Creative Commons and Media Use

Overview:

After discussing today’s readings, hopefully you realize that using media off the Internet is not as clear cut as we thought. One resource, however, that helps simplify copyright is called Creative Commons.

Objectives:
  1. To understand what Creative Commons is, how it works, and what it means for copyright issues.
  2. To locate and properly use media that are registered with Creative Commons.
  3. To learn how to apply Creative Commons Licenses to our own works.
The More You Know:
Creative Commons

Let’s look at exactly what Creative Commons is and why it is useful. The Creative Commons Website has several videos and comics that are geared toward younger audiences that we might use in our classroom. Explore the following resources:

  1. Wanna Work Together
  2. Get Creative
  3. Sharing Creative Works: Text-based Slideshow or Narrated Video
  4. How it Works Comic

Searching Creative Commons

Now that you have a better idea of what Creative Commons is, let’s see what it is like to search for media that is licensed under Creative Commons. One option is to use Creative Commons own search features. If you are using Firefox as your web browser, CC search is built in. Watch this video to see how CC search works in Firefox.

If you do not use Firefox, you can still access the Creative Commons Search by accessing its web page directly (http://search.creativecommons.org/). If you don’t use firefox and you’re only looking for images then try out FlickrCC. Whether you use Firefox or not, you’ll probably like the site!

Using CC Licensed Works

Once you’ve located a work you want to use, you need to make sure you cite it properly. Here is a list of requirements for CC itself, but other sites, like Flickr, may also have requirements of their own. To the right is an example of what a proper citation might look like. Notice that if you click on the image itself, it takes you to the full Flickr page with information about the image. This is to fulfill the Flickr requirements.

Working with Your Own Photos

When you can, it’s often a great idea to you use images that you have taken. There are several photo hosting sites that have become quite popular. These sites often provide free server space for your images (up to a certain amount). Of the three listed below, only Flickr allows users to apply Creative Commons licenses to their images. Spend some time looking through each of the sites.

  • Flickr
    1. 7 Things You Should Know About Flickr – from Educause
    2. Flickr Tour
    3. Newbie’s Guide to Flickr
  • PicasaWeb
  • Photobucket
    • Your Performance Tasks:

    For this lab we would like you to:

    1. Use someone else’s image that is licensed with a Creative Commons license:
      • Locate at least one Creative Commons image that you might consider using in your TPACK project.
      • Add this picture to a web page (e.g. a previous lab page) and properly cite this image.
      • Include a brief paragraph about how you might incorporate the use of images (either the one(s) you’ve chosen, or images in general) into your TPACK project.
    2. Post an image of yours to the web and license it with a Creative Commons license:
      • Open an account with Flickr and upload an image from your digital camera.
      • License the photo with Creative Commons.
    Submission and Due Date:

    All tasks for this lab are due by 8:00 a.m on Monday, July 5th. Please post the URL to your new web page and Flickr page in the comments area below.

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