Using Copyright- and Royalty-Free Media

It is important to teach students that, although images and information are readily available on-line, much of it is protected by copyright. When completing class projects, it can be tempting for students (and, I'll admit, teachers) to simply conduct a Google image search and grab the first picture that fits the need. Unfortunately, this can cause problems due to copyright law, especially if finished projects will be available for public viewing. If you have questions about copyright and fair use, your school library/media specialist should be able to help you.

The images that students collect and use for their work should be copyright- or royalty-free (you can also teach them about how to obtain permission to use images if they find one they really want to use). A search on-line for copyright free images can get you many possibilities. Be aware, though, that many (or most) of these sites do not contain filtered content and may include images that are not appropriate for children. You must examine the sites yourself before linking your students to them.

Here are a few places to find images to use (be sure to check the sites prior to your lesson to make sure that they are still operable):

• US Government works are automatically considered part of the public domain. Excellent images can be found from the US Fish and Wildlife Service, NASA, US Department of Agriculture, US Department of the Interior, and more. Check the individual websites for these services to explore their image libraries.

• www.Pics4Learning.com is a library of images that have been donated for use in educational projects. Permission has been given for teachers and students to use all of the images in the collection.
  

• Wikimedia Commons has a huge library of images, video, and audio files, that are in the public domain or are freely licensed. When selecting a photo, you can see the licensing information for that image.

• www.PDPhoto.org provides thousands of pictures that have been placed in the public domain by the photographer, Jon Sullivan.

You should identify quality sources of images for your students and provide them with links to those sites that you want them to visit. As always - quality advance work yields better results!