When we make educational resources to use with our students, images are an important part of it, because we live in a very visual world. The right image can take the place of hundreds of words or personalise a concept by using images of local places or objects that the students know.
It seems that all we have to do is open the computer and do a Google image search, then copy and paste. However if we want our students to be good digital citizens, we can't just tell them to acknowledge others work, we have to model it ourselves. Part of that is making sure that the digital images we use in our resources are either our own work or Creative Commons (CC).
FlickrCC is a tool that searches for CC images from Flickr. You can also join Flickr for free and upload your own photos and videos for others to share. Just make sure you change the licensing to CC instead of the default which doesn't allow legal sharing. Try also FlickrStorm, Compfight, Veezzle or use the Google Images Search tools are choose Labelled for Reuse. Judy O'Connell's post Free images online has a long list of places to get Creative Commons images from.
However this works well for well photographed places and objects. Plenty of photographs of Canberra for instance but it is not so easy to get images of the Macleay Valley.
To fill the gap I have started a Flickr group called Classroom Macleay and uploaded over 350 of my photos taken over the last 15 years of the Macleay Valley. I have made the license Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial. This means that you need to write CC Vivian Harris on them but are free to use them for any educational non-commercial purpose. Now I'm sure that on your computers, ipads, iphones etc there are some great images of the Macleay. Certainly better ones of Kempsey and the Lower Macleay. Join me in providing images for your fellow educators to use. The group is private by invitation but all you need to do is contact me and I will make you a member. Make sure you tag your photos as well as you can to make it easy to search for and be as accurate in your labelling as possible.
When students see attribution on your educational resources and ask about it, you have a perfect teachable moment. Encourage them to make their own photos creative commons and attribute correctly in their blogs, websites and assignments.
It seems that all we have to do is open the computer and do a Google image search, then copy and paste. However if we want our students to be good digital citizens, we can't just tell them to acknowledge others work, we have to model it ourselves. Part of that is making sure that the digital images we use in our resources are either our own work or Creative Commons (CC).
FlickrCC is a tool that searches for CC images from Flickr. You can also join Flickr for free and upload your own photos and videos for others to share. Just make sure you change the licensing to CC instead of the default which doesn't allow legal sharing. Try also FlickrStorm, Compfight, Veezzle or use the Google Images Search tools are choose Labelled for Reuse. Judy O'Connell's post Free images online has a long list of places to get Creative Commons images from.
However this works well for well photographed places and objects. Plenty of photographs of Canberra for instance but it is not so easy to get images of the Macleay Valley.
To fill the gap I have started a Flickr group called Classroom Macleay and uploaded over 350 of my photos taken over the last 15 years of the Macleay Valley. I have made the license Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial. This means that you need to write CC Vivian Harris on them but are free to use them for any educational non-commercial purpose. Now I'm sure that on your computers, ipads, iphones etc there are some great images of the Macleay. Certainly better ones of Kempsey and the Lower Macleay. Join me in providing images for your fellow educators to use. The group is private by invitation but all you need to do is contact me and I will make you a member. Make sure you tag your photos as well as you can to make it easy to search for and be as accurate in your labelling as possible.
When students see attribution on your educational resources and ask about it, you have a perfect teachable moment. Encourage them to make their own photos creative commons and attribute correctly in their blogs, websites and assignments.