Thing # 23

Creative Commons

Putting the ‘social’ into social networks allows us to freely exchange information. But with the free exchange of information comes the responsibility of how we share it, and how we give credit to the author of that information. Check out this video, “A Fair(y) Use Tale” and learn some history of copyright.

In the classroom, we are often faced with the challenge of determining when it is acceptable to copy something and how much an item [book, website, music, video, etc.] we can copy. Faced with declining budgets and little time, we are tempted to make the copies. But with the advent of file sharing, downloading, and RSS, we must acknowledge and teach the ethics of information gathering and sharing.

Creative Commons is a copyright license that allows us to choose to share our intellectual property. This course is designed under a Creative Commons license and is an example of how one can take a piece of information or a product and re-work it to make it fit your needs. By acknowledging the original authors, they have given permission for you to share. One place for good information about what's going on with the Creative Commons is Lawrence Lessig's blog. Lawrence Lessig is one of the Creative Commons developers and a Stanford University professor.

Discovery Resources:
Discovery Exercise:
  • Find an example or attribution that shows the Learning 2.0-23Things for Teachers blog was based on someone else's work and modified from its original.
  • Now that you know about Creative Commons licensing, how will you use it in the future as a teacher?
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