Copyright Free Resources

This website contains collections of images from many different government agencies. For example, the National Parks Service, NASA, the U.S. Mint, branches of the Military, and many, many more. The photos could be very useful in Science, Social Studies, and probably other classes as well. From just some quick research, it looks like the collections of images might best be suited for middle and high school students. The website states that some of the images may be used without permission or fee but the user should read the disclaimers to make sure of the copyright status.

National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library contains photographs of marine life. The content of this website would best be suited for High School and Jr. High School science classes. One area of interest on the website contains images of the human impact on marine life which could be useful for an Environmental Science class educating students on the effects of humans on our environment. The collection found on this website contains still images and some videos. The website lists that permission is granted to "any and all users (public domain)" for "unlimited uses." The images also include descriptions of the photos to help the user better understand the purpose of the photo.

This website contains clipart of maps and flags. This resource could be particularly useful in a Social Studies classroom for just about any grade Middle School through High School. I imagine the resources being used by teachers for instruction or students to use to create presentations where they need illustrations about various countries. One stipulation listed on the website is that permission must be given in order to use the country maps. Other than that, most sections list that the user is able to use the images free of charge without any formal permission. They do ask that if you choose to use their images that give a link back to their website. I thought it was very useful that the Flag Images included commentary on the country to which the flag belonged and a reason for the flag being as it is.

Contents of this site: This site contains images of influenza, natural disasters, environmental health, bioterrorism, electron micro-graphic imagery, everyday activities, health behaviors, public health in action. The websites recommend that the site is good for those studying in the primary, secondary, or graduate levels. However, there is a "WARNING: This library includes subject matter that may be unsuitable for children. Viewing discretion is advised." This site would be ideal for science, health, social studies, language arts (research and informational writing) with regard to any of the topics listed above. Copyright and Protection: The site states with regard to copyright that most of the pictures are copyright free, but you need to double check. Below is a question answered from the websites FAQ that will help clarify the copyright regulations of the images in this website. "What regulations govern the use of images in the PHIL? Answer: Images are either "Public Domain" (free use) or "Copyright Protected" (restricted, obtain permission before use) Most of the images in the collection are in the public domain and are thus free of any copyright restrictions. If you look directly beneath the image you will see a fair use statement that tells you if the image is public domain or copyright protected. Permission is not required for public domain images, but we do ask that you credit the original institution and contributor, when known, whenever the image is used in any publicly distributed media. If the image is copyright protected, you will have to contact the content provider to obtain usage permission. PHIL does not have the authority to grant usage for any copyrighted images in the library. If you have difficulty contacting a content provider, we may be able to help, but we cannot act on their behalf."

NASA's photojournal is a copy-right friendly website that allows students and teachers to view images of each planet and the universe, as well as spacecraft and technology. Also included in this site are animations of happenings in space. This website would be ideal for science instruction on space and could be used for all grades. Not only are the images appealing, the information tagged with each image is very informative.

I will definitely use this website, as well as my students, to create presentations for our space unit.

Librivox might be my favorite of all open source, copyright free resources for the Language Arts classroom. Started as a non-profit to benefit the blind, Vibrivox has created an amazing database that allows readers to record individual chapters of a novel or story that is in the public domain. These files are then made available to the visually impaired or anyone in need of an audio version of a written work. I use this resource extensively for students who are reading below grade level or have significant processing difficulty. I have also had several students "donate" their readings to the database as a community service project to benefit the overall community. If you are looking for public domain eBooks for your classroom, Project Gutenberg is another great resource.

Project Gutenburg is one of the oldest communities for the spread of the written word on the internet. For its inception, PG has been in the process of digitizing literature in the public domain and continues to update its library of over 45,000 free ebooks daily. This is an amazing resource for the majority of ELA courses, distance learning, and online classroom management systems. It has been truly invaluable in British Literature because almost the entire curriculum has been converted to digital form. It is also amazing for distance learning like Plato and Odysseyware that do not always provide the text with the learning software. If you would like these books in audio form, check out Librivox.

Project Gutenburg is one of the oldest communities for the spread of the written word on the internet. For its inception, PG has been in the process of digitizing literature in the public domain and continues to update its library of over 45,000 free ebooks daily. This is an amazing resource for the majority of ELA courses, distance learning, and online classroom management systems. It has been truly invaluable in British Literature because almost the entire curriculum has been converted to digital form. It is also amazing for distance learning like Plato and Odysseyware that do not always provide the text with the learning software. If you would like these books in audio form, check out Librivox.

This serpent dragon clip art is perfect for use on your fantasy books and magazines, game projects, webpages, school projects, etc. This clip art is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License which means you must provide credit to the creator of the clip art which is focaclipart.wordpress.com if you plan on using this clip art on your projects. I found lots of clip art images on this site, it was easy to navigate and well organized. I would use this site in my Computer Applications classroom. There are times were Windows don't have the exact clip art you are looking for so this will give them a quick and easy additional resource to locate that special image. I don't foresee any problems with the easy of downloading the image only challenge might be if the site is down for maintenance.

Dorret Goodwin, Animated Gif Archive This is a fun website that has thousands of free animations for educational purposes. I could see me using this in my high school Computer Application classes when they want to add some "life" to their projects. The website is easy to navigate since everything is listed alphabetically and I didn't have any issues with downloading the animations.

Morguefile.com has millions of royalty-free stock photos that could be used in the classroom for multimedia projects, websites, videos, portfolios, or any projects. I could use this website in any of my business/marketing classrooms for students to have an easy access to images. The images are easy to download therefore, I don't foresee any difficulties or problems with using the site.