Copyright and Creative Commons

After reading two articles, watching the video, “Fair(y) Use Tale,” and viewing several websites on the issues of copyright and creative commons, my knowledge on these subjects has been greatly broadened. This post will give a brief overview of the articles I encounter, provide my reactions to the information and offer some of my thoughts on how I can implement the information I found into my teaching.

Summary

            The article, “The Open Future: Openness as Catalyst for an Educational Reformation,” by David Wiley, talks about openness as an adjective and as it refers to teaching resources that are freely provided under a copyright license. Wiley (2010) mentions that society has made people believe that they don’t need to share their work, and instead just keep it to themselves. He states that this is a large problem in higher education, and he argues that without sharing, there isn’t really any education going on. Overall, Wiley (2010) claims that in order for true education to take place, people need to be able to share their work.

 Another article related to the topic of copyright is, “Worlds in Collision: Copyright, Technology, and Education” by Stephen Marshall (2008). Marshall (2008), talks about the changes copyright is experiencing because of technological advances. He gives a brief overview of what copyright law is, which he states, is a group of rights that are given to the original creator of a piece of work. Marshall (2008) provides an example of a person who created an original video; however, in the video, the person used a copy-righted picture and a copy-righted song. Through this, it is clear how complicated copyright laws can be. Marshall’s (2008) main argument is that educators need to start speaking out about the inconvenience copyright laws place onto teachers. 

Reaction

            Copyright laws were something that I didn’t really think about until reading the articles and viewing all of the different web pages. I now know how important it is to follow the laws of copyright and how easy it could be to break those laws if you are not familiar with them. I think that creative commons is a great way for educators, and all people, to share and create an open pool of resources. I believe it is important as a future educator to be aware of all six creative commons licenses: attribution, attribution share alike, attribution non-commercial, attribution non-commercial, share alike and attribution non-commercial no derivatives. After learning about copyright laws, I felt nervous about how I was going to be able to incorporate music, videos and pictures into my lessons, while staying legal. This is why I was relieved to learn about all of the different creative commons music and photo websites that I will be able to use as an educator.

Implementation

            In my classroom, I will have to be cautious about using material that has been copyrighted. It is important for me to know and feel comfortable with the laws. I know that creative common’s music and photos will be a very good resource for me to use to ensure that I will not violate any copyright laws in my classroom. I will need to be familiar with the copyright laws of each resource that I use in my lesson plans. This includes music, photos and even worksheets. To be safe, I will choose photos from websites such as Flickr, The Library of Congress or other creative commons sites. I also will use pictures and music that I myself have created. As a class we can make our own music and paintings to include in lesson plans where those things are necessary.    

Conclusion

            Overall, I have learned the importance of knowing and understanding copyright laws. In the classroom, I will need to be careful not to break any of these laws. To do this, I will use resources from creative commons, and I will create my own unique materials. If I am ever unsure about my rights to use material, I can view the K-12 copyright laws website. Although copyrights may dampen education, as Wiley (2010) argues, it is important for me, as an educator, to find ways to legally use the resources to teach my students.