11 - #itb8 Where do the pictures in the internet come from?
During the training for presentation-software (we use libre office impress), my students had to download a lot of pictures. Nobody of them wondered who took these photos are these pictures or designed these graphics. It is time to bring it to their minds.
The rapid growth of the internet required beside of computing power and skilled web-designers especially one thing: A lot of high quality pictures. Before the internet became important, good photos were of course already important. Professional photographers used high tech equipment and a lot of skill, because the advertising agencies paid top prices for top pictures.
But in comparison to these times, building the internet required a lower quality but a vastly increased number of photos. A web-designer could never pay the prices for a professional photographer but also was not a skilled photographer himself.
The solution were skilled amateurs sharing their pictures on platforms for “stock photography”. Some of these platforms use quality filters, some even employees to separate the adequate from the unusable pictures. So some of them are free, while others sell photos and drawings for 5 to 10 Euros, sometimes more. I am using Pixabay, a free stock-photo platform for my steemit-posts, other example, usually with costs are Shutterstock or Adobe Stock. The latter pay a commission to the photographer or designer, enabling new business models for side jobs and even newly oriented professionals.
So for my students who might become web-designers as well as future photographers and designers I want the possibilities of stock-photography platforms to be known.
Please also take a look at my former post of the #itb8 series
- The content of my IT-Basics Class for my next 8th-graders
- Platform before product
- All about the advertisement banner
- The might of the crowd
- Marketplaces
- Is the better shop online?
- When you click on the link...
- Teaching cryptocurrencies in school
- Own or share?
- How much costs a free app?
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Perhaps also teach them about copyrights and how to make correct reference if they use the photographs that they found online. It is a great teachable moment about ownership and their future worth.
Copyrights and correct reference will have already been a part of the software-training before the digitalization project.
Although you are making a good point, as it is still difficult to get all the students to refer correctly.
I hope I can make them understand the copyright-owner's point of view better.