Many times, students seek to find images or other multimedia to use in their project work. These projects are often shared and published online. It’s important for students (and teachers!) to understand how to safely and appropriately use others’ work they can find online, including shared photographs, video, audio, and text.
Check out the Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons resource page on this blog to learn more about this important topic. I am happy to visit your class to share more about fair use and copyright topics with your students!
Google Drive Research Tools
When students create a new document in Google Drive, such as a new word processing doc to compose a piece of writing, they have access to tools to assist with their research. Read more about the Research Tools here. Students can choose from a Google information search, Image search, Scholar search for academic articles, and even access the Dictionary tool, right inside their document/presentation.
By choosing an Image search, students can further define the parameters of the search by making sure they choose the drop-down option under Filter image results by usage rights: Free to use, modify or share, even commercially. The images that appear in a search with this criteria marked will help ensure the images located are able to be reused in student projects.
Any work licensed with a Creative Commons license dictates how to generate this attribution.
Google Images Advanced Search
At other times, students may turn to Google Images to search for images. There is a way to filter the images returned in a Google search through the use of Advanced Search. Follow these directions to help your students use the Advanced Search in Google Images:
Advanced Image Search Tutorial
Here are some other links to websites that may help students in their searches for appropriate, free to use images in their project work:
http://pics4learning.com/
http://gogooligans.com/
http://www.kidtopia.info/
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Shelly Terrell is a wonderful educator who freely shares inspiring ideas for the inclusion of digital technologies in the classroom. Check out her fabulous 31 Days of Digital Tech Integration advent calendar! This resource offers tools and tips for ways to successfully integrate technology into your classroom.
