Create music tracks and learn about copyright - Digital Story Resource

MYBYTES is an interactive website sponsored by Microsoft. It contains a free and easy to use Music mixer that allows for the creation of your own music track. The finished track can be downloaded as an MP3 to be used in a digital story. Completed tracks can also be shared on the site for others to listen to or re-mix. The creator of the track must determine the usage rights that her or she will assign to their work.

Click on the images to enlarge

The software is very easy to use.  In order to save and share your work you must create an account. An email address is not required for account creation. That makes it very student friendly. Students can select and mix together various instruments to create their own track. The music can be composed for a digital story project or podcast. By adjusting the instrument choices and tempo students can create a specific mood for their story.



Upon completion on the music track the student is presented with a number of publishing options. He or she must decide on the usage rights that will be applied to the work. This offers an opportunity for a discussion on copyright, digital content and file sharing. The site offers a full curriculum on these topics as well as interviews from subject experts.

The shared tracks can be downloaded or saved as a ring tone. If published for others to download, share or remix, the website will track the number of requests. This provides a very authentic experience for students to learn about file sharing and usage rights.

The use of student created music in digital stories simplifies the publishing options for student stories. We do not have to worry about the presence of copyright protected music.  Students enjoy the process of developing music to fit their stories. This adds a level of excitement as well as depth to the final product.

Enjoy!

Google Safe Search and Usage Rights

There are two search features that Google offers that I would like to introduce. These features are found in the Google Image Search. We all know that Google is the primary website that our students go to conduct just about all Internet searches. Google Image search is their #1 location for images.  Unfortunately, many of our students do not know the copyright and usage rights associated with images that are found online. We have also found that the images available through Google Image Search are not always appropriate for a school setting or the eyes of a child.

Google has included two search setting located in their advanced image search that can help address these issues.  If you visit http://www.google.com and click on Images on the top left of the screen, you will be directed to Google Image Search. Once there you will see a link titled advanced image search located to the right of the search bar. Clicking on this link will direct you to the advanced search menu.

Within the advanced search menu you will see two settings that are of interest to this topic.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

1. SAFE SEARCH - Students can select to use Strict Search Filtering.  By enabling this setting you are filtering out images that are deemed innapropriate.

2. Usage Rights - The default setting for usage rights is to not filter by license. This  means that all of the images that are returned by a search may be subject to copyright. If you would like to limit the search to images that are free to use (not protected by copyright), you can select"Labeled for Reuse". This will return only images that are allowed to be used.

3. Once you select these settings you can type your search terms in any of the find results boxes.

It is important that students are aware of these settings. They must be educated on the fact that it is against copyright laws to publish images on the Internet that are copyright protected. Digital Stories and Digital Posters are published online. Students working on these projects must use images with the proper usage rights.

For more information about images, videos and text that are free to use visit http://www.creativecommons.org

Enjoy!