Often we need images for student activities and need them quickly. For example, dropping them into a ComicLife poster.
Image by Sushla via Creative Commons License.
Educational institutions pay a body called CAL a lot of money so that students can use any images, music and video they find appropriate for use in the school boundaries. So basically the only stipulation teachers have to be aware of is to make sure usage doesn’t include media that would be posted on the school website, outside school boundaries or distributed commercially. A school newsletter for example could not contain copyright images. Whereas a video about reptiles made by students using copyright material could be shown in class.
One regular pitfall that primary students have is that they source images that are too small. Rather than having students use Google search which link to websites that CAL will charge us for, there are numerous websites that offer quality media for open usage.
Please find below links to public domain images, audio and video for teacher use (and supervised student use). If you have any other idea, opinions or comments about public domain websites please add a comment below:
Images
Burning Well – open-source images
http://www.burningwell.org/
BurningWell is a repository for public domain (free for any use) images. You are free to download, copy and use the photos you find here for any purpose.
Find Media | Creative Commons
http://search.creativecommons.org/
The Creative Commons search engine will help you find photos, music, text, books, educational material, and more that is free to share or build upon.
Morgue File
http://morguefile.com/
The term “morgue file” is popular in the newspaper business to describe the file that holds past issues flats. These are for use of reference. This morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photography for either corporate or public use.
OurMedia
http://ourmedia.org/images
A free resource for finding legal, images
imageafter.com
http://www.imageafter.com/images.php
In the imageafter.com ‘image’ directory you can expect free high resolution images of objects, places, animals, mechanics, insects, signs, circuits and plants etc.
Picture Australia
http://www.pictureaustralia.org
Search Australia’s major historical picture collections. View what individual Australians are adding to the collection.
TLF Images
http://www.thelearningfederation.edu.au/node715
TLF is making available a substantial number of resources in digital form which are significant and meaningful on their own, useful for teaching and learning in the priority curriculum areas.
Classroom clipart
http://classroomclipart.com/
Wide selection, organised in categories. Includes animations and keyword search.
Clip4Kids
http://www.clipart4kids.com/clipart/main.php
Choose from the galleries or use Advanced Search.
Black & white clipart
http://etc.usf.edu/clipart/index.htm
Black and white clipart of mammals, birds, insects and fish.
Pics4learning
http://www.pics4learning.com/
A selection of colour and black and white images.
Wide selection of categories. Includes animations.
http://gallery.schoolcenter.com/
Audio
ccMixter – mix others music into your own
http://ccmixter.org/
This is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons
Royalty Free Music, Sound Effects, & Music Loops
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/
Royalty Free Music and Sound Effects plus free music loops, free sound effects, free midi files and free audio software
Open Media Directory | Ourmedia
http://www.ourmedia.org/learning-center/open
A free resource for finding legal, podsafe music and video
The Freesound Project
http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/tagsView.php
The Freesound Project is a collaborative database of Creative Commons licensed sounds. Freesound focusses only on sound, not songs.
FindSounds.com
http://www.findsounds.com/
Welcome to FindSounds.com, a free site where you can search the Web for sound effects and musical instrument samples.
Video
Video from Creative Archive Licence Group
http://creativearchive.bbc.co.uk/archives/for_download/index.html
The BBC, the bfi, Channel 4 and the Open University set up the Creative Archive Licence Group to make their content available for download under the terms of the Creative Archive Licence.
Internet Movie Archive
http://www.archive.org/details/movies
Welcome to the Archive’s Moving Images library of free movies, films, and video.
Open Media Directory | Ourmedia
http://ourmedia.org/videos
A free resource for finding legal, podsafe video
If you are interested in copyright policy these links should contain all you desire:
WA publishes its copyright policy for WA State schools and a range of other resources from various sources at the following web address:
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/regframe/Documents/DO01078623.pdf
Music Copyright for Schools
This AMCOS music booklet is reprinted on the Western Australia’s department website at:
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/regframe/Documents/DO01078617.pdf
Additionally WA has copyright information on the Curriculum Materials Information Services (CMIS) website which includes:
An index page that provides links to the range of copyright information.
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/technology/usenet/index.htm
Information on intellectual property, moral rights and copyright
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/technology/usenet/use1.htm
Information on citing source material and issues of plagiarism.
http://www.eddept.wa.edu.au/cmis/eval/technology/usenet/use11.htm
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