Students often hear threats about copyright; they know that plaigiarism is “bad” and that they’ll get in trouble if they try it. But do they know that what they create belongs to them, and is protected by copyright law? The intricacies of copyright law as it applies to the school setting can be daunting, the school library teacher should be as informed as possible about copyright rights & regulations, and share that knowledge with students and faculty in an ongoing effort to model and encourage ethical use of information.
After creating our first wiki (see Collaborations & Co-teaching, wiki pioneers), I wanted 6th grade students to be aware of their rights as writers, and to understand the importance of giving credit to sources of information they might reference in articles used on the wiki. I began the lesson by having students share their understanding and impressions of copyright. We discussed their knowledge, addressed misconceptions and questions, and talked about how copyright protects the work that they do. I was then very excited to continue the theme of collaboratively built content (an essential element of wikis and other social networking software) by introducing students and teachers to an online community called Creative Commons.
After discussion and teaching, I showed a video from the CC search screen entitled “Let’s Work Together.” The short piece introduces the concepts of copyright and Creative Commons licenses and helped reinforce the material from the first portion of our class. Students learn several key points from this lesson:
1) The work they do belongs to them & is protected by law
2) The work others do is protected and should only be used with permission
3) Creative Commons is a helpful resource for searching for material that is free to use, share and adapt
4) Our wiki is licensed with a Creative Commons license that they have the power to adjust as they wish in order to tell others how they want their information to be used
The lesson was so successful with 6th grade wiki pioneers that the teacher asked me to teach it to her 7th & 8th grade students as well. I was also able to teach a similar lesson as a follow up to the creation of an 11th & 12th grade journalism wiki during my secondary student teaching in May 2007. While it’s important for students to know the appropriate ways to use information in their research and writing, it’s essential that they learn the underlying reasons why information is protected and understand why the rights of a creator matter. If students view content as something created by an individual (and that they themselves are creators of content), they may be more likely to practice ethical behavior when using other people’s work. This lifelong skill and practice is the ultimate goal of this lesson.
