development of an education license or license option for Creative Commons

[Sanford Forte <siforte AT ix.netcom.com>]

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
> *******************************************