Eclectic Technology

Finding great images that are free can take time. This post provides an amazing number of resources that will help you with this task. They have also included five pieces of information for each site:

* Subject - does it focus in a particular area or not

* Description

* High resolution - many images available today may be of low resolution

* License - Creative Commons, Public Domain, or specific attributions that may be required

* Safety - is this a site that is appropriate for students or may there be cause for concern

The post then splits the list into a variety of areas:
* Search Engines

* Large Crowdsourced Collections

* U.S. Government Collections

* Unique Collections, including

   -  Getty

   -  Pixabay

   - and approximately 20 more sites

* Specific Subjects

* Clip Art

You will find many great images as you explore these collections.

Teaching teachers and students about copyright and asking them to respect intellectual property is not an easy task, but it is critical that we teach students that plagiarism is not acceptable (and that we follow the same rules). This infographic provides one way for teachers and students to determine what they may do and also provides information on how you may take material you have created and either place it under Creative Commons or choose to copyright the work.

Check out this site the next time you need to find pictures for multi-media presentations. It only searches for images in the public domain (and that are Creative Common licensed). Please note that the photos at their website are free to use but they also provide access to photos from Fotolia which may require some payment.

Teaching students about Creative Common licenses helps them to understand issues of plagiarism. What if we have students create an image, or publish a piece of their writing and also have them pick the correct license. We help students become creators and we teach them a new skill. The poster relies on visuals to help students understand the various types of licenses available. Consider posting a copy of this in your classroom.

Today we want our students to create, yet we know they do this by remixing and reusing "intellectual property" from others. Do they understand the need to give credit where credit is due. This toolkit provides a wide range of resources to help them make the correct decision (or to help you teach them how to make that decision). Sections include:

* What is Creative Commons?
* How to find Creative Commons content? Remember, content may include images, audio, video and YouTube (as examples). This section is quite robust in providing access to many resources, including portal for music, images and video as well as favorite sources for images and sounds.

* What do those Creative Commons License icons mean?

* Creative Commons licenses are for you too! What if your students create content and license it under Creative Commons?

* Public Domain resources

* Fair Use

* And more!

This is a great resource that is probably best for older students but the resources will guide you to locations that you may use with younger students also.

This infographic is designed as a comic and explains the ins and outs of using Creative Common images. You might consider using it with students. Originally designed in German this is an English translation by the designer. The infographic designed in German provides an explanation as to how you might read the infographic as a comic, providing short descriptions for each section. You may access the German version at this link: http://www.bildersuche.org/creative-commons-infografik.php and if you use Google translator it will translate the text of the article (but not the infographic).