Cover image credit: "Large copyright sign made of jigsaw puzzle pieces"by Horia Varlan is licensed under CC BY 2.0
What?
This reflection is in response to articles by Lamlert (2014) and Morrison (2018) on the subject of copyright. Both articles provided insight into the history of copyright and the current challenges facing consumers and creators to access and share content. Both authors recognize the ambiguity around copyright law and fair use, and they provide suggestions below which educate people on these.
Creative Commons
Creative Commons (CC) is a non-profit organization set up by Lawrence Lessig in 2001 that “works in tandem with existing copyright regime, but allows those who wish to license the copyright in their works while reserving only the most basic of all rights, to do so within the legal framework” (Lamlert, 2014, p. 277). The organizations’ vision is for CC Search to be a “leading tool for creators looking to discover and reuse free resources with greater ease and confidence.” (Creative Commons, 2019, CC Search: A New Vision, Strategy & Roadmap for 2019 section,). Lamlert (2014) calls for creators to improve clarity around the reuse of their materials by assigning specific creative commons licenses as outlined in Figure 1.
Figure 1. CC License Freedom Scale Chart
Gamification
Morrison calls for a gamified approach to help people actively engage in purposeful discussion around copyright, which “remains at its heart quite a dry and difficult subject for some, and an extremely emotional one for others.” (2018, p. 104). To support educators develop their copyright literacy, Morrison, and colleague, Jane Secker developed several game related resources. Two of these are:
So What?
In today’s Knowledge Age copyright is an unavoidable part of education that needs to be explicitly explored. As the Educational Technology Director at my current school, I oversee digital literacy, which copyright literacy falls under (Morrison, 2018). According to Secker & Morrison, this component of digital literacy is about “acquiring and demonstrating the appropriate knowledge, skills and behaviours to enable the ethical creation and use of copyright material” (2016, p. 211). With this in mind, how am I, and my team of Educational Technology Coaches (ETC) and Library Media Specialists (LMS) supporting all stakeholders within our school community to develop their copyright literacy?
Students
Over the last couple of years, we have been using Common Sense Media’s Digital Literacy curriculum for grades 3 to 10. News and Media Literacy is a key component of the curriculum that focuses on copyright literacy. Next year, this is going to be expanded to include our Kindergarten to grade 2 students, giving coverage up to grade 10.
Our grade 11 and 12 students participate in online training modules that are designed and supported by the Information Security team from our affiliate university. In addition to this, students in grades 9-12 are provided with extra sessions throughout the year that explicitly focus on academic honesty.
Parents
Throughout the year our secondary school LMS conducts parent information sessions that focus on supporting student research and academic honesty. During these sessions, research databases and citations tools are modelled and shared.
Teachers
In our secondary school, teachers participate in academic honesty sessions to ensure all teachers have a clear understanding of this.
Now What?
Reflecting upon the current reality, the ideas presented by Lamlert & Morrison can be called upon to enhance copyright literacy for our community.
Bibliography & References
Creative Commons. (2019). CC search: A new vision, strategy & roadmap for 2019. Creative Commons Corporation. https://creativecommons.org/2019/03/19/cc-search/
Morrison, C. (2018). Copyright and digital literacy: Rules, risk and creativity. In J. Parker & K. Reedy (Eds.), Digital Literacy Unpacked (pp. 97-108). Facet Publishing.
Lamlert, W. (2014). Copyright and creative commons license: Can educators gain benefits in the digital age? In M. B. Nunes & M. McPherson (Eds.), International Conference e-Learning 2014. Multi-Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (pp. 277-282). Lisbon, Portugal: International Association for Development of the Information Society.
Secker, J., & Morrison, C. (2021). The Publishing Trap. UK Copyright Literacy. https://copyrightliteracy.org/resources/the-publishing-trap/
Secker, J., & Morrison, C. (2016). Copyright and e-learning: A guide for practitioners. Facet Publishing.
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