The+Wild+West+of+Media+Hustling

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The article rightly points out that one of the added benefits of protecting the privacy of students in the library is an enhanced sense of social responsibility. In other words, students who are aware of their own rights regarding privacy will in turn be more aware of the rights of others. They will be less likely to use text, images, music, etc. that are copyrighted and search for alternative resources that are legally unbound. They will take ownership and pride in their privacy and understand the value others place on their privacy and their intellectual property.=====

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What does that boil down to in a practical sense? For educators, it’s about teaching students that they are in fact a part of a community; a massive, invisible community of people that have the same rights and freedoms as their real life neighbors. Stealing your neighbor’s car will result in a criminal charge as will stealing their online work.=====

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More teachers are making efforts to use Web 2.0 applications in their classrooms. Increasingly, students are creating websites, wikis and blogs as part of their coursework. The use of images, sounds and video are integral to creating effective and appealing electronic coursework. Many students are unaware that stealing or copying images or sound files is in fact theft. Even more tragically, many teachers turn a blind eye to these infringements. Aside from the legalities of this issue, one of the biggest concerns related to students ignoring proper copyright practices in the classroom is that they never learn what they can or cannot do in the “real world.” The mandate of public education is to provide meaningful learning experiences that prepare students to be ethical, productive, contributing citizens. We owe it to our students to be aware of intellectual property infringements and provide solutions and alternatives.=====

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Thankfully, locating electronic resources that are legally unbound and free is as easy as finding a pizza in Venice. Simply entering “copyright free images” into a search engine will provide you with hundreds if not thousands of links to peruse. It is important to note that many of these websites make their money by advertising banners on the websites. Some of these banners can be sexual in nature, advertise gambling, or other such advertising that is inappropriate for children to see. It is a good idea to preview these websites and provide your students with a list of websites they can visit to obtain images or sounds. It is worth noting that many websites offering royalty free music require a one time payment in exchange for unlimited use of the file. There are varying degrees of "free" and "unlimited use", so it is wise to closely examine the legal details in every case.=====

Creative Commons is one of the most widely used website for sharing intellectual property. It is an extensive hub of photos, text, illustrations and video that are approved for educational use and free for public use. Google and Yahoo even have search tools that locate Creative Commons materials on the web. Watch the video below to get a clearer sense as to how and why people contribute to Creative Commons in addition to its educational purposes:

media type="youtube" key="2BESbnMJg9M&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425"

As mentioned earlier, there are countless websites that offer legally free files. Listed below are a number of school-safe websites that you can share with your students:
http://classroomclipart.com/ Clipart is simply ready to use graphic files... in other words, pictures. The above website is especially suited to elementary students due to the fact that much of the clip art is animated.

[|http://www.freefoto.com/index .jsp] With 118957 images broken down into 154 sections with 3313 categories, this website is a valuable a tool for your electronic toolbox. This website claims to have the largest collection of free photographs on the internet. Especially impressive is the collection of city and nature photographs.

http://www.ibaudio.com/ This website promises original and unique royalty-free music on a one-time fee basis. There are sounds effects, film music and an abundance of "hip" tunes. A sure hit with your students.

http://www.backgroundsarchive.com/ Need a desktop background or a background for your website. Look no further. Included on this website are backgrounds ranging from animated fairies to nature scenes. The registration is free and the site is simple to navigate.

http://www.wpclipart.com/ This website specifically focuses on providing images that are easily imported into word processing documents and that have been optimized to be printed on small, home printers. This is a great website for students who want to include images in their essays or work that is not on the web or electronically sent.

http://www.morguefile.com/archive/ morgue.file.com is an archive of free raw photo files for the public. The rest of the photos on morguefile.com are available for use if students send a short email requesting permission to use photos in their work. Many blogs use this site to access fabulous images.

Students should also not feel bound to the use of royalty and copyright free websites. Many musicians, artists and animators will grant students permission to use their work for amateur or educational purposes. For example, Facebook or My Space are excellent vehicles for contacting musicians and many photos or animations contain the copyright information of their creators. We should also be encouraging students to create their own images and sounds. Students who have success in doing so could then offer their work to open sharing websites and watch as others incorporate their work into other projects. It would be the ultimate compliment for the student in addition to practicing good e-citizenship!

