Copyright Free Resources

Photogen offers free images for commercial and personal use. There is no sign up or registration to download images. The images can be found through the direct search option or under the categories section on the homepage. It offers a wide range of categories of images. This site could be used for upper elementary, middle, and high school students in any content area. This site is easy to navigate and the images download in seconds. The only concern is that the homepage contains ads for other free image repositories that could confuse students and take them to another site. This issue could be fixed with having a 'teachable moment' students about internet advertising.

Users of resources found on this site are advised to read the terms of use page - there are some use restrictions. See here: http://www.photogen.com/terms-of-use/

Freeplay Music is a wonderful site for downloading copyright-free music. It allows people to search by CD title, style of music, or feel/mood. Users can preview either a short snippet of the song (usually 30 seconds) or the song in its entire length. If the user doesn't like that particular song, s/he can continue scrolling through the suggested titles or click on other search options offered under the songs themselves. Once the person finds the song s/he wants to use, s/he has numerous options for download. All songs are downloaded as an MP3, but it is up to the individual to determine how much of the song s/he might want. The benefit of this site is its vast library. There are thousands of songs to choose from. The site states that all songs, with the exception of the Indie Artist section and the Sound Effects library, are available for educational use. The downside for the students is that it is mainly instrumental music. Students will try to search for contemporary "radio hits" and will come up short. I usually explain that those songs, while popular, often can be distracting to the video, slideshow, or website the student is creating. Freeplay Music offers a great selection of "background" music for educational projects. This site is perfect for middle school or high school. It could used by all subject areas as a supplemental component to almost any technology- based or Web 2.0 project. I can see Freeplay Music providing songs for Glogster, Prezi, Weebly, PhotoStory 3 for Windows, MovieMaker, or several other possible programs/sites.

Resources on this site do have restrictions for use. Please read the details in the terms of use page: http://freeplaymusic.com/licensing/termsofuse.php.

Photo laboratory - this is a collection of exclusive photo images of high resolution. You can download any stock image at no cost or buy photo under royalty-free licence. This is a great resource for middle and high school students who are making a website or any other fictitious marketing products and need some "real-looking" pictures to include but maybe do not have the time or resources to take the pictures themselves. I think this could be used for any subject area as they have a wide range of pictures including all types of people and objects. I think it would be especially useful in my business classes where my students are always wanting high quality photos for their projects. Directing them to this website would be a great alternative to searching Google which is their first "go-to" search engine. The thing that I liked the most about this site is that the pictures do not look fake. They look more like what you would actually take yourself so I think that would be a positive and a draw to get more students to use them.

Resources in this site are free for any non-commercial use. Commercial use requires fee payments. Users are directed to check the Legal page for specific details.

This resource specializes in stock footage from around the world. All of the video clips are free to download and to use. There is no subscription or user login required in order to use the footage. This feature makes it ideal to use for educators looking to provide their students with a ready source of footage that they can use for their multimedia presentations. Students interested in media production and editing could create some fantastic presentations, especially if they have access to editing software and a green screen. The more advanced applications of the video clips could be used by high school students, but I could also see middle school aged students utilizing various clips to help with creating presentations for World History or Biology classes. For example, in my 7th grade Life Science class we do a project on the biomes of the world. Students could use the video files from the "Animal Footage" section to incorporate dynamic visuals into their reports. Students could also use footage from different continents to visually identify the various biomes for the class. Modeling of how to download, edit and embed the videos would be necessary to ensure that the students experience success with this resource, but that is just a matter of scheduling instruction time prior to the final projects being completed. The website is very easy to navigate and all clips are easily imported into any editing platforms. This feature makes it easy to use for educators who may have a variety of software on their school computers, depending on which school system they work in.

To use resources from this site, you will be required to pay an annual fee - at the time of this entry, $25.

This site is a public site that allows users to upload their own pictures they want to donate. All pictures are free and are copyright free. Pictures can be used for private or commercial use. Pictures are categorized into groups according to the topic of the photo. This site would be a great site to use with students because the pictures are taken by other amateurs, perhaps students. There is a large variety of pictures to pick from so students could create a power point, digital story, digital poster, or even video to name a few with these pictures. This site could be used for any academic area since there is a wide selection of pictures to choose from. Students and teachers could even add their own photos to the site so that others can use them for their projects. As a SLP, I would benefit from using these photos to help students develop language skills. Students could easily be presented with a picture daily and answer questions/describe the picture. I definitely plan to use this site in the future. One possible problem with this site is that there is no way of monitoring what type of photos may appear under a specific category. I searched the site for several minutes and only came across one photo that may be questionable for younger students. However, this site could easily be used with younger students with teacher assistance. I feel that the advantages of this site definitely outweigh the possible disadvantages.

Please note the following statement on the home page: "...please be aware that some photos do require a model or property release."

"The difference between "copyright free" and "royalty free" Given that at least part of the controversy surrounding the painting which was awarded the American Watercolour Society Gold Medal this year concerns copyright I thought it might be helpful to outline the difference between "copyright free" and "royalty free" - as this seems to be something people get confused about. What is copyright? I'm not going to try and define copyright as such - as meaning varies depending on which country's laws prevail over the work in question. You can find out more about copyright and access the different websites providing legal definitions in my information site Copyright and Orphan Artworks - Resources for Artists For the purposes of this post, the wikipedia summary will suffice. Copyright is a form of intellectual property which gives the creator of an original work exclusive rights for a certain time period in relation to that work, including its publication, distribution and adaptation; after which time the work is said to enter the public domain. Copyright applies to any expressible form of an idea or information that is substantive and discrete. Some jurisdictions also recognise "moral rights" of the creator of a work, such as the right to be credited for the work Wikpedia - copyright"

This site has a large pool of materials in multiple types: image (photos and illustrations), video, audio, etc. The stocked materials range from simple illustrations to more academic items. Teachers can use this site for newsletter handouts to lesson supplements. I chose a photo of a kachina doll for my lesson example. This may be inconvenient if the teacher needs to explain the details of the object of the photo. The site does not provide the details of the object of the photo. If this is the case, teachers may need to search the details in different venues and provide sufficient information. Example of 10th Language Arts lesson Direction: Teachers can show the photo (kachina doll) to class as they read Blue Highways by William Least Heat Moon. This resource is to provide assistance and add interests for readers. A group of students searches and finds two materials (either copyright free or copyrighted materials in multiple formats) that would add interests and help readers understand Blue Highways better. Each group shares two items with source information. Standard: ELACCL9-10SL (Speaking and Listening)5: make strategic use of digital media in presentation to enhance understanding of findings, and evidence and to ass interest. Image citation. Kachina doll. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.istockphoto.com/stock-photo-7810014-kachina-doll.php?st=170aa44

Hiroko - the URL you used initially gave me a warning, which suggests the link you used needs to be "cleaned" - I suggest you correct it with this (by copying and pasting it using the diigo editor you used to create the item): http://www.istockphoto.com/

Public Domain Photos contains both photos and clipart, and has several thousand of each that are in the public domain. While there are literally thousands to choose from, the search feature on the site isn't that great, and the organization of the images and clipart could be better. For example, if you do a search for 'wonton soup', it returns no results and only show professional images that link to shuttershock, which is subscription based. If you do a search on for 'wonton', it will return a few images from the free images on the site. If you can get past the hurdle of flipping through page after page within a specific category to find what you need, you will find tons of images that both you and your students can use, and lots of clipart options as well. All grade levels and all content areas can find useful images on this site, you just have to willing to sit and browse.

eRiding Media Library contains a collection of several thousand resources deemed copyright-free for educational use. It has 4 sections listed for available media: Images, Movies, Photographs, and Sounds - but some of the resources under images are duplicated under photographs. The organization of the images is a bit messy and hard to navigate but there are lots of pictures should you take the time to explore the site. I thought the Math section was interesting as it contained images of math related terms in a real world context, like angles or parallel lines to name a few. This section could be used for a variety of grades and I think it's a great resource for images students would likely use for presentations in Math class. The movies section currently contains Science related content regarding forces, which could be used for any grade level depending on the need. There are also sound files available; some in .wav format, and others in .mp3. Under sounds, there is a category for English Language - Phonemes which we thought would be useful for grades Pre-K through 1st.

PD Photo is a website that has a large collection of photos that are free and available for use under the public domain. There looks to hundreds of photos that fall under a variety of categories. Many photos are available for geography use and would be beneficial in a social studies classroom; there are also many images that can be used in a science classroom, like the Macros or Plants category. The images on this site are not limited to these two content areas as there are plenty of ways students and teachers can use these photos in an educational setting, for any and all grade levels.

This is a great resource for instrumental jams. I have used a few for animoto when I didn't want any lyrics, but wanted a certain beat or mood to go along with the images. It would be great for students making movies as well as the music is categorized i.e. blues, horror, dramatic, tense... and it allows a full preview before downloading along with a fairly large collection of free music.

Unpround is a very unique site that offers free images. There is not a designated category assignment, however all photos are grouped by color. The site could be used for any grade level and photos can be applied to any subject.  The only difficulty I would see in using this site would be the unusual organization.  We are used to category names and subject groupings.  There is a search box available, so the site user could simply enter a search term.  

This image repository offers a wide variety of categories. The categories are listed at the top of the home page and are easy to navigate. Most of the photos offered are by amateurs free of charge. This repository requests that users give credit for images by providing a link. This could be best used with middle and high school students. It could also be a great source for middle school social studies students and teachers as the topics are organized by continents. Big Foto offers a great source of images that are neatly organized and easy to find.

This repository offers free images in the forms of: photos, backgrounds, and textures. The only request is that users give credit for the image used. The images are organized in galleries by topics such as, food or technology. This website is user-friendly and easy to navigate. There is sign up request to download images. This repository would be best used by middle and high school students for any content area. The only issue I encountered with this site is the advanced search option. I tried using specific key words (i.e sports) and only one image was found. I found that it was easier to browse through the galleries for more results. I could see this being a problem for those students who do not like taking the time to browse through the galleries.