What's the deal with copyright photos?

..or: "learning to love the Creative Commons license".

Photos can be so useful in class - images get people talking and writing, and can help to find common ground quickly.

These days, teachers are expected to reference and cite every image, especially if used in an assessment task.

However, photos on the internet are copyright the photographer - unless otherwise marked. Probably.


To use an image legally, you either need to

• get permission from the photographer or author (if "All Rights Reserved"), or
• find an image that is licensed under "Creative Commons"(you must credit the author), or
• find an image that is in the Public Domain (totally free, no need to cite source - usually very old works)
• find images from a place like Morgue File, where photographers have donated photos from previous projects (copyright-free!!).

You can search several places for creative commons licensed images: for example:

Have fun with photos at photofunia

I found this "photofunia" site via Vivian, one of the teachers at Glenroy Neighbourhood Learning Centre. She uses the site for students when they first join a class there. The idea is that students upload a photo of themselves and do something fun with it, for example turn themselves into the Mona Lisa, or a design on top of a cappuccino.

It's kind of an ice-breaker, but people are also learning basic skills in web browsing and file management (upload, download files, remember where you saved it etc).

At first, I was talking with Barb about using the site with her students in the Making Connections class. However for that group, this would be extremely challenging. They're still learning about files and folders on the student drive.. Barb said she might re-visit the idea next year.

In the meantime, Tina said that her level 3 ESL students might be open to it, so I finished building this help file. Latest update: they might use it as an end-of-year activity.

Otherwise, the help file is still there if you'd like to use it. Let me know how you go, in the comments below.


Links:

1. photofunia dot com
2. the help file (in pdf format - stored in google drive)

By Michael Chalk