CITE = You're using a little of someone's copyrighted info via the Fair Use Doctrine.

ATTRIBUTE =  You're using as much as you want of someone's copyrighted info that has been openly-licensed.

The Details:

One of the most important "author's rights" that authors (creators) have under copyright law is the right to be known as the author of what they wrote / created. (Here, 'author' means someone who created any fixed expression of an idea - writing, art, photos, music, etc.)

When authors want to allow someone else to use their copyrighted work, authors license out that work to the other person. It's literally a legal document proving that the author is giving them permission to use it. Money's usually involved, as this is one major way authors can make money from their creations, but not always. Some authors choose to put open licenses on their online works, which cost nothing to use.

A person who uses an author's openly-licensed work must attribute it correctly - give the author credit as the creator. It's pretty simple (easier than citing):

• [Name of work] by [Name of author], is licensed under [Name of the specific Creative Commons Open License]
• It's going to be a Creative Commons license because that organization created the open licenses everyone uses most often for everything online, except software
• However, since openly-licensed items are 'published' online, the name of work, author name and specific license should also be live links leading to the exact page you got it from, the author's home or account page (if they have one), and to the webpage on the Creative Commons website that fully describes the license - it's the responsibility of the user to get this information as complete as they can.

Now, the vast majority of copyrighted information what you use on a daily basis to complete assignments will not be openly-licensed. Instead, you will be using a small amount of someone's copyrighted information, without asking the author or paying for any license, by way of the Fair Use Doctrine.

Since no license is involved, you don't attribute...you cite.