[senit] Copyright creativity and curriculum

Hi Sally - all:
Copyright and intellectual property rights (IPR) is indeed an issue if you are re using and repurposing resources.
The principal is relatively simple, each and every resource is published with a licence making clear who owns it and what they allow it to be used for, and what they expect you to do if you do use it.  As an end user you just have to follow this licence.

The reality is much more complicated though - most organisations have a much fmore informal approach not making it clear what licence terms they apply to their resources or in fact only deciding this when they become aware of a use of the resource which they don't like.

We, Becta are undertaking some work in this whole area at present, but in short it is advisable only to re-use or repurpose resources which make it clear that this is permited by their owner, and where the licence requires it also ensure that you include details of who owns the oringal materials which you used.  Some licences require that if you do re-use or re-purpose the materials that you publish your own work under the same licence terms and in fact once you get to grip with the somewhat legalistic language used in licences generally this makes a lot of senese.

As Sean says creative commons offers some good ready made licence templates, but do be careful if using them that by applying a licence to your work you aren't contradicting the terms associated with the source materials you are using.

Personally I'd prefer to see more use of share-a-like licences (re use freely under these same terms) but any licence is better than no licence. If you don't tell them they won't know...

Adrian Higginbotham
Project manager: Learning services
Becta
Tel: Direct dial 024 7679 7333 - Becta switchboard 02476-416994.
Email: Adrian.Higginbotham at becta.org.uk
Web: http://www.becta.org.uk/
BECTA, Millburn Hill Road, Science Park, Coventry, CV4 7JJ 

-----Original Message-----
From: senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk [mailto:senit-bounces at lists.becta.org.uk] On Behalf Of Sally Paveley
Sent: 20 February 2008 09:36
To: SENIT
Subject: [senit] Copyright creativity and curriculum

One of the nice things about half term for me (I don't get school holidays but neither do I have to go into schools) is the opportunity to step outside the things I have to do and do a bit of gazing at things that have caught my attention but failed to make it onto my to do list.

I would like to share a couple of these with you; they are connected I think.  The first is a link that I found in last week's Naace Newsletter. 
It caught my attention because PowerPoint was mentioned - and I do lots of things with PowerPoint and there is a connection but not yet.  I clicked on the link and was treated to a great presentation by Larry Lessig about communication and creativity www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Q25-S7jzgs . Do take a look if you can.  It got me thinking about many things, one of which was something I had heard about but never really looked at - Web 2.

I Googled Web 2 and understood more about what it is.  In his presentation Larry was talking about how young people are generating online content by, amongst other things, capturing and manipulating content that other people have put there and how current copyright legislation is now outdated and needs to change.  He was not referring people who copy entire movies, songs etc then redistribute them.  He was talking about taking elements from different online media and combining, manipulating or changing them in creative ways so they become something else entirely.  Web 2 is about people becoming participants in online activity rather than observers of it and that is what is happening.

That got me thinking about what I, and many others, do when we create resources for our pupils to use .  I use Google to find images, I look for sound clips and I put them together (often in PowerPoint) with a mild concern about copyright.  I had to consider this more seriously when I launched The Plasma Screen & Whiteboard Room and have still probably not got it absolutely right.  Who is going to do something about getting the law changed?

The other question I now have is about what we are teaching our students in terms of ICT; the ICT world has moved on considerably in the last few years and our teaching should reflect this.  As somebody who teaches ICT I have some serious thinking to do but the possibilities are exciting! As a Web 2 user I don't have to do the thinking in isolation, which is why I am writing this.

Looking forward to your responses.

Sally

Sally Paveley
ICT/SEN Consultant
The Advisory Unit: Computers in Education The Innovation Centre Hatfield AL10 9AB
Tel:  01707 281102
Mob: 07815 969 131
Fax:  01707 281103
www.advisory-unit.org.uk
www.whiteboardroom.org.uk 