Recently I was asked the question, “Have you ever noticed the cc logo on a website?” I must confess I have never really noticed. I have always been more concerned with the content. I will pay closer attention now that I am aware of the benefits of this great resource.
I think that Creative Commons will impact the way students learn and create projects. Creative Commons is a great avenue for students, they have the ability to find resources that are needed for projects, research, and learning. With Creative Commons students can share their work and collaborate. Creative commons enables students to work without fear of infringing on someone else’s copyright. This is a great way for students to achieve the technology goal of collaboration outside of the classroom.
Creative commons is one of the tools that I wish I had been aware of before now. One online community that photographers use for sharing through the use of Creative Commons is Flickr. Photographers from around the world can share their work. Users are allowed to share, use and remix content.
Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms has a chapter about Flickr. Richardson (2010) begins the chapter with a disclaimer. He states that no can guarantee with absolute certainty the quality or appropriateness of the content on Flickr and members self-police the site.
The book gives great examples of how Flickr can be used in the classroom. It can be used for blogs, digital stories, presentations, slide shows, virtual fieldtrips, illustrated poetry, geography, and more. One great example was how a student used the annotation feature identify different models of Jane Goodall’s camp in Africa.
Richardson (2010) also talks about how there is the ability to collaborate. You have the opportunity to start online discussions and connect to people from around the world.
Will I use Flickr? Absolutely. I am currently teaching phases of the moon and need photographs to show the phases. I went into Flickr to see what was available on the creative commons area. I found a wide array of beautiful photos available. There is an example by David Warrington of Cosmos Photography included in this post.