2 Computers with 9 Monitors
by totalAldo – May 21, 2007 (Flickr)

K12 Learning 2.0:  Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

THING “Eleven” (Session Five) :

Task:  Photosharing and Tagging . . .  (Experiences with Flickr)

Flickr is definitely popular, no question about that point.  It does seem to have a pleasant design and organization style.  I like the simple menu bar on the homepage.  I found the Creative Commons link on the Explore dropdown link and was able to search Creative Commons images only.

I browsed around looking at the pictures and noticed the cc reference to them in the properties.  I randomly downloaded a dozen of the pics.  The one I posted above was an uploaded to the media library image.  I did not have any particular reason for selecting this photo.  It looked good to me – maybe I am just dreaming if I had 9 monitors, maybe I could get 9 times the amount of work done today!!  Hey, maybe even 2 monitors would help with all of these different sites we are visiting at the same time!!  I can envision having my blog site on screen 1, Moodle site on screen 2, Flickr on screen 3, Gmail on screen 4, Wiki on screen 5, Edublog on screen 6, Screens 7 search using IE, Screen 8 search using Firefox, Screen 9 local computer use.  Whew!!  There you go – the only problem is that requires more funds than I have at the moment to invest into this very nice setup.  Hey, I accept donations!!

Well, anyway, back to Flickr.  The tagging concept is interesting.  Uploaded photos could end up with a multitude of tags.  The first time I visited Flickr, I did notice a half page full of tags under some photos.  The upside is that the photo can be found in a search and displayed in wide range of searches.  The downside is that if every photo on this site has a page of tags, then even though it is going to be in your display results, you may literally have thousands of results to scan.  I think Flickr users should use reserve in adding tags and try to use very descriptive ones that will aid in better and more accurate searches.

As far as using browsers, I like using Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Flock.  Flock is a successor to replace Netscape which had been around almost since the beginning of the internet.  The Flock browser has a built-in way to download photos from Flickr.  Here is the link if you would like to try it.  

Download FLOCK Web Browser with built-in Flickr uploading and lot of extra Flickr features built right in.  Flock also has custom themes, extensions and toolbars. 

Creative Commons License Guy
K12 learning 2.0:  Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

THING “TEN” (Session Five) :

Stretch Task:  Creative Commons Resources Findings . . .

Well, until recently, it was difficult to find “free use” materials across the web.  Thanks to Creative Commons, an avalanche of material is now available.  The OER Resource (Open Educational Resources) is excellent.  Materials covering all subject areas, all age groups and all conditions of use from “no strings attached” to “read the fine print.”  As an example, I type the word “blogging” in the search box to see what type of results would be revealed.  There were 86 results displayed with an action button to the right indicating whether it was a “remix or share” or “no strings attached” license which gives the user a quick glance through the list to the type of license associated with the material along with a rating.  This would save a tremendous amount of research time.   This site is definitely worthy of a bookmark in your browser or share it in your “social bookmarking” page.  I like their motto, “Learning Is Sharing.”

See the Creative Commons Content Directories Wiki where a list of organizations and projects powered with Creative Commons licenses is displayed.  Visit the site and list your site or project.  This is an amazing list of organizations that have made their materials available for you and me.

The search bar on the main site was good and displayed some great results but their Search Tool Link displays results from all over the web.  Again, I entered “blogging” here and check the box for “Search for works I can use for commercial purposes” and I received 2,910,000 hits.  Isn’t that amazing!  Surely, I can find something in that list of links about blogging that I could use in a school assignment.

I found some other interesting sites that list links where creative commons licenses are available.

25 Sources for Creative Commons Content - Audio, Images, Text, Video and General Searches.
NCompass Blog -  Interesting blog about Creative Commons Licensing with lots of comments.
Sharing Creative Works Slideshow - If you want to share something you have created.
5 Lesser Know Benefits to Creative Commons – Why bloggers use or don’t use creative commons.
Christmas Songs – These are under Creative Commons license.  I am glad to know this.
Guide to Finding Flickr Images - Excellent resource.  Visit skelliewag and read this.
Cory Doctorow – Creative Commons – Nice article from an author discussing how CC works.
How to Attribute CC Licensed Work - How to give credit with siting CC works.
Photo Dropper Plug In - Visit Photo Dropper’s Main Site to download a plugin that searches flickr for Creative Commons licensed photos for you to add to your Wordpress blog.  It makes it much easier and faster to locate photos.

There are many, many more excellent articles on Creative Commons and how it is transforming the way content can be accessed and used.

K12 learning 2.0:  Tools for 21st Century Teaching & Learning

THING “TEN” (Session Five) :

TASK:  Creative Commons  . . .

Copyright has always been a concern for me when utilizing any content whether it be online or offline.  It is often difficult to know what is free to use and what is not.  For example, notice the properties of the photos on Flickr which reveals the cc logo.  This logo is not highly visible even though the content is flagged with this symbol.  An example from Flickr is shown here.

Some sites like Google Images will make pictures available with the caption, “For personal non-commercial use only.”  I haven’t noticed this logo on sites probably because it is usually small and I am not specifically looking for it but instead the usual C in a circle for copyright.

Creative Commons will definitely impact the way students use web material in various projects.  Students will have more flexibility in handling the information they obtain with this license.  They will have a greater selection of music and images.  Videos on YouTube do not show any copyright logos which make it difficult for the viewer to determine how to use the content beyond viewing.  Some users create videos which they give permission to use but are actually violating copyright when they include content within their video that has not been properly obtained.  So, it is sometimes difficult to determine what is acceptable.  As a general rule, I always recommend, “when in doubt, don’t use it.”  The web is a huge place and there will always be an alternative solution.

After learning more about Creative Commons, I noticed the logo quickly at change.gov which is the Obama President-Elect website.  I did a search and found that many sites were identified as having this logo which included this site.  In fact, the Obama site’s Terms of Service extracts a perpetual exploitation license from content contributors (like most commercial websites), which is actually rather contrary to Creative Commons principles, and leaves me wondering why the symbol is there?  However, I am starting to notice the cc logo on many sites.

We should be careful not to overuse allowable content because it could hinder creativity.  When things are largely restricted, this forces us to be more creative in our projects and writings.  There is a danger of relying too heavily on ”free” content which could make us lazy thinkers and students will not reach their potential as effective leaners. 

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