COPYRIGHT IN THE CLASSROOM

"Nothing is copyright in schools, because we use resources 'for educational purposes'". Agree? I did. For many years, however, I'm beginning to feel that it just doesn't cut it anymore.

I feel that using images or video created by someone, somewhere, whether we can see them or not, without reference or acknowledgement, is as wrong as it is to reproduced written content used in assignments and projects. On a PD to New Zealand during 2010, a pre-conference workshop run by Tessa Gray alerted me to the point of copyright. Essentially:

• Just because we do it, doesn't make it right;
• Just because it's done by others, doesn't make it right;
• Just because the author won't know about it, doesn't make it right;
• Just because the chances of 'getting caught' are low, doesn't make it right; and,
• Just because we are part of an educational institution, doesn't make it right.

What will happen when students leave the 'educational setting' and don't reference their use, reuse or derivatives of works? There are real and heavy consequences for misuse of copyright. We, as teachers, need to educate our cyber citizens what society's expectations are on the referencing and use of digital material. When else are they going to learn it?

While this has been the second year of me teaching in a 1:1 laptop classroom, it is the first year I have made a push for, in particular, image referencing in Keynotes and Pages documents. My students have embraced it (thankfully!) and now pick each other up on unreferenced resources. Heck, they even pick up me now! Playing music with creative tasks using iMovie and GarageBand is a definite 'no-no' as well.

It is amazing how quickly students pick this up. Discussion concerning Creative Commons licensing has not only made things more clear in my head, but also created an expectation of acceptable use of digital resources. An element of referencing included on assessment rubrics (even a 'Yes/No' section) has also given students the opportunity to gauge their own use in line with Digital Citizenship standards.

For more information, visit http://creativecommons.org/about
I also have created a display/cards that can be used based on the several license options. The above address also contains help sheets that are displayed in the classroom.