Friday 22 October 2010

Creative Commons

Teaching students how to find and use Creative Commons images is the focus of my lessons with 4th and 5th graders this week. From my conversations with both adults and kids, there seems to be widespread lack of understanding about the concept of Creative Commons, and so Chrissy and I are trying to develop strong digital citizenship habits in the younger grades.

My favorite site for finding Creative Commons images easily (this is key because for a long time, I was doing it wrong and it was frustrating and complicated) is Compfight. Easy, cheesy, hit the CC only button on top and search away for the most amazing photos that artists are willing to share as long as they are given credit.
In working with students this week, our conversations are so interesting, and they are so keen to look at the copyright symbols for each photo. We are taking it slowly at this point, introducing them to the concept that they just can't take whatever they want from Google images (this is just shocking to most everyone), and then having them notice the artist's name on the page, and doing some searching for photos on topics that interest them. I'm scaffolding for Chrissy who will then go one step further and teach them how to attribute the photos on their blogs.

I did a bit of searching on Compfight tonight for an image that apprehended me. This is a doorway in Tunisia, a country that has intrigued me for years. One day, I would love to walk past blue doorways like this, on my way to grab a coffee and read a book at a sidewalk cafe. Better yet, what if it were the entrance to my house?

Chrissy shared a new link with me that does the same Creative Commons searching but includes the attribution for you--definitely worth a look! Thanks, John Johnston!

Image attribution: ahisgett

5 comments:

Miriam said...

I like Compfight too, but I normally use flickrcc (http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/) because it makes it so easy to crop and apply your attribution directly onto the image.

MrsE said...

Another site I often use is morguefile, all photos are cc and you can choose to credit or not. A colleague of mine is currently doing a year as a teacher librarian in Tunisia. You can read her blog at http://tunistravels.blogspot.com/
Sorry my time in Thailand coincides with your visit home. It would have been lovely to meet f2f.

Gwen Martin said...

Great info, Tara. You can come visit beautiful Tunisia and get your own fabulous pictures. ;)

Kremb de la Kremb said...

Wow! Thanks y'all for all these great creative commons links!

Tara, I'm curious...I saw that you attributed the image at the end of your post. Do you think we need to do it by the picture? Or anywhere is fine?

Tara said...

Thanks so very much for the extra links! I had no idea so much was out there! Our ISB21 team is talking lots about this issue. Ann, in my searching, I have seen the attribution in various places. For now, we have decided to put it at the bottom of the post. Look for another post soon about our discussion and common agreements. :)