Creative Commons

Would you ever consider taking a published book, reproducing it entirely with your name listed as the author, and then try to have it published?  While most people would consider this theft, the same standard is not generally regarded when applied to Internet content or data files.  Fair use policy, when applied to the Internet, seems to have taken on a broad, and often unclear, presence in classrooms today.

In order to avoid the gray areas of fair use policy, one alternative is apparent:  Creative Commons.  Publishing your work under a Creative Commons license allows you to clearly state the parameters that others may legally use your work.  A perfect choice for teachers, Creative Commons content allows you to safely (and legally) imbed content (including videos, images, and worksheets) in your teaching without the worry of copyright infringement.

An example of such use is my Research Project lesson for this week.

Graphic Organisers, a photo by hastingspeel on Flickr.

This week's Research Project focus is to organize data using a graphic organizer.  In addition to giving examples of various graphic organizers (see above photo, which also includes a teachable moment regarding spell-checking), I will fill out a chart to provide an example of the organizational process.  My sample topic is "All About Bugs."

Butterfly1, a photo by tobyandetta on Flickr.