Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

cc-education - Re: [cc-education] cc-education - Teacherhost using ccHost and School districts owning copyright over educational materials...

cc-education AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Sanford Forte <siforte AT ix.netcom.com>
  • To: cc-education AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [cc-education] cc-education - Teacherhost using ccHost and School districts owning copyright over educational materials...
  • Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:36:23 -0700

If a teacher claims to be creating materials during the summer, or during a school vacation, or during off hours in the evening, _and clearly states in the pre-presentation of those materials_ that they have been created as an addendum to what is currently offered - in service of improving the educational experience - it would be difficult for a school district to claim copyright. Further, it would be counter-productive, and not too politically savvy for a school district to claim copyright in a situation like the latter, because it could quickly be spun as a another way that school districts inhibit innovation, create inefficiencies, waste money and effort, etc. etc.

K-12 textbooks are sometimes authored by K-12 teachers, but most K-12 materials are now authored by committee, often consisting of "textbook consultants" (often, ex-teachers), teachers on sabbatical, etc. etc.

All that said, there are MANY places where teachers share educational materials - many thousands of them. Teachers spend time at conferences, listservs, etc. etc. - communicating all the time about "what works best" - there's a massive "free underground economy" in K-12 educational materials.

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but requiring a educational license to share these materials may add a level of complexity and diligence that isn't necessary.

For instance, here's a Google search for "K-12 math lesson plans"
http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=math+lesson +plans&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8
As you can see, there's a proliferation of material here that instructors/teachers freely share. Thus, the current environment begs the question "why bother with having to add a licensing requirement when I can already access the materials that I need for free?". It's often the case that "black markets" are more efficient in the exchange of services/goods than monitored markets. This may be one of those cases.

Cheers,
Sanford

****************************************
Sanford Forte, Director
California Open Source Texbook Project
280 College Ave.
Palo Alto, CA 94306
sforte AT opensourcetext.org
650-321-9152 (Office)
650-888-0077 (Mobile)




On Apr 26, 2006, at 11:26 AM, cc-education-request AT lists.ibiblio.org wrote:



----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Wed, 26 Apr 2006 13:27:42 -0400
From: "Sean Rugge" <RUGGESM AT pwcs.edu>
Subject: [cc-education] Teacherhost using ccHost and School districts
owning copyright over educational materials...
To: <cc-education AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Message-ID: <s44f7554.012 AT epony.pwcs.edu>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Through creating http://www.esolpc.com/teacherhost (using ccHost) a site where teachers can share educational materials online with one another and utilize Creative Commons licensing http:// creativecommons.org as a means of protecting/sharing their creative works...I have run across an issue I hadn't fully considered regarding schools claiming ownership over educational materials...

Should Public School Systems be able to claim copyright ownership over lesson plans or other educational materials created by teachers (why or why not)?

Are there examples of schools/school systems (public or private) which do this contractually (in contractual language)?

It is widely known that teachers share educational materials at conferences nationwide...some of it in digital format...What would a school system hope to accomplish by prohibiting this? or prohibiting the creative teacher/teachers from distibution of such materials online? or dividing this and saying that paper copies are ok (keep killing trees?)...but no electronic copies??

I am having a hard time understanding the mentality or desire of a Public School system to own the copyright over a teacher's creative educational materials.

Could a school district sell such materials if it so desired?

If so what incentive is their for a teacher to be creative and 'invent' new lesson plans at all?

Any discussion on this is greatly appreciated...



Sean Rugge
Instructional Technology Resource Teacher
Saunders Middle School
(703)-670-9188 x289
ruggesm AT pwcs.edu

Sharing educational materials online at
http://www.esolpc.com/teacherhost
14, Issue 1
*******************************************




  • Re: [cc-education] cc-education - Teacherhost using ccHost and School districts owning copyright over educational materials..., Sanford Forte, 04/26/2006

Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page