Learning to be a responsible user of the internet is a skill we are hardly taught and are expected to know. The other week, we got the Michigan Makers to engage with the idea of Creative Commons and  got them playing around with photo editing. The day started out with a discussion about what you need to know when you use digital content like images, videos, text, and more. Our discussion led us to recognize the importance of remembering everyone’s rights, specifically copyrights, even if they aren’t very easy to detect. Using an image from a Google search isn’t always as cut and dry as it might see, and the Michigan Makers were about to learn how to find the clues to make their search for information easier. The next half of the day would then use this information to help them find an image that was CC licensed and that they could remix on PicMonkey.com!

The Makers were introduced to the Creative Commons search engine that would make their search a little easier by limiting searchable content to work that had been licensed in some capacity. Creative Commons licensing is a way people can express that they don’t mind people using their work, as they are given credit and with limitations (these vary from limited commercial capacity or even limiting a users right to alter the content). So now that they knew where to go to find CC content and what CC licensed content might look like, the kids were off to explore the kinds of information that is available in the wild.

Initially, they were a little dismayed and realized that the search results were not nearly as plentiful as a regular Google search. But this made them realize how important it was to license content, not only to help people understand how to use the creative content but also for people who want to use content responsibly!

Now for the fun part, once the Makers found an image they liked and showed the mentors that it had the right license (CC:BY that is!) they were free to edit the image on PicMonkey.com.

Here are some of the final products below… Complete with attribution!

Alex’s image:
Picture

Untitled by Barry Yanowitz
Flickr
CC BY-NC 2.0
2013 Copyright Alex

Jacob’s image:

Picture

Hubbard Glacier by Alan Vernon
Fotopedia
CC BY 2.0
2013 Copyright Jacob

Rohit’s image:

Picture

Hubble Finds a Star Eating a Planet by NASA Goddard Photo and Video
Fotopedia
CC BY 2.0
2013 Copyright Rohit

Anna’s Image:

Picture

Chinese Dragon Year Statue by epSos.de
Flickr
CC BY 2.0
2013 Copyright Anna
Of course the Makers enjoyed the photo editing part since it was hands on and allowed for their imagination to run wild but they responded better than I could have ever imagined to the idea of Creative Commons. It is an abstract concept to grasp and is a concept that middle schoolers probably don’t engage with very much. With this in mind, they picked it up quickly and found the licenses for their images easily. They even had thoughtful takeaways beyond the skills they learned for photo editing that addressed licensing. Read some of the journal entries below that reflect on licensing. Here are two comments from the students that they recorded in their journals:

“I learned about photo editing on PicMonkey.com. I learned about licensing and how to find pictures with licenses that say you can use them.”- Kurt F.

“Today we edited photos using pic monkey. I edited a skyscraper to be on the moon. We also licensed it. You had to learn how to choose appropriately licensed images too. It was very cool.” – Kenneth S.

Personally, this is something I am very amazed by and proud of when looking back at the lesson. For the Makers to be so responsive to the idea of open content and licensing was a surprise. I was not sure how much it would interest them and how meaningful they would find it. They proved to me that they did understand what it means to use and recognize licensing and could navigate it on the web. As much as Michigan Makers is about learning to do cool things and be creative, it also is a way to teach the Makers about their role in the world they live in and this lesson, by means of a Creative Commons detour to the fun photo editing destination, did just that!