Understanding Creative Commons Licenses

Here is great resource shared by my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  Thanks for sharing.

In an effort to add to previous posts I have had discussing the value of the Creative Commons, I have put together a brief handout that Ray and I can share with our staff and students to help them understand the various licenses available under the creative commons.  I have shared it here.

Creative Commons

I have commented on Creative Commons in an early post.  Here is a guest post from my teacher partner with some more insight.

The Creative Commons was developed as a complement to copyright licenses.  It offers authors of published online works (i.e. blog posts, photos, podcasts, video, etc.) to freely share their work with others while protecting their work from being used or changed in a manner they don't wish to have happen.

Leaders in the education field (or any field for that matter) need to respect the Creative Commons attributions or fair use statements provided b the author of the online works they are using.  When students create work in the classroom, we teach that that work is their alone and they have earned the right to receive recognition for their hard work.  As leaders in education, we should support the idea that someone who creates a piece of work deserves credit for that work.  We also need to respect that the person may not wish to have their work altered or shared.  By modelling fair use of content, leaders encourage others in their organization to do the same and this in turn, those people will hopefully follow the same logic.  It will filter down and as teachers in our system ensure they are respecting fair use statements and Creative Commons attributions; students will learn to do the same.  They will also learn that if one day they share a piece of work they too can be respected for their hard work.

In light of Ray's last post regarding our staff survey on fair use and the Creative Commons, it is clear that this is still unfamiliar to many and would thus be difficult to expect teachers to models fair use with their students. If we want our students to learn how to use material that has permission to be freely shared and how to give attribution where needed, our teachers need to learn how to do this so that they can lead by example.  Therefore, it is important that our leaders take the time to educate the teachers or people in their group about fair use.  Her a few things leaders can do to support their knowledge and understanding:

1.  Have discussions about what fair use is.

2.  Help the group learn about what the Creative Commons is all about.

3.  Post information explaining the four licensing options available through the Creative Commons.

4.  Show staff how to search for information that is free to use.

5.  Model how to respect fair use statements and Creative Commons by doing so in your own blogs and other places they use information found online.

Does you leader or staff know about fair use and the Creative Commons?  How can you help support them in educating their team on the issue?

For more on Creative Commons please visit:

http://creativecommons.org/

https://whiterabbitisme.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/the-abcs-of-creative-commons/

Creative Commons - A Shared Culture

Creative Commons Resources for Classroom Teachers

I did a quick survey of teachers this past week to find out how some teachers were using technology in their classrooms.  For many of the teachers they responded that they use technology to share images and content from the internet.  I then asked about creative commons?  I prepared myself with an information sheet for those who had never heard of creative commons.  Before began the survey I was also curious to find out what each staff member knew creative commons and where they learned about it.  I predicted that some of the younger tech savvy staff and our administrator would have been familiar with creative commons.  The results of my survey was that the only person who was aware of creative commons was my teaching partner Chantelle Davies.  

The challenge Chantelle and I know face is how do we model and educate staff on the use of creative commons.  We have begun to educate that staff by sharing a informational resource sheet that explains what creative commons is and how it works.  We can further model fair use in our school by teaching our students about fair use with the expectation that they ensure they are using content from the internet as the creator intended.   As children become familiar with the expectation they will transfer this skill to other classes in the school.  To make students successful with fair use, a list of sites needs to be create and shared with all staff members.  Sharing resources will continue to make teachers aware of fair use causing them to reflect on their teaching practices.   Reflections about creative commons will lead to inquiry which could lead the teacher to create a Personal Learning Network.  

Chantelle and I were wondering, what is one thing you could do to start the movement on discussions about creative commons within your school community?