Free & Creative Commons images for education

Encouraging students to use photos they have taken themselves is always the safest option and encourages the creative element in the individual.  For the times they do need to find an image, here is a list of sources appropriate for education use.

Learning the use of Creative Commons images and copyright limitations, i.e. everything online is not free for the taking, is an essential skill.  It has the potential to save massive heartache for creative students by ensuring they don't dedicate hours of their time to a piece they cannot share publicly because of copyright restictions.

Full descriptions of the links below are on the Free & Creative Commons Images page of this site along with links to the excellent Australian Smartcopying Creative Commons resources site.  

• Flickr - Creative Commons
• Creative Commons Search
• Compfight image search
• Photo Pin
• Flickrstorm
• Wylio
• Picsearch – Search the web for images
• WorldImages – California State University IMAGE Project
• Animation Factory
• ScienceImage – CSIRO
• School Clip Art for Teachers and Kids
• Pics4Learning | Free photos for education
• Trove – Australian images
• morgueFile: free photos for creatives by creatives
• Image * After
• FreeFoto.com – Free Pictures
• Dreamstime – Download Free Stock Images and Photos
• Old Book Illustrations: pictures scanned from old books
• Pictures from Old Books
• Pool - ABC
• Dennis Kunkel Microscopy (Scientific) - Education website
• Google Images advanced search/ usage rights/ free to use and share
• Firefox browser - limit search to Creative Commons only

Google Knowledge Graph

Google's new search engine has similarities to the Wonder Wheel.  It's a fascinating means of building a biographical snapshot of an individual and associated personnel.  A semantic web type search that gathers related data in the search results.

See more detail at Google Inside Search

Challenge, creativity and change - a new school year

As we prepare to return to school after the summer break and the builders are completing the final touches on our refurbished library, I'm starting to wonder how our new spaces are going to be used.  There was much excited aniticipation as we set out on the journey, now it's time to test those ideas and see what works as we envisaged.

This video Challenge, Creativity and Change: Jerry Lee at TEDxStLawrenceCollege struck a chord with me in providing support for reflection as we return to our school libraries for a new school year.  It raises challenges that can guide our thinking and help set an agenda for dynamic action this year.

• SALY - Same As Last Year - is this your plan for 2013?
• What traditions that have outlived their purpose will you challenge this year? Challenging tradition leads us to the world of change.  All of us have different traditions, identify your own, discuss them with your library team, challenge their purpose
• Why are you doing what you do every day? Why? Why? Why?
• Everybody wants change but nobody wants to change.  We can see what others should do differently but it's always more difficult to see how we ourselves should change
• Quote from the movie Shoreshank Redemption: Get busy living or get busy dying!

As so many teacher librarians and library staff worry about their role and the future that administrators may have planed for them, I urge you to reflect, identify and act.  

As a library team (of one or 20):

• Analyse your plans for this school year
• Discuss them and toss around possibilities
• Take your big ideas to the principal and curriculum leaders
• Put a value on everything you do. Prune for new life
• Act decisively and  .......... Don't settle for the frog - aim for the princess even if she scares you!

I'll say again what we hear so often today - 'It's and exciting time to be working in school libraries' - Exciting not Easy!

Comparing school library perspectives - Principal's versus Librarian's

Illustration by David Flaherty from SLJ

The school holiday break is providing an opportunity to follow up items I've saved to Instapaper for reading later. This post reflects on Principal's perceptions of school librarians compared to how the librarians saw themselves in research conducted by Tricia Kuon and Holly Weimar.  Published in the School Library Journal blog, 12 September 2012, the article is entitled: How does your boss see you?: Proof that principals value librarians.

Having visited school libraries in both the US and Canada over the past two years, I'm aware that, on the whole, we are in a far better position here in Australia.  Generally speaking, we have more library staff and better budgets, although both are being closely monitored and library services reduced as in North America.  In reading this article from an Australian perspective, I also read the role of 'librarian' as the full range of models from teacher librarian as library manager through to technicians in that role.

Authors, Tricia Kuon and Holly Weimar have explored their evidence to provide a signpost of attributes for librarians to adopt a leadership role within their schools.  Principals are looking for that leadership, especially in relation to technology. Marcia Mardis, associate director of the Partnerships Advancing Library Media (PALM) Center at Florida State University says some school librarians don’t feel comfortable labeling themselves as leaders—but it doesn’t mean they’re not acting like ones, “Leaders are as leaders do.”

The authors lists of 'Librarian's top 10 tasks' from a Principal's, compared with Librarian's perspective, is particularly significant.  The Principal's view is broader and management-focussed, the librarian's is narrower and task-focussed.  In these few weeks we have off over the summer Christmas break, it's worth taking time to reflect on our roles.  Don't just shut down and wait till we go back and start the year in the same way.

Reflect:  What takes up the time in your day?  What tasks could you do more efficiently?  What could you abandon completely?  What does your Principal value most about your role? How does the library team contribute to the discussion?  Does everyone have a voice?

To quote (from the article) retired school librarian, Alice Yucht, 'it’s important to promote the library, not yourself—and to know the difference between promotion and advocacy. “You cannot self-advocate. You need to create satisfied customers and users who will then advocate for the library.”'

So I invite you to join me in reflecting during the break, ready to return to school with a 'plan for action' in 2013.  In the week the New York Times Room for Debate topic: Do we still need libraries? stimulates discussion, take time to reflect and plan.

I found this article valuable reading.  Thanks Tricia and Holly.

PS: As a benchmark against our own practice, further recommended reading is the School Librarian Evaluation Rubric recently released by the New York State Department of Education (SED) through submissions from Section of School Librarians (SSL) of NYLA and the  NYS School Library Systems Association (SLSA)..

Gaming towards resilience - it's personal

The school year draws to a close once again sending many of us into that state of reflection, dreaming and planning that can result in some amazing bursts of energy or just total collapse wondering where to start.  It's a personal response that can affect both ourselves and those around us.

The shocking news of the massacre of school children and teachers in Newtown, Connecticut, USA this morning lead me to the blog of Coolcatteacher, Vicki Davis.  Vicki often shares deep, reflective thinking on both educational technology and life's experiences.  This morning she reminded me of well known gamer Jane McGonigal's recent TED speech "The game that can give you 10 extra years of life".  

The focus of Jane's speech is a practical strategy on building personal resilience. She uses the 5 most frequently expressed regrets of the dying to anchor her own experience and recount her recent battle with debilitating concussion which led to a 12 month period of rehabilitation and suicidal thoughts.  In desperation, she summoned her game developer skills to build the role player recovery game Super Better.  Based on the basic gaming principles of:

Adopt a secret identity

Recruit your allies

Battle the bad guys

Activate the power-ups

This game is an activity in resilience building. In the video, Jane speaks powerfully about personal suffering, depression and the growth of personal resilience through game-based theory.  It's inspirational.