Earlier in this program we were introduced to Creative Commons and I have to be totally honest when I say that I had never heard of it before. I was not alone it turned out as most people in this cohort were not aware of it either. None of the teachers at my school were familiar with it either, including our Librarian. My opinion at the time was that it was a noble concept but if it had not gained enough steam to make itself known to Tech Coordinators and tech savvy teachers then it probably wasn't going to catch on. I decided to incorporate CC into my unit on Internet Safety etc anyways this school year and as I introduced it to students we were able to find more and more examples of digital media with Creative Commons licenses on them. I have been trying to spread the word to as many professionals as I can but it still seems like I am revealing some mysterious concept to them when I tell them about CC. Word of mouth is doing OK so far in promoting awareness but I can't help but feel there needs to be some larger push for its use. Not sure what the answer is but something on a grander scale would help jump-start its popularity and use.
As for incorporating its use in the classroom my plan was to have students create something of their own and then posting it to the web and going through the process of putting a Creative Commons license on it. This year I had students search for digital media sites that housed material with CC licenses on them and then comment on the various types and give some thoughts on it but I don't think it was very effective. I doubt those students will have much recollection of Creative Commons when we go over it again this coming year. I figure by going through the process of creating their own license on something of their own they will understand it better and have a better appreciation for people's work/property when it comes to being a responsible digital citizen.
I didn't have much experience with CC either before these classes. I think it is really hard concept for students to grasp especially because they have always been able to use whatever they want off the internet without thinking about it! I think it would be a good idea for students to create their own CC license and have them use it on EVERYTHING they post online. That might help get them use to the idea, but until more people become aware of them our students probably won't find them important.
ReplyDeleteI agree with CC is a difficult concept for students to understand, and having them make their own license would be a cool way to show them the ownership pride that can happen. It also might be an interesting experiment to purposely have them "rip off" each other and steal ideas to experience the downside of when people take your work without credit!
ReplyDeleteYes Creative Commons is hard to grasp. Once we learned about it in one of our earlier classes, I didn't think to go use it again. Since now for our portfolio we have to include an artifact, I'm using CC. As I mentioned on Nate's blog, I think it will be hard for children to learn this. I'm still confused unless teachers have the students work on it and study it for a lengthy time.
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