Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

Google Images has recently introduced a new feature that allows users to fact check information on images they find online. The new feature, as Google stated, is geared towards helping users make informed judgements about the visual component of the web. The fact check label added to Google Images provides users with key information about images including contextual data about the origin and authenticity of the visual.Google Images has recently introduced a new feature that allows users to fact check information on images they find online. The new feature, as Google stated, is geared towards helping users make informed judgements about the visual component of the web. The fact check label added to Google Images provides users with key information about images including contextual data about the origin and authenticity of the visual.

Unless they're introduced to other options, Google Images tends to be the default image search tool for students and adults. Google Images is convenient, but it's not the best place for students to find images that are in the public domain or to images that have been labeled with a Creative Commons license.

When looking for public domain and Creative Commons licensed images to use in multimedia projects I generally recommend going to sites like Unsplash, Pixabay, and Photos for Class instead of Google Images (my full list of recommendations is available here). The reason for that recommendation is that in the past Google Images hasn't been terribly clear about image licensing even when the "labeled for re-use" filter has been applied to image search results. Fortunately, Google is taking some steps to change that.

I often ask teachers if they use Google Images for the pictures they use in the resources they make for the classroom.
The majority of teachers tell me they use Google Images for all their images. They simply go to the site, search for their image, grab the best one and use it. I get why people would do this; it’s quick, easy to do and inside the Google search comfort zone. Doing this however is wrong, as seemingly too few of us know.