This YouTube video introduces and discusses the benefits of adding the cc trademark seen to the left to original works. I love how it describes copyright as a red light and creative commons as a green light. For teaching, this is very true. Recently at work, we had a controversy about a teacher breaking copyright laws. A teacher posted something from a lesson plan book on his blog without using any credits. Fortunately, when the author discovered the copyright infringement he just requested for the teacher to remove the content as opposed to fining him.
While Creative Commons is becoming more and more widespread, I anticipate that copyright will become less of an issue in the teaching field. Teachers need other teachers in order to maximize their success in the classroom and Creative Commons plays a huge role in that. Personally, most of the materials I use are from Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, or a Google search, so I have no idea who owns the materials I am using. Typically, when I share my resources, I upload them to a folder in Edmodo. Ignorantly, I might have been breaking copyright laws. I was equating citation as permission, which is simply not true.
In the future, I can use my ignorance as a teaching moment for my students. My students are living in a digitally dominated world and breaking copyright laws could be crucial in their education and professional development. I believe that is appropriate for my students to know about Creative Commons, use material that are marked with the Creative Commons brand, and add a Creative Commons brand to the writing they publish in Language Arts class.
One tool I really want my students to become familiar with is Flickr. Flickr is one of many photo-sharing sites that allows users to set their photos to public or private. I love to use photos in the classroom as journal prompts, and I could definitely see myself using something to engage the students. I also would like my students to use Flickr for pictures instead of Google images.
For my journal prompts, I usually choose bizarre things to get the students to write about. If I were using this picture, I would ask my students, "What would life be life if you lived inside a bubble?" I have been doing this lately with the students, so they can practice writing using a variety of sentence structures. This has allowed them to practice grammar, typing, and creative writing. I am looking forward to incorporating pictures from Flickr into my classroom to promote engagement.