Creating Content: Show me the freebies!

You're an innovative classroom practitioner. You embrace the transformative nature of technology. You want to encourage students to take risks, be creators not just consumers. BUT... you don't want to end up in trouble with the law. You've heard the ads about not stealing cars, and you know that somewhere, someone worked really hard to create that music/picture/book/film you loved.

Of course, the easiest way to ensure you're not illegally using someone else's work is to create it all yourself. From shooting the video, to taking the photos, composing the music and creating the sound effects. If your students create the content themselves, they are then free to use it however they wish. However, this is not always practical and this is where Creative Commons comes into play.


By teaching students how to search for and responsibly use Creative Commons licensed works, you are promoting good digital citizenship. Keep in mind that if your students are reusing works, they need to ensure the work is produced under a licence that allows for derivations as the No Derivatives licence does not allow for the work to be added to or changed in any way.

Where to find CC licensed works:

Music & Sound Effects

• Bensound - allows for music to be modified for use in a video, but not to be reused to create music (e.g. you can't add lyrics to it and release it). Some music is only available with a paid subscription. 
• YouTube Audio Library - YouTube has made it really easy to download music to add to videos (presumably in the hopes that you're going to then upload them to YouTube). They also have a sound effects section. 
• Free Music Archive - has a vast array of music, some created using the CC licenses. Can search by genre, length, and license
• MediaCollege - has a small collection of music and sound effects. Most of it does not require attribution
• Jamendo - mentioned in the video above. Costs if you want to use music to create content, so I suspect this has changed since the CC Kiwi video was made. 

Photos & Images

• Google Images - once you search for your image, you need to use the 'Search Tools' to search by usage rights. From here, you can select the license you need. You can also select what kind of image you're after (photo, clip art, etc)
• Flickr - after entering your search term/s, select the license type you require from the menu at the top left side of the results page

Video

• YouTube - after you enter your search term/s, select the filter and then select Creative Commons. This will search for videos licensed under creative commons
• Vimeo - again after you enter your search terms, you can filter results by the licence you're looking for using the "Refine results by" options to the left of the screen

Distraction or Inspiration?

I had a discussion with one of my friends recently about whether or not students using their devices in class caused more distraction than helped with their learning. She sent me this article in support of her argument: Students can't resist distraction for two minutes ... and neither can you

Although the research is interesting, from a personal standpoint I can certainly resist distraction for more than two minutes! It just depends on how engaged I am in the task at hand.

Some days, I have gone all day without checking my phone. Seriously, all day! Okay, I might check it in the morning (around 7:30am) but then I've been too involved in my work, life, whatever to give it another thought. It helps that I've got a habit of putting it on silent, because then it doesn't even bing to remind me it's there.

There is a certain expectation that I'll be available and connected though, and my habits have gotten me into trouble with my family when they've been trying to get in touch!

So, why can I resist temptation when it would seem that so many others can't? Engagement. I'm fully engaged in whatever it is I'm doing. So much so, that I don't give a thought to texts or emails, let alone Facebook. It is only when I am not fully engaged that those things become an option to me.

Devices are just the latest way that students have to disengage from their learning. In the past, they may have passed notes or day-dreamed about life outside of the classroom. The challenge to educators is to ensure that students are so enthralled in what they are learning, that they don't even consider doing something else.

E-Learning for all

I was feeling really excited last night, after a great PD session with my team. As we had a couple of team members away, we decided to have a bit of a session on using the aha para dashboard for Google Drive. I have been using this more and more in my class, and we had decided at the start of the year to have it for all our Year 5-8 students instead of using a USB for their work. I showed my colleagues the basics of login in and viewing student work, plus how to smart copy documents and files to the students' folders. We discussed how to get started with the kids, and I recommended focussing on the login process as many of my (older) students had found it difficult just getting their username right! It also gives teachers a great opportunity to discuss digital citizenship especially regarding keeping their passwords safe. We had some great discussions and I see today that many of the students had successfully logged it.