:00.000+08:00

Here are a couple of sites which can be used for creating cartoons/comic strips. I find these resources useful because most of the time we use other people's cartoons and hope they communicate in our contexts.

How you can create very context specific strips.

The first site i wish to highlight is the Strip Generator. It is really easy to use. Just choose from over a hundred characters and objects, drag the items into the panels, add your captions and dialogue/thought bubbles and voila! Done!

I dare say if you already have the idea, you can do most comics in under 3 minutes.

Here's one I did for my Visual Communications Special Interest Group website (if you click on the image, you will see a bigger image).
URL: http://stripgenerator.com/

Oh, one more thing, the question of how to download the comic strip after you have created it needs to be answered.

For Apple users, you have a built in software called Grab. Using Grab, you can take a "snapshot" or a "screengrab" of any webpage (or any part of a webpage, an image, etc). Note however that Grab only allows you to save the image as a .tiff file. .tiff files can be inserted into Powerpoint/Word, but cannot be upload in Blogger. How did I manage to get around the problem for this picture? Yes, its true, I did use Grab to cut the image as a .tiff file, but I also used a free program called Toy Viewer to convert the .tiff file to a .jpg file. Toy Viewer is one of the Internet's best gifts (read F-R-E-E!!!) for Mac Users.

For PC users, you need to download a free software called ScreenGrabPro. For that you need to visit http://www.traction-software.co.uk/screengrabpro/

Web Generators

2007-02-23T23:59:00.000+08:00

I want to move on to online sites which allow you to generate images which you can use for visual communication purposes. Some of these generators include comic strip generators, digital characters (or avatars) generator, cross word puzzle generator, book cover generator, etc.

Here is my first installment: A "Dummies" book cover generator.

(OK, for those who haven't got it, the real book doesn't exist!)

You could try "Genesis for Newbies" "Church History for Dummies" etc.
URL: http://www.signgenerator.org/books/dummies/

BibleMap.Org - an interactive map site

2007-02-13T23:32:00.000+08:00

Here is a really interesting site which uses the interactive features of the Internet to promote learning.

When you first access the site, you are greeted by a satellite map plus a text box on the Left Hand of the screen. Type in the Bible passage, and when text comes up, you want to click on the highlighted place name. Clicking on the place name calls up a map.

I typed in Ruth chap 2 and got the satellite image of Bethelehem which I have posted below:

Screenshot of the Satellite image of Bethlehem

If you notice up on the right hand side, instead of a satellite image, you can click on the "Map" option. The screenshot below is what I got when I clicked on "Map" as well as "Hide This Window" for the text book:

Screenshot of the Map of Bethlehem without the text in the way

URL: http://www.biblemap.org/

Bible.ca Maps

2007-02-13T22:27:00.000+08:00

Here is a website where you can find free high and ultra hight resolution maps in black and white.
Map of Abraham's Journey in the Ancient Near East
Map of Jerusalem

URL: http://www.bible.ca/maps/

Jonathan HipKiss's Scanned Old Maps site

2007-02-13T00:11:00.000+08:00

Here is an interesting site which features scanned old maps. This is a project by Jonathan Hipkiss.
Journey of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan
Palestine in the Time of Jesus
URL: http://www.hipkiss.org/cgi-bin/maps.pl?cat=bible

The Net Bible

2007-02-09T15:59:00.000+08:00

The Net Bible site has a small collection of beautiful satellite maps of the Bible lands. The maps are there to support the great work of the NET Bible, a project of www.bible.org.
Galilee and the North

In addition to the satellite maps, there is also a very good collection of black and white maps which you can use for classroom map work.
Paul's First Missionary Journey
URL: http://www.bible.org/page.php?page_id=2055

Manna Bible Maps/Bible History Online Maps

2007-01-31T21:17:00.000+08:00

This is a site which does beautiful online maps which are not intended to be downloaded, but viewed online.

URL: http://www.biblemaps.com/onlinemaps/
Hmm...just checked out the site and they don't do free views anymore. You have to pay for the maps, but they are worth purchasing for their beauty.

But wait,here's a really nice site - Bible History Online. Check out especially the color maps which are closer to the bottom of the webpage.

URL:http://www.bible-history.com/biblehistoryonline_biblemaps.php