development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons

["Alexander, Bryan" <balexan AT middlebury.edu>]

Title: RE: [cc-education] Making it easier for educators

Bryan Alexander
Center for Educational Technology
http://cet.middlebury.edu/bryan
ICQ: 23090001
AIM: "DoctorNemoBryan"
Windows Messenger: balexan AT middlebury.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: David Wiley [mailto:dw2 AT opencontent.org]
Sent: Wednesday, October 22, 2003 8:37 PM
To: development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons
Subject: [cc-education] Making it easier for educators

So I want to check a few things.

1. Are members of this list interested in seeing more educational content released under cc licenses?

In the dual interest of seeing CC flourish and expanding educational opportunities, yes.

2. Do members of this list think that in order to get more educational content licensed by a cc license we need more educators to understand the cc message  and how it relates to education?

Certainly... but realizing that most educators have received a pitiful copyright education, on average, and that there's a lot of work to do.

3. Do members of this list think that someone has to purposefully intervene in order to efficiently and effectively help a significant number of educators understand the cc message and how it relates to education?

I'm not sure I understand this, either - do you mean, as opposed to letting the CC and CC-edu word just percolate through the Web and word of mouth?

4. Do members of this list think that a branding of a cc license configuration as an "Education License" and an awareness campaign are a good way to bring about this understanding, and hence, more cc-licensed educational materials?

A CC-edu subset would provide a way in to copyright for a good deal of educators, yes.

If no to any of these, where is the flaw and what would you change?

One major problem is the dual presence of copyright in popular discussions, broadly: the "thick" argument of RIAA, MPAA, APA, etc; the "reformist" argument of Lessig, ALA, etc.  That duality is a bit off-putting on a variety of levels: the politicization scares some; the uncertainty unnerves other; the stakes raised are daunting.  It's hard for the CC message to get through in this battlefield.  Moreover, there's the possibility of a third way to handle copyrighted materials beyond CC, between Educause's engagement with the RIAA, the rise of iTunes, and experiments with college-owned p2p (cf LionShare).  Perhaps, from one angle, what needs to change is getting out the word with a better sense of how CC covers the whole cycle of IP production, ownership, and usage.  Maybe some cases of educators (teachers, librarians) and students going through this cycle, as owners and users, would help - i.e, a class makes a collaborative textbook and puts it online under a CC-edu, and uses materials from a teacher's writing learning object also under a CC-edu.

D
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