Copyright Free Resources

I re-located this resource, that has been around since the year 2000, while searching for AUDIO files for adding to multimedia presentations for but, the site also advertises that, "you can find over 1,000 pages of free resources, tutorials, PowerPoint templates and backgrounds, graphics, sounds for presentations and much more for everyday use and productivity." The sound clips are simple enough for students in grades 5 - 12 to use however, many of the other resources are probably more appropriate for educators. After brief teacher modeling, middle & high school students could easily click on the midi sound files, listen to the preview that opens in Windows Media Player, right-click on the sound title they wanted, "save-target-as" to a file, and insert the free sound clips into their multimedia presentations. Students will also appreciate the wide variety of clear-quality, relevant sounds, a few of which sound like renditions of background hip-hop/rap music that I believe they would enjoy like, "Dr. Tekno," "Nightfunk," and "R&B Bassbeat." In the "Terms of Use" the owner, Nan Shastry, states that "items marked 100% free" can be downloaded free for "personal or business or educational use" but users may not resell downloads, make available as downloads on your website, or link to items without prior permission. While the sound files and many other resources are 100% free, students who try to branch out and download many of the PowerPoint backgrounds or animated graphics will encounter zip file popups that ask/require them to evaluate "WinRAR" software for a 40-day trial before purchasing it, to continue using the download. Educators could mitigate this problem by distributing a list of preferred download link titles from the site that students could easily access without any difficulty or, by simply instructing them to click "cancel" or "close" on any of the downloads that require purchasing.

The William Blake Archive is a digital repository of images of the works and paintings of Romantic poet William Blake. Many people familiar with Blake's works, such as "The Tyger" or "Jerusalem" are unaware that the poet was just as much a painter and artist as he was a writer. Blake's images are meant to go along with his works, as he hand painted and produced his own folios. It's just as important for students studying Blake to become familiar with his watercolors as they are with his verse.  The Archive's copyright policy: "The Archive as a whole, its texts, and its images are protected under the copyright laws of the United States and the Universal Copyright Convention. Publication (print or electronic) or commercial use of any of the copyrighted materials without direct authorization from the copyright holders is prohibited. The copying of materials from the Blake Archive is permitted only under the fair use provisions of copyright law. You do not need to acquire permission to use Archive materials for in-class teaching purposes, school projects, and assignments. Nor do you need to request our permission to link to the Archive, or to individual items within the Archive. We prefer that your links to the Archive be targeted to our home page (http://www.blakearchive.org) and that any links to individual items within the Archive be accompanied by a link to this home page."

Discover Yale Digital Content's site contains images from Yale's museum collections. The site describes itself as "a way to search across Yale's collections of art, natural history, books, and maps, as well as photos, audio, and video documenting people, places, and events that form part of Yale's institutional identity and contribution to scholarship." Often literature is intimately connected to history and historical events, art work, geography, etc. Using these images can help students form connections with the time in which a particular work of literature was written, helping to deepen their knowledge.  Discover Yale's copyright policy: "The mission of Yale University is to create, disseminate, and preserve knowledge. Increasingly, this knowledge is in digital form. The Discover Yale Digital Content site is intended to promote discovery of digital content from across the University. Yale's policy on open access to digital representations of works in the public domain from museum, library, and archive collections is a commitment to provide unrestricted access to such content as it becomes available through normal work practices. Yale University will not restrict use of items digitized from its museums, libraries and archives collections which have been made openly available through the University's electronic interfaces, and which are no longer under copyright, except where other rights or restrictions apply."

Olga's Gallery is a site created "as a project to help children learn the history of painting, religion, and literature" by Olga and Helen Mataev. It has over 10,000 images of historic works of art that literature teachers would find immensely helpful. For instance, if you're teaching W. H. Auden's "Musee des Beaux Arts," having access to Pieter Breugel's Landscape with the Fall of Icarus is vital to understanding the message Auden's trying to send.  Olga's Gallery Copyright Policy: Use of all artwork on the website is governed by the terms of the Fair Use doctrine of United States copyright law as being non-profit and educational in nature. Our mission is to promote the understanding and appreciation of art worldwide. Olga's Gallery is operated on a strictly not-for-profit basis, and all proceeds from advertising and affiliate sales is used to maintain and expand the gallery. We purposely use low-resolution images on our website to prevent potential unlawful for-profit use of the artwork. 

This is a resource for music. It will allow usage of videos, music, and images and other content for free. It offers free copyright license that is available for any use. Songs and copies of music could be made for friends. They could also be used in videos. This resource could be used in upper elementary, middle, and high school. It could be used to help students create Animoto videos or digital stories in different content areas with music backgrounds. It legally allows people to share music. There may some stipulations to music that is licensed under a No Derivative Works license which prohibits transforming or changing the music. This resource can be used for anyone. It is a copyright free resource. : 

This resource is for video usage. All of the videos are for the public domain. The resources are free of use. The videos must not be utilized to imply National Park endorsement of a service, product, organization or individual with permission of the National Park Service. You are free to use these videos without a release from the National Park Service. Most of the videos are downloadable or zip compressed Quick TimeH.264 movie clips. The clips can be video editing applications, websites, and projects. This is a great resource for fourth and fifth grade social studies when teaching about the Civil War and Revolutionary War. It's great to assist in learning about monuments, battlefields and historical sites through video.

This resource is for usage of images that could down loaded for the classroom. It could be utilized for making craft projects or graphics for science in the fourth grade. It has graphic photos of animals, insects, plants, and more. It could be useful to other elementary grade levels if they are creating animal or insect habitats and ecosystems. It could be used for other subjects as well. This is a royalty free website where all clip art images are free, with the exception of the banner, and any photographs that will be utilized for resale or pleasure purposes. It is also suggested that the use of more than six of the images not be used on one project. Images may be sold as collage sheets or pintable's as long as the six image rule is adhered to.

Free clip art, photos, graphics, and illustrations are available for parents, students, and teachers. They have over 10,000 images and over 2,000 categories. The site encourages students, teachers, and parents to use and contribute to the site. They consider the "classroom" around them a part of their classroom. Having a site like this will help encourage student/teacher/parent collaboration and relationships. The images are free, but there are two drawbacks to this site: 1. the site only allows one option for downloading images unless you sign up for a membership (which is free and typical). 2. The site is third party advertisement HEAVY. This site is mainly clip art, so they really cater to K-12 grade levels.

This is a site for royalty-free images and other media for use in language classes. "The REALIA Project publishes faculty-reviewed media for the teaching and study of modern languages and cultures. Faculty and students at all levels are encouraged to contribute materials to our searchable, online database. The focus of the REALIA Project is realia: Materials which convey the everyday life of different cultures" (REALIA). After looking through a variety of categories, these photos would be great for a world literature class, history, or economics, etc. This is a royalty-free faculty-reviewed database of images contributed by teachers and students (College and Secondary) of diverse cultural and academic backgrounds. This site is more focused towards modern language based material (for teaching/learning modern language), but states they are open to other content areas. One of the unique characteristics of REALIA is that it was designed with Pedagogy in mind (provides some guidance for instructional integration). The images are exportable to Power Points or individual websites. Another beneficial attribute of this site is the ability to translate the images into English (there are many images that have writings in multiple languages).

The images (photos and graphics) are available for FREE use within this site which is a teacher-designed resource for by teachers and their students; however, other use must gain permission. A slight risk (especially for minors) is the button that reads "Become an EduPic Host click here for more details" is a potential risk, because physical communication is sought by the web creator. This is an opportunity to have someone come stay in your home and possibly a camera man in order to come capture the scenery and have it posted on Edupic (the host receives a blurb/mentioning on the site). There is a section that allows you to quick search using hotlinks in order to quickly access related lists of images. Once you find a desired image, functions allow you to view a larger image, copy/save the image, copy the image URL, or find the image on Google (so you can find primary source information). There are cartoon-like images and real-life images, which can be used over a wide range of grade levels (K-12). The site also offers information on the Contributor's and provides access to the EduPic Blog.

WPClipart is a collection of images for students and others that is free of copyright concerns as well as safe from inappropriate images. There are currently 50,526 images on the site. I can see students in grades K-12 using this resource. The site is easy to navigate and search for images. There are tons of categories such as medical images, geography images, historical figure images, computer images, and on and on which is why I see this being helpful to all students grades K-12 and all subjects. Unlike some clipart sites, there are images on this site that are not cartoon like making them better for older students. According to the terms and conditions, the site is Public Domain and the images can be used and edited. No direct user-uploaded images are allowed. The only concern I see is that this site is trying to get donations through PayPal which I haven't seen on other sites.

EduPic Graphical Resource was created by a teacher and is a free image resource for educators and their students. There are over 6,000 different photos and illustrations to pick from. Most of the images seem to be geared toward middle and high school science and history classes; however, there are a few images for other subjects. A few examples of how I can see this resource being used would include a high school US History class studying Abraham Lincoln or washington monuments or a 7th grade Life Science class learning about biomes. The only downside I can see to this resource is that the main focus is on science and history so it would be limiting for certain subjects or grade levels.

School Clip Art: a free educational clipart resource. After reviewing this resource, I see it being beneficial for elementary age students and teachers. Teachers can use the clip art in their presentations, worksheets, and lesson plans. In addition, students can use the clip art to complete their assignments. The images are easy to save for both Windows and Mac users. The clipart is free, teachers and students just have to reference the website in order to use it. There are many categories to pick from and navigating the site is very easy. The only challenge I see is that the clipart would not work well for students over 5th grade because of the cartoon like nature of the images.

Ookaboo provides almost one million images that are searchable by concepts. The pictures are licensed under various Creative Commons licenses or are public domain, and are free to use for educational and other non-commercial use. You can find more information about using the photos at http://about.ookaboo.com/a/. This site would be great to use for high school students in a variety of subjects: world history, U.S. history, biology and environmental science. It could also be used for middle school geography classes. The photos appear to be of very good quality, and the website is easy to use.