Finding Legally "Reusable" Media Online

I've worked with many teachers who have their students use imagery online for their reports or podcasts.  However, they want pics that do not need permission from the owner to reuse or modify, and to teach their students this good practice.

One great way to do this is to use Creative Commons.  Creative Commons is an organization that works with image creators, video creators, audio creators, etc and provides the public with copyright license to reuse and modify the creators' work; and as with anything, with "some rights reserved" which will be subject to the creator of the product.

Students can utilize Creative Commons for gathering imagery, video, music and more that is legally allowable for reuse.  This is a great way to teach your students about piracy.


Where do students start?  This easy:


Students can search for Creative Commons material right in their Firefox web browser.  All of our MLTI Macbook devices come with a Creative Commons Search Bar.  In their current Firefox search bar, select the down-arrow.

Let's say we are studying rain forest animals and I want to find images of a jaguar.  I would select the Creative Commons Search and type jaguar in my search bar.  Creative Commons automatically directs you to their customized search site and offers several other sites that offer reusable media - like Fotopedia, Flickr and Google Images.  You can do the same with video as well.  You may find some of these resources blocked, however if it is something that you would like to use and would be approved by Administration, ask for use of the site.

 There is a bit of digging required depending on how uncommon your search is, however could result in some valuable material; and legal.



Here are a couple of other sites that offer reusable imagery:

• Ookaboo
• Pics4learning
• Ken Thomas