Using images in education

I was asked by a student where they could find pictures which are 'free' for them to add to their forum work. Our learning platform has a picture tab, which takes students to a paid website (STOCKi). The student wanted to know if there was somewhere they could find free images (graphics or photographs).

This was is a really interesting question. And as far as I am aware, for education purposes in New Zealand, we have a 'fair use' agreement. My interpretation of this is that, (a) as long as we cite an author/owner we can use items for illustrative purposes, providing (b) there is no commercial gain; i.e. we couldn't then publish a book afterwards using whatever it was without obtaining and paying for the proper permissions.

There are few levels of protection for image/models/graphics. Firstly there are royalty free images - which are still within copyright, but we don't have to pay a fee to use them for fair use. Then there are public domain images - which are now out of copyright, so may be used (but it is polite to ask if they will be published). And lastly creative commons images, which are those intentionally created free of copyright for public use. But, regardless, all images should be (a) cited, and (b) referenced if we use them in our academic work.

Come ideas for images we CAN use - and cite/reference - are as follows:

1. The images supplied within the Microsoft Office suite as the copyright has been negotiated by that company
2. Those images or graphics we have created ourselves, or gathered from our travels. I have used Google Photos for years, so can search for particular terms and find some of my own images... then label them as "author's own" when I use them. See, for example, the composite image accompanying this post where I searched for "road", also containing one Microsoft image
3. The copyright free images online at places such as https://www.123rf.com/free-images/ https://openverse.org/ https://unsplash.com/license (this site has a great explanation of what we are allowed to do with images) and https://archive.org/ and many other sites
4. Search an term in Wikipedia, then see if the accompanying images have a creative commons 4.0 licence (open access)
5. Do a Google search such as "winding road, creative commons", then filter for images (rather than "All") 
6. Go to Google maps, and find a section of winding road, and take a screenshot of the terrain view. 

Also, if we find an image in a book, online or otherwise where it is not explicit that it is creative commons or public domain (i.e. it is the property of an entity or person), we should ask permission to use it; regardless of whether the use is for profit or not. 

It is very easy to send a quick email to an academic or a website to ask - and, in my experience, they usually say yes :-)

Sam