In an era of ever evolving technology, media, and creations, how do we, as a society and as educators, ensure that our intellectual property, and the intellectual property of our students, stays ours, while also encouraging others to view and interact with our work? 

Creative Commons is an organization that, in its own words, “give everyone from individual creators to large institutions a standardized way to grant the public permission to use their creative work under copyright law,” (Creative Commons, 2023). It does this by providing licenses that “help authors keep and manage their copyright on terms they choose,” (Creative Commons, 2020). 

My video on what Creative Commons is as well as how to use touches briefly on how we, as educators, might choose to use the practice, but over this week, I had been doing more thinking about how to integrate the process into my everyday classroom. With the goal of both encouraging academic honesty as well as maintaining intellectual protection of students’ creations, I plan on teaching students more than just “MLA” formatting for citation of their works. Now, I will show them the process by which, if they choose to become creators and makers in their future, they can protect and share their works! 

References: 

Creative Commons. (2020, May 22). About CC licenses. Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/about/cclicenses/

Creative Commons. (2023, April 25). What we do. Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/about/

Creative Commons. (n.d.). Frequently asked questions. Creative Commons. https://creativecommons.org/faq/