Finding Resources to Re-use in Teaching

Yahoo’s Advanced Search, now makes its easier for teachers and trainers to find resources on the Web (text, images and other educational material) that are free to share or build upon.

We often talk about not reinventing the wheel when it comes to preparing learning materials but that depends on having resources available to begin with, and ones that’s we can freely share and adapt. Using this advanced search feature you can now look for ‘Creative Commons’ resources which are generally those that you can modify for your own use.

Why is this important?

“Copyright applies fully and automatically to any work - a photograph, a song, a web page, an article, pretty much any form of expression - the moment it is created. This means that if you want to copy and re-use a creative work you find online, you usually have to ask the author's permission…This search engine helps you quickly find those authors and the work they have marked as free to use with only "some rights reserved." If you respect the rights they have reserved (which will be clearly marked, as you'll see) then you can use the work without having to contact them and ask.”

At the moment it looks at though this feature is only on the US Yahoo so use this link for your advanced searches. Enter your earch terms as per usual, but be sure to click the Creative Commons options half way down the page.

To read more of Wobble click here.