Educational Image Search Engines Part 1

Images speak thousands of words. Educators use them on every day basis, students love them and include them in their multimedia projects.Given this growing importance of images in education , the pending questions that we need to urgently answer are : do we know how to safely look for images online ? do we respect copyrights of those images ?
The first thing that comes into our minds when we want to look for an image online is Google Image Search. This is the most reputed  online image directory.It is a great resource for ‘copyrighted’ images and students can use it without the least doubt about its credibility. but that is not it! There are other image search websites that are licensed under Creative Commons. Today i am going to introduce you to a bunch of these sites and show you some of the features they offer.



Remember , we are educators and we need to educate our kids the best way possible. We need to teach them how to respect copyrights of images and other materials they might find online. You should never tolerate any breach of this rule. We want to prepare people who will ,in the future, respect each other and respect others’ copyrights and to do this wisely you need to introduce your students to Creative Commons and Public Domain issues. If you do not know anything about these two keywords then this is your chance to learn , go around online and collect  resources and links and prepare a few paragraphs to share with your students ( if you are busy or lazy to look for links about Creative Commons or Public Domain then contact me here and i will send  them to you ). Remember Giving the copyright holder credit is part of the deal when using a Creative Commons picture.



After this short introduction, here are some of the most famous image search websites that are licensed under creative Commons and Public Domain. You and your students can use any of these links to look for images to include in your classroom without worrying about copyright issues.
1 Google Image Search



I have already covered this topic in two previous posts and so there is no need to regurgitate what i have already said. To learn about Google Image Search and how to use it to look for images you are invited to read :

1. Google Image Search – Search Info about any Picture




2. Google Images with Sorting : Search and Find Images Easily

 

2 Morgue File

Morgue File is another website that provides free photos with license to remix. It “contains free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use. The purpose of this site is to provide free image reference material for illustrators, comic book artist, designers, teachers and all creative pursuits”.
Morgue File features a ‘ Classroom ‘ where you can learn the basics of photography and improve your skills. It provides several lessons and tutorials about the art of photography  for free.
Now head over to Educational Image Search Engines Part 2 to learn about the other Image Search Engines.