Group items tagged

Simply stated, open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to freely distribute it to potential users. If you've never heard of open source software, you're not alone. Commercial, or proprietary, software has dominated the computer industry for many years. Most school personnel have understandably assumed that commercial software was the only option available.

Simply stated, open-source software is computer software whose source code is available under a copyright license that permits users to study, change, and improve the software, and to freely distribute it to potential users. If you've never heard of open source software, you're not alone. Commercial, or proprietary, software has dominated the computer industry for many years. Most school personnel have understandably assumed that commercial software was the only option available.

"In the spirit of the open source movement, new copyright-friendly (and some copyleft) archives are emerging, removing many of the legal and ethical thorns relating to image use in student production. In addition, a number of government image archives provide their archives with limited restrictions. Check out this cool video for an explanation of new, alternate forms of licensing: Creative Commons Video http://mirrors.creativecommons.org/getcreative/clicktoplay.html Most of the images in the collections below include images with a variety of less restrictive licensing. Though students may not need to ask permission to use them when publishing on the Web for educational purposes, they should cite these images unless otherwise notified! Important: Any copyright notices on these pages, should be read carefully and heeded!"

Curriki is more than your average website; we're a community of educators, learners and committed education experts who are working together to create quality materials that will benefit teachers and students around the world. Curriki is an online environment created to support the development and free distribution of world-class educational materials to anyone who needs them. Our name is a play on the combination of 'curriculum' and 'wiki' which is the technology we're using to make education universally accessible. Curriki is built on the XWiki platform, an open source development platform and "Next Generation Wiki" application developed in Java and released the LGPL open source license. Curriki is a non-profit 501(c)(3) corporation. Download a summary of Curriki's history and mission: CurrikiBrochureApril2009.pdf.

A very good alternative to Flicker: use pictures without worrying about licenses and copyrights.