This sounded fairly simple at first. As a librarian I’ve always been cognizant and vigilant about attribution. My students and I spend a great deal of time searching for the copyright terms of a work and locating the information needed for a proper citation. As content becomes more accessible, clearly labeled and easier to cite it becomes much easier for my students to properly acknowledge the creators of their source material. Licensing that allows users to use and alter materials for their own creations will allow people to create, remix and adapt content. My students and I would be able to make all sorts of videos, book talks and trailers AND share them with others outside of school if more content and accompanying attribution information was readily available.
But things are never that simple. Let’s talk attribution. Last week a colleague mentioned that she was on a neighboring school district’s website and found a teacher with a webpage EXACTLY like her own. Everything – graphics, content – had been ‘borrowed’ from my colleague’s site with no request for permission or attribution. Imitation may be a form of flattery, but my friend mentioned all of the hard work she put in developing her website and now somebody else is reaping the benefits. Are administrators, parents and colleagues raving to the ‘borrower’ about her great site? I can’t imagine doing something like that without contacting the ‘owner’ of the material. And my friend probably would have said fine if asked, it is that feeling of underhandedness that got to her.
I started thinking about how I would feel. For the most part, I’m happy to share worksheets, powerpoints, videos, and lesson plans. Teachers’ time is incredibly valuable – why shouldn’t I at least provide a starting point for colleagues if I can? But if someone used entire pages from my website and passed them off as their own that could be a little upsetting. So now I’m stuck between belief in the idea of open access and the reality that everyone isn’t on the same page about asking permission, whether formally or informally. If I choose a license requiring attribution am I merely guarding against the possibility of having my feelings hurt or am I practicing what I preach about giving credit where credit is due?
I started thinking about how I would feel. For the most part, I’m happy to share worksheets, powerpoints, videos, and lesson plans. Teachers’ time is incredibly valuable – why shouldn’t I at least provide a starting point for colleagues if I can? But if someone used entire pages from my website and passed them off as their own that could be a little upsetting. So now I’m stuck between belief in the idea of open access and the reality that everyone isn’t on the same page about asking permission, whether formally or informally. If I choose a license requiring attribution am I merely guarding against the possibility of having my feelings hurt or am I practicing what I preach about giving credit where credit is due?
Laws that choke creativity. It isn’t the creation of media, or using any of my videos that is the sticking point. And as I’ve said, I am happy to share worksheets, lesson plans, and projects with others. In the teaching profession, especially librarianship, we’ve always had sharing communities, whether we personally know the other members or not. The librarian’s listserve, LM_Net started in 1992, well before others in education were using the Internet to share ideas. And the open, sharing atmosphere of the Educational Technology field is so incredibly wonderful. Being able to learn from others as I try new ideas is one of the reasons I’m willing to try them. But where I’m happy to share, it would truly bother me to find a bundle of my great projects with some fancy new clip art for sale on Teachers Pay Teachers. I know a lot of people are making a lot of money with TPT. And I’ve purchased items because, quite frankly, it is worth the money not to have to recreate the wheel. But people used to just roll the wheel my way when I needed it, and I’m still of that mindset. I just can’t go with free cultural works licensing across the board.
The other area of concern to me is commercial reuse. I understand the importance of feeding and fostering creativity (as you can see elsewhere on this site) and I hear what Lawrence Lessing is saying in his TED talk My initial thought was that I could start with more restrictions and lighten up. You know, just like we come in with strong classroom management in September and then ease up as time goes on. When I learned that you cannot go back and change your licensing it became even more important to flesh out some of these personal issues.
So I’m going with Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). I thought about share alike, but by including noncommercial and leaving off share alike I achieve the goal of protecting my work yet allowing others to use my info for their blogs, handouts, trainings, or whatever. I’ll certainly keep in mind all that I’ve learned. I plan to use an attribution only license for any photos, drawings and original sound recordings I create, allowing others to use those types of works for contest entries and such.
There, one task accomplished. But the mission continues - educating my students about how and what media they can use in their endeavors, how to license their own work, and how to maintain an open, creative atmosphere on the Internet.
So I’m going with Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). I thought about share alike, but by including noncommercial and leaving off share alike I achieve the goal of protecting my work yet allowing others to use my info for their blogs, handouts, trainings, or whatever. I’ll certainly keep in mind all that I’ve learned. I plan to use an attribution only license for any photos, drawings and original sound recordings I create, allowing others to use those types of works for contest entries and such.
There, one task accomplished. But the mission continues - educating my students about how and what media they can use in their endeavors, how to license their own work, and how to maintain an open, creative atmosphere on the Internet.