Last night the fireworks were wonderful. My neighbourhood loves to get together in the courtyard area and hold a BBQ where we get a chance to catch up with all the news. This year I took the opportunity to ask few of them if they had ever heard of Creative Commons. "Creative Commons is a non-profit organization devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share." Wikipedia
I focussed mostly on those with children in school. Here are the results:
Never Heard of it: 21
Sort of Know what it is: 9
Know it: 7 (5 of them are teachers and retired admin.)
Not too surprising, but certainly disappointing. I think a survey like this points out the importance of teachers modelling Fair Use of content in the classroom. We need to purposely look for opportunities to visually and verbally demonstrate accreditation of other's work. I like to start with using the student's own work as an example. This past year I tried out a new idea. I gathered photos that my students had taken, mixed in a few of my own and put together a slideshow. I 'let' the students think I had taken them all and didn't put any reference to ownership. It didn't take long before someone spoke up and said, 'Hey, that's my photo!' Soon others joined in. I gave them some time to feel taken advantage of, disrespected, etc. I even told them I'd be showing the pictures to other teachers and friends. They got close to outrage! Teachable moment. Live it and learn it. Great discussions followed. It made the rest of the year so much easier. If they ever forgot to credit a picture or quote, they felt bad. Doesn't get much better than that. Now what to do about all those adults!
p.s. the photo up top is mine, a burning schoolhouse no less!
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