Why Wait!?

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As a quick follow up to yesterday's post 'Free to Take? Free to Give!', I wasted no time in plugging the idea of Creative Commons (CC) in my classroom. With both a Year 9 and a Year 7 class, I asked them if they knew anything about Creative Commons and, if so, what did they know. There were some interesting responses like, "Isn't that the 'CC' at the bottom of a YouTube video?" but, perhaps most unusual was that there were more Year 7s that were not only aware of CC but also familiar with what it meant; at least to some degree. I suspect that if I looked closely at which class those students were in in Year 6, many of them would have been in Sam Sherratt's classroom. Whether my hunch is correct or not, kudos to the NIST elementary staff for their efforts in emphasizing this in the curriculum.

The conversations with each class were interesting and I introduced them both to the CC image search engine, compfight.com. Most promising though was in my discussion with the Year 9 class. When we started, very few were familiar with the concept of CC, let alone interested in taking part but after about 20 minutes, I would say that most students seemed to see the value in not only the taking of photos/information but, more importantly, the value in sharing your own creations. Once I felt I had most students at least understanding the value of sharing through CC, if not ready to jump on board, I ended the discussion with an example shown to me by Alec Couros at Learning 2.011 in Shanghai this past weekend.



Alec is a big supporter of CC and shares many, many things online through CC licensing including information, pictures and videos. One video he took of him helping his daughter to ride her bike for the first time caught the eye of the makers of this Nokia advertisement in the UK and they asked him for permission to use his video in their commercial. When I explained to my students that he was able to put a bit of money into his daughter's college fund just because he decided to share openly online, I think that spark a little more interest.

Anyway, I have more classes to bring on board but so far, so good. I'm starting with a strategy of using existing CC content with an appreciation for why it's there with a more long term goal of getting them to make informed decisions about whether they want to be a part of this movement and perhaps become contributors themselves.