Images in Posts

Kick Start Activity 5 – Beginner gives us all a great introduction to using images in blog posts and discusses that very touchy issue of copyright.

Oh, how many classes have I been in where when the idea of copyright is raised I get challenged with “Why is it on the internet then?” The discussion continues along the lines of – it has been put out there and therefore I can use it. I also see adults modelling this to students as they troll through Google Images and save or print images with no acknowledgement of where they came from. More and more I also talk with students who will justify their actions with a statement about it “only being for educational purposes”.

I like the way Sue’s post focuses on acknowledging sources and is so cut and dried with the statement in Step 1.

You can’t just use any image you like in a blog post.

Why?  Because unless stated otherwise the law automatically grants full “copyright” over any creative work a person makes. Sue Waters, Kickstart Activity 5 – Beginner- Enhancing Posts with Images

It isn’t about ‘not using images’ it is about ‘how we use images’.

This is the statement I would like to have on a recording and may be on posters near all computers in our school so that I do not need to repeat it.

Images are so powerful and now we are spoilt with choice as we are bombarded with images from TV, newspapers, magazines, DVDs, movies, billboards, sides of buses and – the biggie – the internet. A good image is definitely worth many words, maybe not 1000 but close. As teachers we need to model and teach correct use of images so that we can continue to be amazed, inspired and intrigued by pictures. Remember when all we could do was cut out images from magazines or travel brochures to add to projects. How things have changed!

Photo by DrJohnBullas licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

It does not take that much extra effort to get the information needed to acknowledge a source and the more we practice the better we will become. There is an extra step but we just need to insist on this step being taken when we “borrow” an image.

Alongside teaching the correct use of images from various image sources I also think we need to encourage and value our students’ own work.

  • Give them access to a digital camera to create the image they may need
  • draw, scan and upload their own work
  • create a digital image using  MSPaint, ArtRage, Inkscape, Gimp, Kidpix, TuxPaint, Picnik, or any of the myriad of other digital creation programs that are out there.

We value their work on the display boards of our classrooms and we need to show the same value for their creations by using them in an online form as well.

What do you think?

Are we getting there?

In this post I have use one of my own photographs, a flickr image found by using the advanced google image search where I can specify – labelled for reuse – and an ArtRage image created by my daughter in 2006.


13 thoughts on “Images in Posts

  1. aslisaglam January 30, 2011 / 2:20 am

    Hello, Thanks a lot for sharing the web tools to create images. I will definitely encourage my students to work with those- (being a digital immigrant, after I learn about them) 🙂

    • Mrs S January 30, 2011 / 11:41 am

      Thanks for leaving a comment. Some of the links that I have provided are not web 2 tools but are links to software that you would download and install on your computer. Picnik is an online tool. ArtRage, MSPaint, TuxPaint and the others mentioned are programs that need to be installed on your computer.

  2. Oona January 28, 2011 / 1:11 pm

    Hi Mrs S
    Your photograph and the ArtRage image your daughter created look great.
    I agree with your contention that we should be using the students own artwork. Having an audience to share with outside of the classroom is wonderful and I know many teachers enjoy seeing what other classes do. Family who live a distance away thoroughly enjoy looking at them too. I asked my new children (who will be in my class this year) what they most enjoyed about school and so many of them mentioned artwork- we need to make time to give them the opportunity to enjoy what they love doing.

    • Mrs S January 28, 2011 / 1:22 pm

      Thanks, Oona. The Teacher Challenge has been a great way of connecting with lots of other teachers who are all trying to get engaged with the myriad of new tools and toys that are out there to create with.

  3. Mrs S January 27, 2011 / 10:40 pm

    Thanks, Penny. I am hoping to be able to encourage more use of our students’ work this year alongside giving students and teachers links to good places to find images they can use with the correct attribution when they need these for their class work.

  4. Penny Bentley January 27, 2011 / 7:10 pm

    I couldn’t agree more about encouraging students to publish their own work. Taking pride in their work, publishing it to the internet then receiving feedback from an authentic audience is meaningful learning for them. Way better than collecting a pile of work that sits on our desk for marking.
    Thanks for your post Mrs S.

  5. Karla January 26, 2011 / 8:44 pm

    Really great thoughts Mrs S. I agree, teachers aren’t doing enough. Me included and I’m going to make this much more of an issue when I start back at school on Monday. I really want to try to get more teachers on board too. Hope you’re managing all the activities OK.

    • Mrs S January 27, 2011 / 10:33 pm

      Thanks for commenting, Karla. This challenge has been great both in the information that has been provided and the large number of new blogs I have been introduced to.

  6. Carol Satta January 26, 2011 / 10:13 am

    Hi Mrs. S.,

    I enjoyed reading your thoughts as someone who has experience teaching your students how to be responsible users of information.

    Great idea to put more of our time and resources into teaching and enabling the students to create their own images.

    • Mrs S January 26, 2011 / 5:08 pm

      Thanks for leaving a comment, Carol. I am quite adamant that alongside teaching correct use of the work of other people we need to encourage the use of our students’ own work.

      There will always be times when it is quicker to source an image from an online repository, with the correct acknowledgement, but at other times our students can use the vast variety of creative tools to make what they need.

  7. Sue Waters January 25, 2011 / 8:56 pm

    Wonder if you asked them how would they feel if they spent hours creating something only to have some one else make it look like it was their own work.

    That is how some one whose copyright has been breached feels and some have been known to publicly shame people online.

    Great post, use of images and excellent work acknowledging the original source.

    • Mrs S January 26, 2011 / 5:03 pm

      I know how I would feel, Sue and that is what I try to convey to my students when we talk about using pictures. I have had a few years at the same school and can definitely see progress over this time. Many more students are acknowledging their sources – not just for images but also for their information when doing research.

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