Understanding Creative Commons Pt 2

This post and the previous post are a draft of an article I've been asked to write for a school library magazine on Creative Commons. I'm sharing the draft here hoping readers will add suggestions for clarification, additions, or other sorts of improvements.

If you can't take advantage of your readers, just who can you take advantage of? I look forward to your comments. Thanks - Doug

Creative Commons and why it should be more common (Part Two)

Implications for K-12 education

Consider these scenarios:

• A student needs photographs and music for a history project, but can’t find what he needs in the public domain or in royalty-free collections…
• A teacher has developed outstanding materials that teach irregular Spanish verbs. She has posted them a website and now regularly gets e-mails requesting permission to use the materials.
• The media specialist is frustrated trying to help his junior high students understand the rights that intellectual property creators have over their own materials. The kids just aren’t able to see the issue from the creator’s point of view.

In each of the scenarios above, Creative Commons licensing may offer a solution. There are three primary uses:

1. Students and teachers need to be able to find and interpret CC licensed materials for incorporation into their own works. Common advice given to both students working on projects and to teachers creating education materials is to abide by the fair use guidelines of copyrighted materials, search for materials in the public domain, and to use royalty-free work in order to remain both legal and ethical information users.

There are two main ways to find Creative Commons licensed materials. CC has a specialized search tool at <http://search.creativecommons.org> and there is a list of directories by format at <http://wiki.creativecommons.org/Content_Curators>. Both can both be effective. Google Advanced Search also allows searching by “usage rights.”

2. Teachers should assign a Creative Commons license to materials that they are willing to share with other educators. As K-12 teacher produce and make available course materials on the web, they will need to understand how to giver permissions. (Check with your local school district to see who owns the copyright to materials that are teacher produced.) MIT’s OpenCourseWare and Rice University Connexions, two formal post-secondary learning materials repositories use Creative Commons licensing.

3. Students should be required to place a Creative Commons license on their own work to increase their understanding of intellectual property issues. Only when students begin think about copyright and other intellectual property guidelines from the point of view of the producer as well as the consumer, can they form mature attitudes and act in responsible ways when questions about these issues arise. And as an increasing number of students become “content creators” themselves, this should be an easier concept to help them grasp:

The Pew Internet & American Life Project has found that 64% of online teens ages 12-17 have participated in one or more among a wide range of content-creating activities on the internet, up from 57% of online teens in a similar survey at the end of 2004. (Teen Content Creators, 2007)

Students need to know what their rights as creators and IP owners are. This may help combat the misperception that only big, faceless companies are impacted by intellectual property theft. A popular view is that it acceptable to steal from big companies but not from the small fry. Too often students and adults forget that many large companies are made up of small stockholders and employees. Publishing companies also represent the interests of individual artists, writers and musicians - whose ranks students themselves may one day join.

Developing empathy toward content creators who hope to profit by their work, helps all of us place copyright into context and perspective.

The legal aspects of intellectual property sharing have been outstripped by the mechanical means of copying and distribution. Understanding and using Creative Commons both a content consumers and content producers might help narrow the technology/acceptable use gap.

Spread the word.

Resources:

• Creative Commons website < http://creativecommons.org/>
• Creative Commons wiki <http://wiki.creativecommons.org/>
• 7 Things You Should Know about Creative Commons” EDUCAUSE <http://connect.educause.edu/Library/ELI/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAbout/39400>

Videos

• A Shared Culture <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko>
• Wanna Work Together? < http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3rksT1q4eg>

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LuMaxArt_Gold_Guys_With_Creative_Commons_Symbol.jpg
This file is licensed under CreativeCommons AttributionShareAlike2.0License

Comments

[Lindsey Smith]

Thank you Thank you Thank you! I appreciate this blog topic so much! I am constantly creating marketing materials for the educational organization for which i am employed and am always looking for photographs, etc. to use in the work. I am a common user of www.flickr.com but was having some difficulty in understanding the rights to use the pictures in their Creative Commons area. Either way, when in doubt i send an email to the creator requesting use of the material under their terms!

[Libby]

It looks great! I saw one small typo--in the second use of creative commons you have "As K-12 teacher produce and make available course materials on the web, they will need to understand how to giver permissions." I think it should be "give permissions." Looking forward to seeing it in print.

[Elona]

When I first started my blog www.teachersatrisk.com, I decided to go the Creative Commons route. I'm always delighted when people email me and ask if they can use what I have created even though they don't have to.

Surprisingly, at least to me, I get a lot of positive feedback from high school students even though I write primarily for their teachers. The students want to quote what I've said in their essays. I love the fact that they're asking because when I assign essays to my students, I make a big deal out of plagiarism or more accurately not plagiarizing. More than a few students have had to rewrite their essays.

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks, Lindsey. I appreciate the kind comment.

Doug

Hi Libby,

Good catch. My middle name is “typo.” I guess that’s why these magazine editors get the big bucks.

All the best,

Doug

Hi Elona,

I still get people asking permission as well. I find that rather nice, actually.

And yes, I think you people are much more in tune to CC and open content than old geezers like me!

Thanks for the comment and all the best,

Doug

[joycevalenza]

Thanks, Doug. I am writing a very similar article for my book. Our paths always cross! I am wondering if you want to mention CC0 http://wiki.creativecommons.org/CCZero. I learned about it earlier in the year but I am not sure if it is taking root. joyce

[Doug Johnson]

Hiya Joycie,

Good to know about. I’d not heard or read about CCo before. I suspect it’s needed.

Doug