Tag Archives: creativecommons

Other Resources, Thoughts

Creative Commons: What Is It?

Edit: today (06/02/2015) I was discussing Creative Commons with some teachers who are new to it. I promised to share the article below, but realised it might need to be prefaced with a synopsis. So:

  • Creative Commons is a way to legally consume, share and remix media.
  • It provides an alternative to the usual school practice of ignoring copyright, and thus allows us to prepare our students for live outside the educational bubble.
  • It is a potent tool for enabling creativity and innovation, without needing to make everything from Scratch.
  • Some useful media for understand issues to do with copyright and its impact on creativity and innovation.

Keep reading below to learn more about CC…

 

http://www.creativecommons.org

I was recently looking through my archives to find a piece on Creative Commons (CC) to share with an acquaintance, and was surprised when I could not find one. Why had I not written something about one of the things I feel most passionate about? I don’t know the answer to that question, so instead of answering it, I will render it moot with this post.

I recently wrote of copyright that it is like a battle between content creators and content users, with each trying to find the best deal for themselves. The battle itself is umpired by the law, and all of these forces must constantly contend with changing technology in trying to find a balance. I believe that most current copyright laws are too strongly in favour of the creator: copyright terms are too long, fair use is not expansive enough and remix for personal use is not permitted. A common reaction to this problem is to simply work outside of the law and pirate copyrighted works. I can understand why people take this road, as it is perceived to be the only way to fight back against an unfair system. However, as a content creator myself, I cannot bring myself to simply steal the work of others.

The best solution to this problem is, as far as I can see, the one mapped out by Creative Commons, which was created by famed copyright lawyer Lawrence Lessig. The premise behind Creative Commons is to provide a simple way for content creators to control the use of their work. This is done through a simple licensing system, which uses 3 simple options to represent what can and cannot be done with a piece of work. Behind these options, which are represented by icons, sits a license which translates them into a legalese document. This means that instead of fighting against copyright law, the system works from within it. By applying a CC license to their work, creators are opting out of strictly prohibitive copyright, and empowering their audience to redistribute and reuse their work.

Whilst this might sound rather dry and abstract, it is in fact incredibly powerful and creative. Consider this example: say I am making a movie, and need some music for the soundtrack. Traditionally my options are to either break the law (pirate someone’s work) or work within it (pay a creator for their work). Usually, if I pay for someone’s work I am not even free to change it to meet my needs. With Creative Commons, however, I can use an online service, such as Jamendo to locate music whose creators have applied a CC license to it: depending on the options selected in the license, I may well be able to freely include that music into my work and make even make money from it. The effect of all of this is to reduce the barriers to the production of high quality, creative work, allowing the return to a culture that is created by individuals and not just large corporations. To me this is huge, as it allows us to express ourselves freely and thus forge a our own culture. In all of this, technology makes such creation easy, but Creative Commons provides the raw materials that make it free and legal.

As an educator, you might wonder why you should care about any of this. The reasons are simple. From a philosophical point of view, education is built on knowledge, which is created through sharing. Ergo, anything that promotes sharing is good for education. From a practical point of view, Creative Commons gives you access to literally millions of creative works, which you and your students can build on, legally, to create incredibly rich learning experiences. And finally, you can use Creative Commons to encourage your students to engage with the world around them by contributing their own creativity. A lot of people do not feel that their creations are worth sharing, but the truth is that you never know how other people might use your work to express themselves. Once you realise the true worth of your work within such an open system, the urge to share and connect is hard to resist.

Hopefully this post has given you an insight into what Creative Commons is all about, and perhaps even why it is something you might want to try. I am currently working on a follow-up which will contain far more practical detail on how you can use Creative Commons to enrich your teaching practice. In the meantime, the two following videos might help to shed more light on the beauty of CC:

A Shared Culture

(Original work, CC BY-NC-SA)

Building On The Past

(Original work, CC BY-NC)

Other Resources

Images to Inspire

Recently I have been thinking about how I can set up my classroom to inspire my students. I was looking online for some interesting posters, and to be frank, there was very little that appealed to me. I was mulling over the idea of producing my own posters, when I was struck by an idea that now seems very obvious: why not get prints of great photos from the web, and have them framed.

The images are related to my role within the school, which is not only to teach ICT, but also to promote environmental awareness and positive values amongst the students. I am thinking of grouping the images into two collections: Our World and Personal Heroes. The remaining two photos (which are very large) will be displayed on their own. Once the images are up, I will post some photos here.


Despite the fact that many teachers have rejected Wikipedia, I maintain that it is one of the richest resources available to teachers. As proof of this, consider the fact that all of the images shown below are from the Wikimedia Commons, which acts as Wikipedia’s media gallery. What’s particularly neat about this is that the images are all provided under permissive licenses (such as Creative Commons): this means that all of this work is legal, provided I follow a few simple rules.

Other Resources

Jamendo: Free, Legal Music

http://www.jamendo.com

Jamendo is a fantastic source for music that students can legally use in their own creative works. Shared under Creative Commons licenses, the site offers a whole range of sounds, much of which is very professional in its composition, performance and production.

Other Resources

Picasa

http://picasa.google.com/

This free desktop photo management software from Google provides a fantastic way to manage a large photo collection. It incorporates basic editing tools, and makes it easy to open a file in a more advanced application (such as the GIMP). It’s integration with Google’s online web album system makes sharing images and video with friends and the general public a breeze.  One nice feature is that it allows you to share files under Creative Commons licenses, which are subsequently shown in Google Images searches.

Other Resources

Wikipedia

http://wikipedia.org/

A giant; world-wide collaborative encyclopedia . Often criticised because anyone can edit it; but most people miss the point that this is what makes it so great. Shunned as a tool for student research, it does in fact make an excellent starting point, with articles that are usually up-to-date, well researched, accurate and comprehensive. It also provides a great vehicle for students to practice skills  of information literacy. Students can be asked to consider questions such as “What is the truth?”, “What is a reliable source?”, “Should we trust what we read?”, “How can we use references to decide if a source is reliable?”. Further, by having students contribute to Wikipedia, they can learn to appreciate their own knowledge, learn to work with others, and value being part of something bigger. I believe there is a nobility behind the Wikipedia concept that many people simply fail to see.

As all of the content on Wikipedia is licensed under a Creative Commons license, it is a great source for text and images that students can edit in the course of their learning and teachers can edit in the course of their teaching. As once example, there are many high quality maps on Wikipedia, which can be freely edited and incorporated into teaching resources.

Other Resources

FlickrStorm

http://zoo-m.com/flickr-storm

Flickr Storm allows users to search flickr for images shared under Creative Commons licenses. Creative Commons enables and underlies a massive pool of content that is available for students to use in their projects, including images, videos and music. Whilst this site only focus on images from one Creative Commons source amongst many, it is a great way to get students thinking about licensing, sharing, intellectual property, theft, creativity and participatory culture. By encouraging students to borrow, create and then share, we teach them to value their own work, to share content without breaking the law and to create culture rather than just consume it.