The term “Google it” is by far a way too popular practice amongst our students and our overall society. The issue with simply “Googling it” can be understood through Scheeren’s (2015) discussion regarding the internet. He states, “The nature of the Internet as an unmediated network has resulted in large numbers of webpages with invalid, incorrect, or biased information” (p. 11). This understanding certainly exemplifies the need for aspects of education that focus on overall digital literacy and digital competence. Built within this 21st century knowledge is digital citizenship. Educator and author Mike Ribble explains digital citizenship as, “…a concept, which helps teachers, technology leaders, and parents to understand what students/children/technology users should know to use technology appropriately” (Hollandsworth. Dowdy, & Donovan, 2011, p. 38). Within digital citizenship comes a students’ responsibility to give credit to material that is used for work but not created by the student. For example, an image used for a presentation. Many times students simply do an image search on Google for whatever they are looking for and use whatever image they like without thinking twice about it. Such a mindset is one that is present within a student before they are taught about digital citizenship and copyright laws. With that said, creating a citation for every image used off of Google Images can certainly be daunting. Thus, I present you two resources that are backed by Creative Commons, allowing its users to search and use material found on their website without the worry of copyright laws, Photos For Class and Pixabay.
Photos For Class allows its users to safely search for photos through its “classroom in mind” filter system. Other than being extremely safe, there are no other filtering options. Photos must be downloaded, however each downloaded photo has citation information embedded below the image. Photos For Class is extremely easy to navigate, and it has learning opportunities within the website. The resource provides students with information on how to cite, why it is important to cite, and the different licenses types. Students can find photos for projects and presentations, easily download from the website, obtain photos with embedded citations below each downloaded photo, and have accurate citations under Creative Commons licensing. 
Pixabay allows its users to search for free of copyright photos, vector graphics, illustrations, and videos. Although there is a safe search function, it takes a little searching to find it from the home screen. Filter media by type, orientation, category, dimensions, and color. Once a piece of media is selected users have the option to download, like, save to favorites, share, and find related media. Pixabay offers very high quality photos as well as offers a social media side to the application with the share and like functions available. The resource can be used in 26 different languages, thus the social media side can provide a cross-cultural aspect to your students’ education. Students can easily download media on Android, IOS, and the web in four different sizes. However, it is critical that you turn safe search on for students, especially those in the younger grades. Pixabay offers all of their media free of copyright as they are backed by Creative Commons licensing.
Although Photos For Class provides and extremely safe search, Pixabay’s diverse options provide a much more valuable asset in the classroom for both students and educators.
Happy Teaching!
References
Hollandsworth, Randy, Lena Dowdy, and Judy Donovan. (2011). “Digital Citizenship in K-12: It Takes a Village” Tech Trends. 55(4) 37-47.
Scheeren, William O. (2015) Technology Handbook for School Librarians. Santa Barbara: Libraries Unlimited.
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