Friday, December 2, 2011

Edublog Award Nominations

It is time to nominate bloggers for Edublog Awards.  You can nominate your favorite blogs before Friday, December 2.  What are you waiting for?  Here are mine:

Best class blog - Nancy VonWalde - ISP Grade 3V - An excellent start to blogging with grade 3 students.

Best ed tech / resource sharing blog - Keith Ferrel - Ed Tech Ideas - A waterfall of resources focused on elementary students and teachers.

Best teacher blog - John Crane - Second Year IB Psychology - Resources, links and info for the IB Psychology student.

Best librarian / library blog - The Daring Librarian - Fellow GCTer Gwyneth blogs about all things info lit.

Best School Administrator blog - Arnie Bieber - School21C - Conversations about the future of education.

Best free web tool - Google Apps for Education - Collaboration has never been so easy.

Lifetime achievement - Kim Cofino - I'm "always learning" from Kim, who inspires so many of us in the edtech world. 

Monday, November 28, 2011

Turntable Trig

Today we experimented with using iPads in a math class.  We had 3 school-owned iPads as well as one brought in by a student.  Students used the Vernier Video Physics app in groups of two or three to review and investigate trig graphs.

[caption id="attachment_320" align="alignleft" width="222" caption="Turntable Graph"][/caption]

Ms. Flaherty first reviewed a couple of math concepts that the students had already  reviewed as part of their homework by watching a YouTube clip.  Then I demonstrated how to use the various tools built into the Video Physics app to plot the points of a sticky note as it travels around a Fisher Price Turntable, and to set the scale and change the location of the origin.  From there, we handed off the iPads to the students and away they went.

Once students plotted the path of the sticky note, and viewed the resulting graph, they then worked through the following prompts:

  1.  Find the equation of your curve.

  2. How does the equation change as you change the A.) origin, B.) scale?

  3. By adjusting the position of the origin and the scale crate a graph that has:  A.) An amplitude of 5  B.) A wave axis of 10


Findings, Thoughts, Reflections:



  • Students were engaged in the hands-on learning, and shared the device appropriately around the group so that everyone got a chance to manipulate the data.

  • Students are really comfortable with iPads.  They took to the app quickly and were easily able to use the gestures to perform specific tasks within the app.

  •  Investigative Math rocks.  I wish that when I was learning math I had had access to the tools that students have today.  Changing different variables and seeing how that affects the output helps students get a better understanding than just working out problems.

  • Personal devices are better than school-owned devices.  When the teacher asked students to send her the files this became obvious.  The student who was using his own device easily emailed a few photos to the teacher because his email was already set up in the iPad's system.  Web versions of email (we tried gmail) don't allow attaching files from an iPad because they don't know how to navigate the iPad file system.  The work around is to either attach the ipad to a laptop and use iPhoto (or another photo app on a PC) to pull down the images, or have students enter their email info into the iPad system, send the files, then delete the account before the class ends and their email account and ipad are handed off to another student.



Thursday, November 10, 2011

European Student Film Festival



This past week International School of Prague hosted an amazing learning event, The European Student Film Festival, where students attended workshops on story, lighting, music, digital sound, camera work, casting, and competed in a 24 Hour Film Challenge.  The excitement about the event is still evident in the hallways this week as students continue to talk about what an exceptional and inspiring event it was.  I was impressed by the student creativity and problem solving displayed throughout the festival, and the overall quality of films that were submitted in the regular competition as well as the 24 Hour Film Festival.  I've embedded a playlist of the festival winners in this post, and here are links to the challenge films as well as the entire lot of competition submissions.

Monday, October 31, 2011

Interacting with Experts

[caption id="attachment_300" align="alignright" width="132" caption="Stuart"]Stuart[/caption]

 

Interacting with experts is not something our students get to do every day, but an especially keen, risk-taking teacher that I work with showed me that it isn't that difficult any more.  In Mrs. Caskie's IB Language and Lit class, the students have been reading Stuart, by Alexander Masters....and then asking questions of the author.

Mrs. Caskie stumbled across Masters' blog and, on a whim,  asked if it was "okay" for students to write him and ask questions.  Then she asked her students to think about what they would want to ask the author as they read the book.  This was a theme that she kept repeating until she finally said, "then let's ask him - he's got a blog."  So they did.  And Masters has been responding to the questions one by one making this learning opportunity particularly personalized.

Mrs. Caskie is excited about how this interaction with the author might serve as a springboard for some creative written or oral tasks.  Some of the student generated ideas are:

  • a transcript of a "lost tape" of Stuart's

  • putting Masters on trial for exploiting the homeless/disabled person with students writing the court transcript, 

  • a missing chapter - perhaps of when Stuart was young and happy

  • a comparison piece with Masters and Orwell meeting up and discussing identity, culture and the idea of moving.   


As with most authentic tasks, the students have been engaged and motivated.  My own learning is not something new, but a reminder of just how powerful technology is - it can connect us with professionals.  In the case of these students, technology has given them the opportunity to include a professional author in their Personal Learning Network.  We should sieze the opportunity to make this happen for more students; apparently all you have to do is ask.


If you've read Stuart, you may want to check out Masters' latest book: The Genius in My Basement

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Making Music

I came across Diego Stocco's videos thanks to a post on an inspiring design blog that I read. Diego can make music out of pretty much anything (listen to what he can do with a Bonsai tree).  Our IB Music teacher, Mr. Ackerman, assigns his students something similar: to compose music using only items in the kitchen.  This "Kitchen Etude" is designed to give students, no matter their ability, an opportunity to successfully compose music.  It seems that most of our students wanted to use Apple's GarageBand to record their composition.  Check out Arye's composition using only items from his kitchen.  Arye's Kitchen Etude

Saturday, September 24, 2011

Google Workshop for Educators in Prague

We just completed a fun-filled day of collaboration and sharing with other educators from around Europe.  @WendyGorton did an excellent job of sharing Google tools and facilitating discussion about their uses in schools.  My favorite new learning of the day was creating a Google Search Story.  Here is my attempt at promoting the new books in our ISP library.

Friday, September 23, 2011

In Class Audio Recording and Reflection

An amazing teacher and colleague of mine introduced me to an excellent way of leveraging technology for learning today. It is actually quite simple, but brilliant at the same time.

Ms. Caskie's grade 9 students have been studying Farenheight 451. She assigned her students to take a character from the book and craft a monologue from the point of view of that character that they would deliver to the class acting as that character.  Ms. Caskie asked students to record themselves practicing their monologue at home.  She then had them record themselves when they presented to the class.  Students then posted both versions on their blogs and were asked to reflect on them - comparing and contrasting - and identify skills to focus on for future class presentations.   Students seemed to really buy in to this authentic self-assessment; here is an example.

Thursday, September 22, 2011

YouTube.com/Teachers

This past July I spent an action-packed day learning about YouTube in the classroom at The YouTube Teachers Studio with fantastic lead learners, Jim Sill, Ramsey Musallam and James Sanders. We heard from Will Houghteling about what the YouTube Education team is cooking up. One of their goals is to find a way to give access of the great educational content that exists on YouTube to the teachers and students in schools where YouTube is currently blocked. They have a number of good ideas in the works. Today they launched YouTube.com/Teachers to support teachers with ideas for using YouTube in the classroom complete with examples and screencasting tips. Additionally teachers can sign up for the YouTube newsletter for teachers and submit their favorite YouTube playlists to be highlighted on YouTube EDU. You can read more about the launch on YouTube's blog and view my interview below.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Google Teacher Academy

The Google Teacher Academy is coming to Seattle this summer.   Only 50 educators get to participate.  I sooooooooo hope to be one that gets invited. There are sure to be opportunities to connect with likeminded educators committed to continually learning, risking, and sharing.  I've given it my best shot; my application has been submitted and my application video (on motivation and learning) posted online (and below).  The waiting begins.

Monday, June 13, 2011

Summer Homework: A Reading List for Educators

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Homework on the beach (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spree2010/4930763550/) / Ingo Bernhardt (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spree2010/) / CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)"]Homework on the beach (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spree2010/4930763550/) / Ingo Bernhardt (http://www.flickr.com/photos/spree2010/) / CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/)[/caption]

I was a bit surprised to hear that in our Upper School we assign homework over the summer.  It is usually to read a novel for an English class or something similiar, but still, I was surprised.  It is part of the culture here though, and it is difficult to argue with anything that supports the notion of "always learning."  At a faculty meeting the other day,  I was assigned some homework of my own. Our Director, Dr. Bieber, suggested we pick one of the "strands" under umbrella of  school improvement, skim a few and then read one closely.  I've posted the list below (compiled by Dr. Bieber,  Mr. Mobbs and Mr. Helmer with links where possible as it looks like a provocative list of reads that will spark some discussion at the start of the 2011-12 school year.

Assessment for Learning


How Should We Measure Student Learning? The Many Forms of Assessment. There is more than one way to measure a student's abilities by Edutopia Staff

Drive (excerpt): Dan Pink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc - Animated Video 11minutes

Dan Pink on Motivation - TED Talk 19 minutes

From Degrading to De-Grading: Alfie Kohn

Seven Practices for Effective Learning: Jay McTighe and Ken O'Connor

Show Us What Homework's For: Kathleen Cushman

Authentic learning/Inquiry


High School at a Crossroads: Ed Coughlin

Inquiry learning – journeys through the thinking processes: Kath Murdoch

Making Thinking Visible: Ron Ritchhart and David Perkins

Problem-Based Learning: The Foundation for 21st Century Skills: John Barell

21st Century Skills


Comparing Frameworks for “21st Century Skills”: Chris Dede

The Five Minds for the Future: Gardner, Howard

Innovation Through Technology: Cheryl Lemke

Preparing Creative and Critical Thinkers: Donald J. Treffinger

School for the 21st Century



A Diploma Worth Having: Grant Wiggins

Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow—Today

Designing New Learning Environments to Support 21st Century Skills: Bob Pearlman

Leadership for Learning: Powell and Powell

Do schools kill creativity? Sir Ken Robinson

Friday, May 27, 2011

Fred Chao Visit

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="230" caption="Johnny Hiro By Fred Chao "]Johnny Hiro[/caption]

Fred Chao, professional artist and illustrator, and author of Johnny Hiro stopped by our school today to talk with students about what it takes to be an artist.  He touched on themes of perseverance, taking risks, and putting yourself out there.  He spoke about how so many diverse endeavors (writing, drawing, painting, sketching theater acting, magazine design) contribute to his comic creation ability. It was interesting to hear him mention that his education did not do enough to prepare him with the marketing and promotional skills he would need to be successful.

One of the points that I hope students take away is the importance of updating a blog as a way of keeping people in the know about what you are working on, and having an online portfolio of your work to be able to show people.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

IB Group IV Projects - Using Google Maps

As an experiment, we mixed a combustive concoction of eight groups of motivated students working on IB Group IV Science projects, eight adult supervisors, one large nature reserve (Divoka Sarka in Prague) two days of incredible weather, numerous science and technology tools, Google maps, and generous portions of communication, collaboration, and creativity opportunities that resulted in a learning that exceeded our expectations.  Below are my reflections on two tremendous days of thinking and learning.


This is an example of one team's map. View Group 4 ISP 2011: Team 4 in a larger map


Collaboration: The IB Group IV project is all about personal skills and how students are able to work in a group, look at themselves as learners and reflect on their strengths and weaknesses. I was fortunate enough to be assigned my own group of students to supervise and was able to watch them work through  a number of obstacles throughout the project.  Over and over again I was reminded about the importance of group work, collaboration skills and the power of many minds working together on the same problem. I really was amazed by the students, their maturity, their ability to look at any problem from multiple angles and to defer to each other when neccesary.  It got me thinking about how we really should have higher expectations for groups than we do for individuals.

Collaboration Continued: It is appropriate that the two days were planned not by one teacher, but by a group of teachers.  It would not have been nearly as smooth, powerful or well-organized,  had one person been tasked with developing the project on their own, but rather it was put together by a group of teachers each with different strengths.  There really isn't anything that is more satisfying to me professionally than working on a team of educators devoted to providing a unique and authentic learning experience for students.  The plan truly was a collaborative effort by a number of teachers who brought various  and diverse viewpoints and ideas to the table.  In the end the group was able to refine the program to the point that, even it its first year, it was extremely successful.  Again, the power of groups over individuals was made clearer to me.  I just wish our education system valued collaboration more and am reminded that we must all push for more opportunities to work side by side, sharing and learning with and from our colleagues.

Not Over Rubricised (or Teacher as Shoulder Shrugger): One thing that I really liked about the Group IV project is that it isn't over rubricised.  The students were only graded on three criteria (none of which had anything to do with content by the way).  There was a theme (Preserving the Natural Heritage of Divoka Sarka in the Czech Republic), and we did set some general parameters for their presentations such as: data must be displayed in a Google Map and there should be a video detailing your data collection method.  Other than that, students had to come up with a hypothesis, research question, data collection method, google map, and presentation.  Of course there were many times throughout the project that a student would turn to me and ask a question about what I thought of one of their ideas.  I just shrugged my shoulders.  At first they hated this, and seemed to not know what to do next, but eventually they would just turn back to each other and share ideas or otherwise work towards a group consensus.  They got better and better at it. From this experience I was reminded how much students grow to depend on our instructions - how to format, how to turn it in, where to put the staple, to use blue or black ink or pencil, double space or single space, on and on.  Teachers often have so many rules on assignments  that students get so caught up in following them they don't use their creativity.  I loved how much this project brought out student creativity.  I loved standing back, letting the students flail, fail and then sort it out.  And they always did sort it out.  In fact, even when I wanted to intervene, and get them going in the right direction, they'd eventually figure it out and end up doing something that was even better than what I had in mind.

Problem Solving: During John Davitt's recent visit, he and I talked about how amazing it is to watch students come up with solutions and choices of tools to solve problems when we don't show them how to do it our way.  In this project,  just like we didn't over rubricise it, we didn't give student instructions on how to do everything.  We left it up to them.  We figured they could bring their own still cameras, video cameras, downloading cords and the like.  Again they amazed me.  They did bring their own cameras, but they mostly used phones, because they could just upload the photos directly to Flickr or Picasa and share them to the map -  all wirelessly.  Two tools that really took me by surprise were Skype and an iPad.  One group included a girl who had recently injured her leg and was confined to a wheel chair and unable to join us in the forest.  Later we learned that the students used the unfortunate injury to their advantage.  They were Skyping GPS coordinates and other data back to the injured student who was hard at work plotting it all on the Google Map.  Again, I was reminded how creative students can be when left alone to choose their own method for solving a problem.

Students teaching Students: There were numerous opportunities for students to solve authentic problems that cropped up.  And often part of the problem solving would require that one student with specific knowledge or skills teach another student.  One student wanted to display two different graphs superimposed one over the other.  Of course this could have been done a number of ways, but in this instance one student taught another student how to use Photoshop to complete the task.  I also witnessed students teaching each other to use Quicktime, Picassa, Flickr, Excel, and of course Google Maps.  It was exciting and rewarding to see different students taking the lead and assisting others when they had the expertise necessary.

Unplanned, but Powerful Learnings: Perhaps the biggest take away for me was this idea that there was an immense amount of learning that was not planned by the teacher.  I was reminded just how powerful open-ended, authentic, inquiry based learning can be.

Student Choice/ownership: One thing that I heard the supervisors talking about was their surprise at how the students stayed motivated throughout the entire process.  I personally felt that the students actually gained momentum and that the motivation increased as time went on.  I can only assume that this was because the research questions, the process and the end product were all student owned.  The buy-in was amazing and they all had pride in what they were producing.  I'm reminded to try to incorporate as much student choice into assessments as possible.

Non-Traditional Classroom: Another key ingredient that helped to make this project such a success was the venue.  We were fortunate to be able to use a picturesque nature reserve on two beautiful days.  Being outside, and learning in a non-traditional setting definitely added a uniqueness factor that increased motivation.  But this got me thinking about the frequency of projects such as this one and how difficult they are to work into our traditional school day schedule.  Many schools try to incorporate a "classroom without walls" atmosphere through field trips, or designated two-day to week long programs, but they are often one offs that don't tie that closely to the curriculum.  Schools should be looking at flexible scheduling that would allow for more alternative, non-traditional teaching opportunities.   As one student reflected, "If we started every day of school out in the forest we'd be so much more enthusiastic about learning."

This is a conglomeration of maps from all 8 teams. View Group IV CONSOLIDATED Map 2011 in a larger map

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Copyright: Holding to a Higher Standard

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="400" caption="Large copyright sign made of jigsaw puzzle pieces by Horia Varlan"]Large copyright sign made of jigsaw puzzle pieces[/caption]

Copyright is black and white...or grey, depending on who you are and if you are creating or consuming at the time of the discussion.  Toss the concept of "fair use" into the mix and things get more confusing.  Add in the facts that many countries have differing laws and not everyone is a part of the Berne Convention (but many are) and that most of us humans don't really understand lawyer-speak, and things get murkier still.  Coming up with a copyright "policy" in a school is difficult.  Even more difficult when you realize that the students you teach (especially in international schools) are going to be global citizens and since you don't know what country they will live and work in, you can't really base your teaching on the laws of any particular country.  So, what to do?

I suggest that we hold our students to a higher standard:  use only what you know (and can prove) that you are allowed to use.  Even a policy such as this one is not as simple as it sounds.  But we can try to simplify it as much as possible.  Is the item in question (song, image, etc.) in the public domain? No? Then have you been granted permission through a creative commons license (or similar) by the creator of the piece in question?  No?  Then do you have written statement from the creator giving you permission to use it?  No?  Okay, so you can't use it.  Simple - from a teacher's perspective.  You either have permission, or you don't.  From a student perspective it is a bit more difficult in that the burden of proof lies with them.  But this is something we can teach, and we SHOULD teach.  In an age where you can email a famous artist for permission to use their work, and millions of not so famous artists are licensing their work under creative commons licenses, we should be holding students to a higher standard.  Use only what you know (and can prove) that you are allowed to use.

Monday, April 11, 2011

20 Percent Time

[caption id="attachment_139" align="alignleft" width="294" caption="So You Think You Can Dance?"][/caption]

Recently my boss (@jmikton, http://beyonddigital.org/) brought up the topic of "20% time" that (although not created by them) has been touted as one of the ways that Google creates a unique, creative and productive work environment. I think the concept has interesting implications when considered from a teacher or student standpoint - but that is a blog post for another time. The discussion with my boss prompted me to explore what "20% Time" would mean for me. I originally didn't think it would even be possible; my schedule is more flexible than a regular classroom teacher, but it's not like I sit around and twiddle my thumbs for large chunks of time. Like most people in education, I feel like I already don't have enough time to do all the aspects of my job. I couldn't think of how I could squeeze in any new projects on an already full plate. But then I decided to look at it a little differently. "20% Time" can mean setting aside time to focus on the things that you WANT to do and SHOULD do in your job, but that tend to get pushed aside for the urgent things. 20% Time for me, means changing my priorities and booking out blocks of time to spend on those important things that otherwise would stay on my to-do list for months and possibly years. So, I'm attending a class, Information Technology Fundamentals, just like all of the 9th graders are required to do at our school. I SHOULD know what all our students are expected to know - I'm managing a laptop program for crying out loud. I also WANT to know how to use all the creative programs that our students are using. And so I've set aside 70 minutes every other day to learn digital citizenship, laptop management, Flash programing, mixing audio in Logic Express and animation in Maya. So far, my skills in Maya are not at the level at which I can start applying to Pixar, but they are improving, and I'm having fun and learning things that help me during the other 80% of my job.

Check out my Maya animation: So You Think You Can Dance? Maya Animation Assignment

Sunday, April 10, 2011

An Unfortunate Digital Footprint

I've been following the unfortunate story of Alexandra Wallace.  If you haven't heard about it, here is a quick summary:

Miss Wallace, a student at UCLA, posted a video rant on the internet complaining about Asian students talking on their cell phones in the library.  In the video, Miss Wallace mocks the Asian students' speech and makes other racially insensitive remarks.  The video went viral - people were outraged - Miss Wallace received all sorts of scorn in various forms from parody videos (the one below with over 3 million views) to death threats.  She then apologized and withdrew from UCLA.

In her apology, Miss Wallace said,

"I could write apology letters all day and night, but I know they wouldn’t erase the video from your memory, nor would they act to reverse my inappropriate action."

She is correct, and that is precisely the lesson we should be reminding and reinforcing with our students - it is difficult, if not impossible , to take something back that you post on the internet.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

John Davitt Visits

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="335" caption="John Davitt - image from www.newtools.org"][/caption]

We were fortunate to have John Davitt, a writer, broadcaster and digital tool maker, be our school's special guest the past two days. Previously I was inspired by John's presentations as a keynote speaker and workshop leader at a conference and wrote about that experience on my blog. John met with different groups such as the librarians, administrators and IT specialists, spoke to the middle school students at an assembly, and guest-taught a number of classes in the elementary, middle and upper schools utilizing his Learning Event Generator and some outdoor learning (similar to this one) . He presented “How Technology can Fit and Enhance Learning” to a mixed audience of students, teachers, and parents. These past two days were filled with a multitude of learning opportunities. If I were to go into detail about each profound thought that came from these two days, this post would go on and on.  Instead,  I'll offer just a few personal reflections:

  • Teachers need to become better at letting go and letting students own the learning.

  • Let students demonstrate their knowledge in different ways - some they are comfortable with, and some they are not.

  • In group work, students might go off in the wrong direction, but there is learning happening as they correct their course - learning that the teacher could not have planned for.

  • The power of group learning is underrated - Groups of students can achieve greater heights than individuals.

  • Given a problem with very little direction on how to solve it students will amaze you with their problem solving skills, often utilizing tools and techniques that the teacher might not have thought of.

  • There are many different approaches to powerful learning and as teachers we need to be offering our diverse learners different ways of learning and demonstrating learning.

  • There is a struggle (that enhances and consolidates learning) when you have to demonstrate learning in a way that you are not comfortable with.


Lastly, I would like to thank John Davitt for his thoughtful insights, his energy and generosity (he is leaving us with some copies of the Learning Score, which I will write more about later)  .  I would encourage any school out there to bring John to your campus if you have a chance.  You can learn more about John Davitt at his blog, his website or on twitter.

[caption id="attachment_106" align="alignleft" width="640" caption="Outdoor Learning Adventure"]Outdoor Learning Adventure[/caption]

Sunday, February 13, 2011

Facebook Friend Map in Social Studies

A colleague recently sent me a link to this article about how a Facebook intern mapped out the relationships of ten million pairs of friends.  My first reaction was to note its beauty.  But then I started thinking about how it might be used in a Geography or other social studies class.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="550" caption="Facebook Friend Visualization Map"]Facebook Friend Visualization Map[/caption]

There are actually quite a few things you can learn about geography, population and even politics from looking at this. Depending on the age of your students, you could put this image in front of them and have them come up with observations and/or questions for further exploration.  Or, maybe you have to give them some prompts such as: What does this image tell us about the geography of Canada or Australia? Where did China go? etc.  I'm sure there are plenty of educational uses for this image that I'm not thinking of.  If you have an idea, please share your thoughts in a comment on this post.  For a larger-than-full-screen view check out this post on Gizmodo, and for more about the process and data visualization check out this page on Facebook.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Quizlet Flashcards Now Embeddable

Quizlet, the popular online flashcard creation site, now allows you to embed your flashcards onto your blog or website. This is a really nice enhancement for an already useful technology. I've embedded a sample below, which I need to study. Perhaps by putting it on my blog I might actually find myself learning all the European capitals; one can hope.

Monday, January 17, 2011

Finding Images to Use in Multi-Media Projects

This post was originally created for use with students responsible for creating a digital story, and was cross posted at blogs.isp.cz/usit Technology Integrators, please feel free to use as you see fit (according to the CC license on this site).

As soon as you take a photo you own the copyright to that photo. The same is true for when you write a poem, or an essay, record a song or create a piece of art. You own the copyright to that work and no one else can use it without your permission.

The same is true for images on the internet: somebody owns the copyright and you cannot use the image unless you have permission.

There are images that are free to use that fall under Public Domain, which means that the copyright has been forfeited or the copyright has expired, but we won’t be addressing these at this time.

The other type of image that you can use are Creative Commons licensed images where the author has already given you permission to use their work. The author/or creator uses a CC license to give you this permission, however you must follow the rules they set out for you. Often all that they require is that you give them credit by name and share your work with the same license that they used.

Google’s advanced image search allows you to narrow your results to images where the author has given you permission to reuse the work in your multimedia project.

1. Go to Google – Images – Advanced Search.

2. Enter the keyword(s)

3. Set any of the parameters (I only use “photos”)

4. Set Usage Rights to “labeled for reuse with modification”

5. Click Google Search

6. Browse the search results and click on the photo of your choice. You are taken to the original page (this is the page you will use for a citation).

Once you’ve located an image, you need to do the following:

1. Verify that the licensing does allow you to use the image (usually by clicking on the license information).

2. Take down the author, title of work, website link, and CC license for citation purposes. Also, there may be information on how the author/creator wants you to attribute the work.

3. Download the photo

4. Use the photo in your multimedia project

5. Include the citation in your project.

Note: If the license required you to “share-alike” then you’ll need to license the final product when you post it on the web.

For more information, watch the video tutorial below.