I found the cover image at the top of this post on the Photopin Web site and I was excited to find another source of copyright-friendly images that I can share with my students and colleagues. I found Photopin very easy to use, although sometimes I came across images with watermarks across them (usually images from Shutterstock), which seem to require payment for usage. Another site I like to use with students is Pics4Learning, which is a free image library for educational use. The site is easy to use because the images are indexed and sorted into categories so students can find what they need easily. The site also has useful resources for teachers including lesson plans that have a multimedia component. My students get very excited when they can use photographs and videos in projects and my students in 4th and 5th grade have created glogs to present their research projects. It didn't take them long to learn how to create these online, interactive posters, which they used to share their knowledge about Colonial Trades and elements of the Periodic Table. One of my goals this year is to provide students with resources and projects where they can take their own photographs and use them in multimedia projects.
Making students and faculty aware of the different types of copyright licenses is a challenge as I find it confusing, too. The confusion is compounded because the legal profession does not seem to be unified about the rules for multimedia rights, plus there are different laws about copyright in different countries! However, I use the Flickr Explore/Creative Commons page as a visual tool for explaining the different levels of photo rights to students. The icons help students visualize the different types of permissions and they help me remember, too! I find this is a good place to start.
I created an account at Flickr, which I am going to use to organize and share my photographs about my school library program. I must say I am already "hooked" by Flickr and found it very easy to use. I created a slide show of the work 3rd graders have done in preparing for their upcoming puppet shows. We read different versions of The Gingerbread Man story, including The Bun and The Runaway Tortilla. After we discussed similarities and differences of structure, characters, and plot, the students worked in groups to create their own versions of this folktale. Some of the new versions were: The Runaway Hot Dog, The Runaway Pizza, and The Runaway Chocolate Chip Cookie. Students planned their stories, made storyboards, and paper puppets. When we return from break the students will be ready to perform their puppet shows - I can't wait!