Teachers and students should begin using this alternative to traditional copyright for a few reasons. One reason to include a Creative Commons license on work sent to the Internet is that it gives clear guidance to others of the creator's intent. As teachers and students are both consumers and creators of content on the Web, using and posting content with a Creative Commons license attached leaves no doubt regarding the intentions of the author. A second reason is that by talking about Creative Commons in both K-12 and college classrooms, teachers can engage students in a much-needed conversation about online ethics....Students in high school and college might discuss the relative merits of sharing work using a Creative Commons license as opposed to posting material with a conventional copyright....Most importantly, bringing Creative Commons to the classroom gives students and teachers a new tool for finding material that is both appropriate and legal to use...
As the rapid growth of the Internet has tended to outpace the legal frameworks that govern the exchange of intellectual and creative materials, those who seek to maximize the potential of online technology for educational purposes have had good reason to avoid the headaches of copyright law altogether. Yet with Creative Commons, students and teachers alike now have a powerful tool and resource for their educational activities as well as a means to situate the materials they create within a larger envrionment of collaborative learning that extends far beyond their immediate context. As such, Creative Commons represents a vital step forward in realizing the full promise of online technology to promote new forms of teaching and learning.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/02/2006 08:47:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
