Thing #10

Creative Commons is fabulous!!!! I had no idea what CC was until I became a librarian. It is sad and a little scary at the same time. I used photos, songs, and video clips all the time in my own personal projects as well as let my students use them in their projects. Did I ever ask or seek permission? No! I had no idea I needed to. Yes, my librarian educated me about copyright at the beginning of the year, but as a teacher with a million things on my plate, that knowledge was lost about 5 minutes after I learned it. I feel so guilty for "stealing" other people's shared work, but more than that guilt is the shame about the disservice I did to my students. I never taught them about copyright. I sure hope one of their teachers since then has.
Having CC at my fingertips takes the uncertainty of whether I'm doing the right thing away! After learning about it this year, I have used it many times during research with my classes. I basically have taught them that CC is a safe place to go get pictures, clips, etc for their projects. They know if they get it from CC it is okay. Getting it from somewhere else will require permission.
My goal for my second year as a librarian is to train the teachers about CC. I have a feeling they, like me when I taught, do not know about this very valuable resource!