 Did you know that the minute you create a piece of work (writing, drawing, photo, etc.) you automatically own a Copyright to that creation?
You don't need to go and buy one of those fancy ©'s in a circle. Even without the copyright symbol, you're covered automatically by default. This is great if you want to lock the entire thing down, but what if you want to share your creation? In order for someone to use any part of your work, the person is going to have to track you down and ask permission. That can be cumbersome and time-consuming. Since 2001, however, thanks to the work of Lawrence Lessig and others, it has become a lot easier to share through the method of assigning a Creative Commons license to your work. As teachers, we are constantly sharing our work and building our lessons upon the work of others. If you're publishing your work on the web (or anywhere else, for that matter), you might want to consider making it easy for people to use your work with a CC license.
It's incredibly easy to assign a CC license to work: All you have to do is head over to creativecommons.org, click on the button that says, "License Your Work," and answer 2 simple questions:
- Do you want to allow commercial use of the work?
- Do you want to allow modifications of the work?
From there, you're given your license "code" that you can put right with the work on a blog or website. All people have to do is click on it and they'll see the permissions granted. They don't need to get in touch with you; they just need to respect your pre-defined license and give you attribution.
As we teach students about copyright, we need to included Creative Commons in our lessons so they see there are options out there for using excellent resources offered up on the web. There are some great videos at the Creative Commons site to introduce them to the concept. Using material with Creative Commons licenses in your own presentations will show them that there are quality resources out there, and it helps to reinforce the understanding that all work used needs to be given attribution.
So open up your own work with Creative Commons and then go grab some great resources from others. Here are some of my favorite picks for Creative Commons resources:
Searching for CC Resources:- Firefox. Did you know that you can search for CC resources right from the Firefox search box? Just click on the drop-down tab and select "Creative Commons" rather than "Google" for your search
- Creative Commons Search. Alternatively, you can search for resources right from the Creative Commons site
- Freebase. A huge database of shared world knowledge
Photos & Images:- Flickr. Flickr has a built-in search engine for CC pictures
- FlickrCC. An alternative Flickr search from the folks at BlueMountains.net
- Open Clipart. User submitted clip art for your use
Audio:- The FreeSound Project. This site is great for finding ambient sounds/sound effects for students to include in video or audio projects
- CCMixter. A great resource for music to remix or use remixes in your work
- Internet Archive: Audio. You'll find plenty of tracks that are CC licensed at the Internet Archive
- PodSafe Music Network. Geared towards the Podcaster crowd, plenty of amazing bands and musicians offer up their work here
- Garageband.com. Many songs fall under the CC license here (Not to be confused with the application from Apple)
Video:- WGBH Lab Sandbox. High-quality video perfect for lessons or for student remixing
Knowledge:- CommonCraft. Probably one of my favorite resources. CommonCraft offers up excellent videos explaining new Web technologies in "plain English"
- ccLearn. Plenty of educational materials here
- CC Wiki: Books. Books with a CC license
Miscellaneous:
 Bob Sprankle
has been a multi-age teacher in Wells, ME for 10 years and has served
as the school's Technology Integrator for the past two years. POSTED ON HOTCHALK.COM
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