Thing #10: Creative Commons

As a journalist/j-school student, I spent many years both using and bemoaning Creative Commons. Creative Commons and the people who could (and often do) contribute to the whole "movement," if you will, have a Catch-22 relationship.

In teaching, I certainly took plenty advantage of free web content for things such as graphic organizers, pictures, and sometimes even educational programming. I think it's a great tool to have at our disposal, especially as an ESL teacher who needs graphic support on a daily basis. I'm a fan of hand-drawing things, and the kids usually like it, but there are some things I can't draw. A horse, for example. I just don't have that skill.

For my students' Outsiders portfolios, I had them spend a day in the lab on Flickr and sorting for only "CC" items. At the end of the week, their journal activity was about the difference between using CC products and a breach of copyright or plagiarism. I was truly impressed with the answers I got! It encouraged me to do this MUCH earlier in the year for the upcoming school year, because they can certainly understand the concept, and I think they had a lot of fun. One kid even described it "like a scavenger hunt."

One of the dangers that I could see happening with teachers is that it may tempt us to get a little lazy. Often we can use "too much of a good thing" instead of creating our own content. Whenever I would use a Creative Commons site to get an idea for an example or a unit, I always tried to alter it at least a little to keep myself on my toes. However, I feel like for the most part we're turning to these sites for graphics and songs to enhance our already made lesson plans, which is the right thing to do. It also gets tricky when teachers post plans on the web that are inspired by or directly drawn from a curriculum adoption that doesn't belong to them, which is why I steer clear of looking at examples that aren't about specific novels. It's just safer that way.