Copyright Free Resources

University of Iowa might move to Unizin, a data management and learning software that allows professors to share technology more fluidly. Unizin is also university owned and recreates the idea of educational software by skipping the large corporations

This one feels like it is cheating, but it is the MOST powerful way to get copyright-free material for the classroom. Knowing how to use search operators might radically change your work efficiency. For example, if you need to create a PowerPoint on the Civil War, you could start from scratch and find images and text and important information. By using the search term "filetype:ppt" and adding the search topic "Civil War" afterwards, Google will only return links to actual PowerPoints already created on the internet. This search term can be used with any file type. If you are looking for an existing test over the civil war in Word, search for "filetype:doc Test 'Civil War'". This can literally save hundreds of hours of time and effort.

This is free educational blogging site. It could be used for any subject and grade level, but it is probably best for students ranging from 3-12 and higher education. It contains images, videos, audio, and visuals. This online resource allows students and teachers to collaborate, share thoughts and ideas, and so much more! There are tools within this site that allow you to upload quizzes, set due dates, and post assignments or required readings from the web. This website can be used to facilitate discussions about lessons you teach in class. For example, after reading a story or book with your students, the teacher can pose an open-ending discussion question on the blog. Students would then be asked to answer the question during center time or even for homework. Other students in the class will be able to read and respond to each other's posts to create a rich discussion. Teachers can also use the blog to post upcoming events, tests, or quizzes in the classroom and parents can use it to stay informed. Teachers can also use the website to post videos, podcasts, and documents they create. Students are able to view these things at home. This is especially helpful when parents are unsure how to help their child with homework because they do not understand the concept you taught that day. For example, if you introduce a new concept in math and assign homework that night, parents and students can watch a lesson you recorded to get a better understanding of the material. Using Edublogs is a safe and easy way to integrate technology in the classroom! As I reflect, I think about the possible difficulties this resource could possess. Being that it is not a program you can purchase and install on your computer, problems could occur with the being able to connect. Since it is a resource that anyone could use, a lot of people can be on the website at one time and cause it to "crash" or free up. Also, I think about routine maintenance or updates that must be d

This is a free web-based resource which includes images, audio, and visuals. This resource can be used for all grades. This resource allows anyone to create a free slide show very quickly. You can use your own images and music, or you may use music they have provided. This resource also allows you to add text to the slide show you create, you are able to embed different things, and you even have some control of transitions. This resource can be used to introduce a topic to your students. You could create a slide show with texts and sounds to introduce a social studies lesson. For example, let's say you wanted to teach students about Athens, Greece. You could use this resource to upload pictures of Ancient Greece to display its architecture and add text to label what the picture is displaying. You could also use it in reading as a storytelling slide slow. You could even allow your students to create an "All About Me" project. They would be able to upload pictures of themselves, family, pets, and anything else that allows people to get to know them. This resource can be used in ways. It is a fun, free, and almost effortless resource that allows teachers to easily integrate technology in their classrooms. As I reflect, there could be some difficulties or problems that arise with using this resource. Since this resource is easily accessible to anyone, students may upload inappropriate content into their slide show or add inappropriate music. To avoid misuse, I recommend teachers require students to get their slide show approved by a teacher before showing it to the class or sharing it with anyone else. Also, there is only a limited amount of music available that is provided by the website. Due to this issue, teachers or students may struggle finding and uploading their own music. Teachers should also monitor what content is being uploaded to make sure the slide shows meet the fair use laws. As with any form of media, teachers have to be sma

Photo Pin is a search engine that allows you to search by tags. Its photos are taken from Flickr using API which searches for creative commons photos. When it opens up, there are check boxes to search for specific license types. Even typing in benign words like sink rendered many photos to choose from and most of the pictures were artistically taken. The images come in various sizes and the HTML code is right there when you open the photo. Be careful not to click on the images above the line. These are sponsored images and will ask for a fee. Some images contained scantily clothed and provocative individuals when a few choice words were entered into the search engine. Because of this, this site should be reserved for high school students only.

Find historical maps, geographical maps, cartographic maps, maps of battles, cities, town... This is a very good resource for a social studies teacher. It contains over 4.5 million items. This website may also be good for science teachers who are studying conservation or the travels of an explorer like Darwin. History teachers who study battles during war can find American Revolution, Civil War, WWII battle and campaign maps. Any lesson that requires a map, this is the place to go to first.

The United States Department of Agriculture image gallery provides public domain, high-quality images of animals, crops, food, field research, plants, and more. These images are generic in nature; they are more like stock photo images. This gallery is great for teaching young children about the different occupations in agriculture, the different animals on found on the farm, or the different type of crops we grow. Due to the simplicity of the photos, they would not be as effective with student past 5th grade. Whenever you go to download an image, there is a form asking how you plan to use it. This form is optional; you can download the image without using it.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Digital Library provides a collection of images, historical artifacts, audio clips, publications, and videos. Unless marked for private use, most of the collection is in the public domain. Instead of providing artifacts entirely based on the variety of fish and wildlife in the U.S., the website mainly focuses on artifacts on the services provided by the department. The artifacts that are based on the fish and wildlife would make excellent items to include in science classes of all ages. The artifacts based on the services provided would be better suited for high school social studies classes or any type of community involvement subject. The collection is huge, with a lot of information that is too "specialized" (documents outlining conservation plans of specific complexes), users of the site should use the search function over the browse function.

The Johnson Space Center digital image collection provides over 9,000 press release images from space programs ranging from Mercury to the STS-79 Shuttle mission. Unlike the NASA image gallery, the images provided are more historical in value. Unless stated otherwise, NASA does not "license" these images, but they do provide a list of guidelines of their use. Since these images have historical value, they may be best used in high school social studies, science, and history courses. One main issue with the images is their size. Each image is 640x480 pixels, making them well-suited for web, but not ideal for print.

This is a royalty-free website. There are three levels of purchase, gold ($59.96), platinum ($99.95) and pro ($199.95). A school may share a license for this price. This site contains clip art, power point backgrounds, animations, sound effects, sound/music and video elements. Images and GIFs come in various sizes. Many can be downloaded with or without a background, so it doesn't have that square box around it. Spice up your blog or bring your power points to life with this service. This site is good for any subject, any age or any grade level.

This is a great study tool. You can use for many ways to study. The site allows you to use it as traditional flashcards or you can create a quiz or games. Students can choose what tool they would like to use. A difficulty of this site is that it may be blocked by the school district technology department. Best flashcards for your computer or smartphone. Study online or with an app. This is a great tool to use and post key vocabulary to study for a unit.

This is a wonderful social networking site for education. It is for students and teachers. The teacher can set up an online component to their traditional classroom. It allows the teacher to grade work and give instant feedback. Students can hold online discussions about course topics too. Students have backpacks where they can file any resources they would need to complete an assignment. Also teachers are able to create and post assignments that students turn in with the click of a button. A problem that can take place is that the Edmodo site may be down or the school network is not communicating well with the sites network. Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share content, and access homework, grades and school notices. Our goal is to help educators harness the power of social media to customize the classroom for each and every learner

Convert files like images, video, documents, audio and more to other formats with this free and fast online converter. This resource is a great tool that can be used by teachers or students. It can be used to create multimedia projects that help teachers to delivery content information. In addition students can use it to create various types of projects that they can embed into power point presentations or if they are trying to make a movie project. A problem that could possibly arise may be that the school district has put a block on the website. To get mitigate this issue the teacher should contact the technology support team and ask for them to take the block off of this particular website. Also students will need to be explicitly taught copyright laws and citing procedures.

Timetoast is a place to create timelines that you can add to your blog or website. You can create historical timelines of important events, or build a timeline of your vacation. Time toast is a website that allows a person to create an interactive timeline. I would use this to show information as an interactive study guide. Or I would use it to post on my blog so that students can review the information that was presented during the course of a particular unit of study. A difficulty of this site is that it may be blocked by the school district technology department.

This is a very free and very useful websites with various photos. This website could be useful for the out of the box thinkers. I see this website being used especially for teaching the many concepts that we have learned this semester.

This website provides various types of resources for both the teacher and the student. It contains different videos, pictures, lesson plans, and activities for all subject areas. This website would be very useful for finding lesson plans and activities to incorporate photography.

The Library of Congress contains a host of collections that can be explored. One Diigo posting referenced the American Memory collection, there are quite a few more. Just a small sample of the prints and photograph collection include Architecture, Design & Engineering Drawings, Ansel Adams Photographs of Japanese-American Interment in Manzanar, and Civil War Glass Negatives. The site is a bit overwhelming and teachers may need to narrow the focus for the students. An elementary and some middle school students would require specific collections presented to them if they were found useful for these age brackets. For instance, a search for trains pulls up information on how the screwdriver was used to make small toy trains. It would require the younger student to know how to narrow the search of the 4000+ pages on trains. This website would be a best fit for history. There are uses for language arts teachers from a historical perspective as well such as propaganda

This is a group at MIT that produce educational and entertaining Science videos. They also have a youtube channel with more videos posted. These instructional videos can be used in all grades, though they do seem to focus more on the high school level. These would be great to use to introduce new concepts or to complement a larger lesson. Some limitations with this would be the choice of content and the depth of content. They look like they haven't been making videos for very long, so the selection is limited. They also go fairly in depth into the subject matter, so it may be beyond the scope of a lesson that you are intending.