Intro to Digital Citizenship - Week 3 Reflection & Resources

Copyrighted material is an important matter with serious associated ramifications; however, it is critical that persons working in education consider the value-added in sharing intellectual property through communities and networks of professionals. Education is a quick-changing, adaptive economy that thrives through relationships, sharing, and knowledge. When those three things come together effectively, we have seen monumental shifts in education. The effective use of copyrighted materials in the teaching and learning process is critical to continued transformation and improvement in education. 

Education is all about community. We know that teachers do their best when they are in a supportive community. Whether that be a physical, digital, or professional community; we know that community makes a huge impact on the success of teachers and students. One could argue that education has grown and transformed so much since it first began, though, through the use of copyrighted materials and intellectual property. For years, teachers have been coming up with innovative ideas and sharing those ideas with others. Then through the sharing of those ideas, new ideas have come together to create another innovative idea and so on. Through this sharing process, we have come to learn more about each subject, content area, concept, strategy, etc and how teaching and learning can be changed to improve student outcomes. This sharing of materials, copyrighted and not, has made an enormous impact on teaching and learning and Creative Commons was created to help make the sharing of these ideas safe and meaningful. 

According to JustinG4000’s YouTube video, A Shared Culture (2008), “Creative commons was created to save the world from failed sharing.” I believe that the education community benefits greatly from the movement of Creative Commons for this reason. Understanding Creative Commons is liberating for me as an educator to understand. For years, I have been using and sharing intellectual property without a firm understanding of the ramifications associated with it. Twitter is a great example of a place where a community of educators share resources, ideas, templates, etc., without worrying about if it may get copied or used. They know that when they share these things it will likely get used by someone else that is the point of sharing it.

I am grateful for Creative Commons and what is being done to promote it in education. I, personally, utilize many resources from thepltoolbox.com, which is a department within Dallas ISD, and have appreciated the free sharing of resources with Creative Commons licensing. Educators and students thrive when they feel supported, and in the current digital age of teaching and learning, it is more critical than ever that educators share freely and openly in order to ultimately reach all students. 

References:

JustinG4000. (2008). A Shared Culture [YouTube Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DKm96Ftfko