Understanding Creative Commons in education

The ease with which we can collaborate and share ideas in order to develop new approaches, resources and knowledge is certainly one of the strengths of our education system and I believe we should do everything we can to protect and enhance this. As Rosemary Hipkins, Rachel Bolstad, Sally Boyd and Sue McDowall state in their book ‘Key Competencies for the Future’, the sharing and ‘collision’ of different viewpoints has the potential to develop new approaches, new ideas, as well as new ways of being. Therefore we need to model this as adults when we create, curate and share content we come across on the internet.

Yet how does this apply to us as educators when, for example, we move from one setting to another? What happens to our work? How does this apply when the approaches we come up with – many of which may be collaboratively created – are quite often shared amongst a number of colleagues and sometimes across a number of schools/settings? Who owns what?

Who owns my work?

It came as a bit of a surprise to me when I learned that the work I have created while in the employ of various schools does not belong to me – it is owned by the Board of Trustees under which I was employed at the time it was created. In many ways this might seem contrary to what we naturally do as educators that is, to share our work for the betterment of other educators and thus the learners we work with.

Consider some of these scenarios:

• Have you ever stood at the photocopier while copying resources for your day and looked at the copyright notice on the wall… then chosen not to follow it (probably because you were busy or rushed)? Could there be implications of this?
• The teacher who creates a resource that is then sold a few years later to a company who makes a lot of money out of this resource – who should receive the royalties?
• The teacher or principal who creates an online tool or app which is then becoming a successful commercial endeavour – who should be compensated for what?
• An idea for a new approach to learning which is shared (by a staff member) to a consultant who re-uses this in the process of being paid for his or her work – is that staff member and/or consultant infringing the law?
• The consultant who creates a shared document to gather different approaches from others while in the employ of another employer – ie. those contributing to the document are employed by other schools – is this consultant (and those educators who contributed to the document if their school doesn’t have a CC license) breaking the law in doing this?

…the list goes on…

What does the law say?

Legally in New Zealand, and in many other countries, the Copyright Act states that first ownership rights reside with the employer unless otherwise specified in an employment contract or written agreement (such as a Board of Trustees policy). This has big implications for educators and Boards of Trustees the more and more we openly share, remix and mash-up our ideas, resources, approaches, and creations.

What Creative Commons licences do is allow employers and individuals to choose the kinds of permissions they wish grant over their work. People who use these licences are contributing to a global pool of reusable works and are helping to create a culture of sharing, reuse and innovation.

What should you do?

The best way to ensure that everyone (you and your employer) is protected is to ensure your principal and board are aware of these issues and encourage them to develop a policy on copyright which incorporates Creative Commons licensing. There are four different elements contained within Creative Commons licenses which can come together in various ways to create six different types of licence.

You should also consider some professional learning for staff and create a case for the Board with supporting resources.

Check out the schools area of Creative Commons New Zealand site. On this site there are a number of excellent examples of schools that have created their own Creative Commons policies, including Wellington High, Warrington School, Taupaki School and Albany Senior High School. These examples show how the school uses the licensing and the difference this makes.

A special event for all educators

Christchurch Connected Educators are hosting a special event for anyone interested in this important issue. The Creative Commons evening will be held on Thursday 23rd October, 7.30pm at Fendalton School. We are extremely fortunate to have Matt McGregor, the Creative Commons Public Lead for New Zealand as our guest speaker.

I would strongly encourage you to come to this evening and learn more about Creative Commons licensing and how it might impact on you and your school.

For more information and to register please go here…

We hope to see you there!