06.29.08
Thing 10 – Conclusions about CC
Wow, I am really behind the eight ball! Did anyone else not realize that the moment you finish a painting, click the final “save” on a document, or send an iMovie to burn you have a copyrighted product? For as many documents as I’ve created over the last two years to support teaching and learning in my classroom, I feel like I should have come up with a creative logo to signal that the work was mine!
I understand and appreciate the concept of Creative Commons, and I feel like thanking each person who opens the use of their products and materials up to the general public through Creative Commons licensing. However, I feel like I still need some clarification. Most of the searching my students and I do for Web content revolves around finding images for projects that we do throughout the year. I understand that we can use Creative Commons to find works that can be used or remixed, but what is the deal when we do a simple Google Image Search instead of working through Creative Commons? For example, I used the search term “flower” through Google Image Search and the first hit was a photo of a beautiful orange flower posted through About.com. What do I assume about that photo since I couldn’t locate copyright information? Can my students use it in a Keynote presentation for science class? Can I use it for a vocabulary lesson in Smart Notebook?
In my classroom, we’re comfortable with tools like flickr, net Trekker, and Web Feet for image searching, but Google seems to be our gray area, and oftentimes it is our preferred search engine. I noticed that Creative Commons has a Google tab, so I’m thinking that it’s up to the individual user to locate the acceptable use policy for each image they come across through Google before they put it into a project. I think it would be a smart idea for individual schools–and maybe even departments–to review Creative Commons and acceptable use policies at the beginning of each school year. The amount of information about copyright out there is overwhelming, and I want to feel like I am following the rules.
