An easy — and LEGAL way to add images to projects: Using Flickr Creative Commons
I have just finished a quick tutorial ( using the workBench, of course) on using images from the Flickr photosharing site in your workBench projects. You can see it two ways.
- I have shared it with all the project members within the workBench( go to Manage My Resources to see it under Shared With Me and click to Make me a Copy). Feel free to change the version I made to better suit your needs with YOUR students ( ex. change the requirements or permissions for WHO is allowed to search on Flickr- see below).
- You can view it from this URL: http://tf.trintuition.com/cshively/UsingFlickronWB . I will also add it on the sidebar of this blog for quick access by you and your students when you forget how to use it!
Some thoughts about using Flickr images:
- You can teach much more than technical how-to when you use images from Flickr. You can also talk about giving credit to those whose work is shared there. Note that this How-to shows you how to ONLY use images where the photographer has granted Creative Commons licensing. That means that you are using it with their permission for a specific type of use. Teach ethical use of web resources, even if you just think aloud as YOU do it in front of little ones.
- You may want to limit student access to Flickr, since the images are shared by the general public and can include content NOT appropriate for the classroom. We know that middle schoolers will immediately search for body parts or naked women. Avoid this by adding Flickr images (the SAME way as the tutorial shows) to My Resources, then sharing them with your class. At the very least, spend some time talking about appropriateness and consequences of poor judgment by students using Flickr in class. Many teachers believe it is better to teach and guide than to completely protect and avoid. It is up to you.
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I remembered an even faster way to find CC-licensed photos from flickr, and this one even gives you the text to copy/paste into your Credits list:
http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php
Very cool.
I don’t have time right now to amend the “How-to, but I will try to very soon, so your students can use this even simpler tool.
Quick note: I took a look at the link above. On the right side of the screen, under “Attribution,” there’s a web address for the image with an @ in the address line. This address won’t work for a remote image. However, if you follow the same steps as in Candace’s directions (Right click, go to properties, etc.), you get the web address that will work as a Remote Image.
Remote Images, as their names suggest, are loaded into workBench screens from their original sources - for example from the Flickr site. The advantage is that you don’t have to have a copy of the image in your files. That can also be a disadvantage. If you have a wonderful project that you want to keep and use as an example indefinitely, there may be a danger that the original owner of the image may delete it from its distant source. In the future, you can always replace the Remote Image with your own copy of the original, if you’re concerned.
Some sites don’t like remote loading of their content because it uses their bandwidth to build other websites. I don’t suspect this is an issue with Flickr but am not sure.
Flickr actually encourages their users to embed their images in blogs, etc. I think they like it because it drives up their traffic. I think people use Flickr as much to SHARE their images in other places ( blogs, workBench projects, Google Earth files, etc) as mush as they do to simply store and organize them. From what I can tell, Flickr is the most popular of these services.
Thanks for noting the fact that you really have to use “properties” to get the URL.
(an aside) I wish the people who invented computer-speak had NOT used the word “properties.” It always makes me think of real estate and confuses most users!
Thanks for the information on Flickr’s policies, Candace. It makes sense that they’d like their images embedded.