Thing 10: Creative Commons

I can definitely see the potential use of Creative Commons.  The purpose of collaborating is parallel to the ideals of 21st century teaching.  I would love to explore other teachers’ utilization of this tool.

Now that I know what Creative Commons is, I do recognize the CC logo from websites, although I cannot think now where I’ve seen them.  I use digital, audio and video clips in teaching some.  I would like to use them more.  One of my goals for 21st century teaching is to research usable websites and other resources to create a working, usable database.  Now I will know how certain things have been produced.  Knowing the end helps me visualize the means.  From that, I can think and brainstorm about the possibilities of all the steps to get there.  Although, with creative commons, there is essentially no end.  There can be infinite responses, changes, additions, etc.  Students would love that freedom in whatever shape it takes.

I do not share my creations on the web, simply because I have never thought about it.  Increasingly, this school year, I have used other teachers’ creations, but never thought about reciprocating.  Any potential negatives would be the result of irresponsible people going inappropriate things with online content.  Or, content created as a result of editing, etc. becomes unrecognizable from the original piece and now the last person in a string of changes can claim the work for his own with Restricted Rights.  This may pose a problem.