澳门跑狗论坛

As the movement for 鈥渙pen鈥� education resources continues to grow, encouraging educators to share online curricula and materials for free, it鈥檚 become vital for ed-tech leaders and classroom teachers to understand the different types of licenses that make the process legal and safe.

With the advent of the Internet and digital media, the way people exchange information has shifted significantly from when copyright laws in the United States were first written, experts say. And schools are now very much a part of that shift.

鈥淭he balance got lost when the world went digital, and the laws couldn鈥檛 keep up with technology,鈥� says Julie Lindner, the education outreach coordinator for the , a San Francisco-based advocacy group that promotes free speech and consumer rights in the digital age.

As a result, other licenses, which provide more flexibility than standard copyright, have cropped up to make it easier for educators to share materials and modify existing materials to meet the specific needs of their students.

Under traditional copyright law, a work is protected for 70 years after the creator鈥檚 death, says Fred Benenson, the cultural-program associate at . That nonprofit organization, located in San Francisco, has created a series of licenses that aim to provide an alternative to 鈥渁ll rights reserved.鈥�

鈥淔or most people, that perspective is overkill,鈥� Benenson says.

Creative Commons licenses, much like other open licenses, unbundle certain rights鈥攕uch as whether attribution is necessary, if the work can be modified or used for commercial purposes, and what type of license derivative forms of the material can be released under鈥攁nd allow the producers of content to pick and choose which rights they鈥檇 like to retain.

鈥淓ducators ... want to share information. They鈥檙e motivated by the fact that they鈥檙e spreading knowledge,鈥� says Benenson. 鈥淐reative Commons is very much compatible with that idea.鈥�

鈥楶retty Much a Mess鈥�

Jim Klein, the director of information services and technology for the 11,000-student Saugus Union school system near Los Angeles, agrees that open licenses could potentially reshape the way information is shared among educators.

鈥淟icensing costs are one of the largest ongoing expenses in K-12. As budgets tighten and technology demands increase, educators are beginning to understand the benefits and embrace the opportunities found in open technologies,鈥� he says. 鈥淎nd what they are finding is better software, more flexibility, and increased access to technology in the classroom.鈥�

A handful of open licenses are available, such as the Open Publication License and the OpenContent License, says Klein, but the most flexible and internationally recognized set of licenses is Creative Commons.

鈥淎s open content continues to become mainstream, there will undoubtedly be more licenses developed. ... However, it is unlikely that any, in the near term, will match the breadth and depth of Creative Commons,鈥� he says.

But even within Creative Commons, obstacles still must be overcome before a truly open education commons can be achieved, says Ahrash Bissell, the executive director of , the division of Creative Commons that focuses specifically on education.

One challenge is the incompatibility of different types of open licenses and even the different kinds of Creative Commons licenses themselves, says Bissell. Materials under different open licenses cannot be combined, or 鈥渕ashed up,鈥� Bissell says.

Fewer than half the Web sites that gather open educational resources use Creative Commons licenses, says Bissell, although that share does not take into account the number of resources on each Web site.

鈥淎t the license level, it鈥檚 still pretty much a mess,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 really not accomplishing the objective鈥攖o create this global education commons.鈥�

鈥楥onfused About the Law鈥�

Before teachers can begin using open licenses, major strides need to be taken to educate them about licensing, experts say.

鈥淎 lot of the ethos of teaching is that teachers have a moral commitment to their students to find the materials that best suit what they need,鈥� says Lisa A. Petrides, the president of the , based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and open licenses can help teachers fulfill that obligation legally.

鈥淚t really does help solve the conundrum鈥� of finding good supplemental materials in an underresourced situation, she says of the use of open licenses.

Klein, from the Saugus Union district, believes that more professional development around content licensing is necessary.

鈥淭he biggest challenge for educators is their own education鈥攗nderstanding the need for appropriate licensing and the impact of the choices they make when selecting a license,鈥� he says.

Administrators also play an important role in educating teachers about copyright law and other licenses, Klein says. 鈥淒iscussions and learning opportunities related to licensing and copyright need to be planned and encouraged at all levels,鈥� he says. 鈥淓ducators in general do not have a good understanding of what can and can鈥檛 be done with copyrighted material.鈥�

In addition, administrators may need to consider putting policies in place to address ownership of content, he says, 鈥渟pecifically with regard to who owns content that is created by staff on school time.鈥� Those conversations will likely need to involve many departments, from human resources to legal teams and unions, but are well worth the time and effort, says Klein.

It鈥檚 also worth noting that teachers are not the only ones who should be educated about content licensing in the digital age, says Lindner, from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

She is putting together a curriculum about copyright law, fair use, and digital media called Digital Civics, which is set to launch this fall. 鈥淸The point is] to educate kids and teachers about what the parameters of [copyright law] are,鈥� she says. 鈥淭hese kids are really savvy about using technology, but they were equally as confused about the law [as teachers are].鈥�

鈥楾he School鈥檚 Job鈥�

Teachers also need technical support to reap all the benefits of using and contributing to the open-education-resource movement, says Bissell, from ccLearn.

Each time a Creative Commons license is selected, the producer is given a few lines of code to be embedded into the Web site, which allows the license to be recognized electronically. But not all teachers know how to put those lines of code required to tag the material into their Web sites, Bissell says. Such tagging is an essential step in aggregating the content.

鈥淲e can鈥檛 count on that level of technical-savvy,鈥� says Bissell.

Paul Nelson, the instructional-technology specialist at the Northwest Regional Education Service District in Oregon, which serves 20 school districts in the northwestern corner of the state, recognizes that the support teachers need to fully take advantage of open resources may not be at the top of schools鈥� priority lists.

鈥淪chools are slow on the uptake when it comes to using the information commons. They don鈥檛 see themselves as having a duty [to contribute],鈥� he says. 鈥淭heir time is consumed by more immediate problems.鈥�

But that may change, says Nelson. 鈥淚n the world today, information is everywhere,鈥� he says, 鈥渁nd the school鈥檚 job, I think, now is to help students navigate through that commons.鈥�