Copyright, Intellectual Property, and OERs.
It is important to address the laws whenever we are asking our students to research and produce content, especially in the easy days of copying and pasting from the internet. While this course isn't designed to give you ways to specifically teach these to your students, it is vital that you are aware and take any opportunity to make your students aware. The following site has some great lessons on how to teach digital citizenship in your classroom. Familiarize yourself with the law, as well. No longer can teachers just claim, "It's for education!"
Common Sense Media Lessons
Copyright
The copyright laws seem almost daunting, but the real trick is to ask yourself: who made this text/picture/video? If you don't know, don't post it on your website or even use it in your lessons. If you do know, do some research on if it's protected by copyright. This is a great article focused on educators. Worth the read!
www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml
www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml
Intellectual Property
What the heck is intellectual property? These are all things covered by copyright: books, music, paintings, sculptures, films, computer programs, databases, advertisements, maps and technical drawings. So, if you're reproducing (on that copy machine or even copying and pasting on line) any of these, you might be in violation.
OERs
Open Educational Resources or OERs are just that, resources that are open for educators to use. They are free and openly licensed educational materials that teachers and other educators can use to teach and reach students at varying levels. Resources include, but are not limited to: full courses, course materials, modules, textbooks, streaming videos, tests, software, and any other tools. The resources reside in the public domain and therefore can not be limited to distribute freely.
What does this mean for education? This means teachers can have access to material that may not be easily found at their site. This is particularly true for areas that are impoverished or remote. However, the concept of sharing works that you’ve created has also caught on. Web sites such as CreativeCommons.org allows you to share work you’ve created, as well as download and modify works of others. Because as their tagline reads, “When we share, everyone wins.”
What does this mean for education? This means teachers can have access to material that may not be easily found at their site. This is particularly true for areas that are impoverished or remote. However, the concept of sharing works that you’ve created has also caught on. Web sites such as CreativeCommons.org allows you to share work you’ve created, as well as download and modify works of others. Because as their tagline reads, “When we share, everyone wins.”