Lifelong Learning

Okay, so what does a dinosaur fossil have to do with lifelong learning? Well, today when I was working with students I realized I was not sure about how to cite images from the Internet. I know how I think we should do it, but wanted a refresher course. Rather than Google, I turned to the Chariho Middle School website. The Library Media Center link on the CMS homepage is a wealth of information. Not only does it have links to many important resources, but when I know "the way they do it at CMS" then I can hope to help prepare students when they move on to middle school. In fact, I hope to add a link to the CMS Library website onto this blog to give readers a quick way to access those resources.

Well, the dinosaur fossil photo was found using www.pics4learning.com, a good place to begin a search for Internet images. I think the correct way to cite the source is:

http://www.pics4learning.com/details.php?img=monclonius_nasicornis.jpg, Feb. 11, 2011.

The citation shows the URL (website address) of the photo and the date indicates when I copied the image. I hope I got it right! The main message to our elementary students at Charlestown is that they must give credit to others' work. Lessons on copyright and giving credit begin in 2nd grade and the idea is mentioned in 1st grade. To young children, being "fair" and not taking from someone else is a very concrete idea.

The website, pics4learning, did not have my favorite dinosaur, a Triceratops, so I went with a similar herbivore, Monoclonius. If you have a dinosaur fan at home, they may even recognize that one-horned head!