I know I've talked about using Creative Commons photos in a past Tech Tip Tuesday, but this is about giving credit for those photos in a presentation or on a website. It's not a formal citation, but an attribution. Why is this important? This blog post by a biology professor is pretty blunt, but it's makes sense. Some people do make a living with their photos. And there are tons of free CC licensed photos, and most just ask that you give credit to the photographer. Wouldn't you want credit for photos you take? And, you wouldn't accept a research paper without proper citations, would you? Photos (and music) are the pretty much the same. Krissy Venosdale, of the fabulous site Venspired, shares her frustration here with others not only using her images without attribution, but using them to make money. She creates tons of posters (some seen below) and offers them as a free download on her website under a Creative Commons license.

Here is an infographic showing how to properly give attribution to a Creative Commons Photo from Foter, a site for stock photos. It isn't difficult, but it's just different steps to remember. To make it easier for students (and staff) to credit CC photos, I found an easy to use attribution generator. First, you drag the "flickr cc attribution helper" button to your toolbar. Then, when in Flickr, you just click that button to create an attribution. See the photo below for an example.

Now, watch the video below to see how this works. The video will go over three things:

1. finding high quality Creative Commons photos
2. quickly and easily giving credit to the photographer
3. inserting those attributions into a presentation

**The CC attribution helper mentioned is sometimes a bit off now, so I'd use this helper instead, but follow the same guidelines to add those attributions to your presentation.**

Want to simply create your own photo attributions? Visit the link below.

As always, I'd be happy to help teach with you when it comes to this. When the students really, really want to use that particular photo or that particular song, it's not fun to give them these other options. But, better for them to learn this lesson now when the stakes are low compared to when stakes are higher in college or in their first job. And, there is so much out there that is free to use and created just for students, bloggers, teachers, and other creative minds.

Google Drive has made citing sources through EasyBib even easier...right in Google Drive! Watch the video below to find out how to add this cool new add-on to your Drive. It's not perfect, but it's an easy to use tool. The full version of EasyBib (that is built into our Google Apps) is more comprehensive, but this is nice for simple citations.

Don't want to watch another video? Check out these step-by-step instructions from Free Technology for Teachers.

Photo Credit:

2500 Creative Commons Licenses by QThomas Bower Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License

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