Ed Tech Tips with E. Mosier
Make your classroom more E-fficient!
Royalty Free Images for Student Projects
Overview
Student projects are being completed at this point in the school year, and to enhance their design, will be full of images related to their project. However, students should have the option, or at least know, to not navigate directly to Google to begin their image search. There are several websites that offer royalty-free, public domain images that students are able to search. Below are just a few of those sites, one even with Google Integration!
A Google Search
As mentioned above, Google Images doesn't necessarily need to be the destination when looking for images to use. But, there is a nice filtering feature that displays only images that can be used without the worry of copyright infringement. When students type in their desired search, they can then click on "Tools" and then find the drop down that says "Usage Rights." Under that heading, they can select, "Labeled for Reuse with Modification," which lists images that can be freely used in their project or presentation.
Pixabay
Pixabay is a website that boasts over 1.3 million stock images for students to use. People take the photos, submit them, and know they are forgoing ownership of them and allowing others to use them and modify them. You do not have to credit the artist, and you can even use these images for commercial use.
Reshot
I recently learned about Reshot from a blog post Richard Byrne at Free Tech 4 Teachers. This is an online collection of stock images that have been submitted by various photographers. These images have been labeled for commercial and editorial use. As their FAQs state, attribution to a photographer isn't required, but appreciated.
Pics4Learning
If you've ever wanted a site that offers public domain images geared specifically toward education, Pics4Learning is just that. All of the images on this site are copyright-friendly and easy to use. The best part about this site is that it lists the photographs in various categories: Animals, Weather, Space, Geography, etc. Or, there's a general search bar. This is a really nice resource to allow students to search public domain images, from a website that was created with students and teachers in mind.
Every Stock Photo
Instead of having a page layout of hundreds of thousands of images, Every Stock Photo is a simple search engine that accelerates the picture search. They pride themselves on searching "over 30 million photos that operate under 10 different licenses," making them copyright-friendly and free for reuse and modification. Similar to Pics4Learning, this site has a few categories listed on their home page as well.
Shutterstock
Perhaps my favorite site for royalty-free photos is Shutterstock. There are over 190 million stock photos, video clips, and even music available on Shutterstock. What makes this site really stand out is there's an editor built in to the site, offering the option of customizing the photos. But, the biggest reason I prefer Shutterstock is their integration with Google. This is a Google Slides add-on that makes it so students can insert one of these images directly into their presentation as they're designing!
Contact Mr. Mosier!
Have a question about a tip, trick, or tool? Have an idea for a future Ed Tech Tip newsletter? Send it along!
Email: mosiere@davenportschools.org
Website: www.davenportschools.org/sudlow
Location: Sudlow Intermediate School, East Locust Street, Davenport, IA, United States
Phone: 563-445-5150
Twitter: @emosier3