The Importance of Teaching Students about Copyright

When you create a song, a picture, a video, or a piece of writing, you automatically have a right to copyright the creative work against uses that you don’t consent to. The people who create the pieces of work can choose whether other people may use their work and in what ways they may use it. Copyright ensures that the original owner of the creative piece is the only one who has the right to use the work, unless otherwise stated by the owner. If you did not create the work, in order to use it, you must seek permission prior to using it.

Santana, L. (2011, March 12). Create and construct [Drawing]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2ipTbVG

It is important that we seek inspiration through other people’s original pieces of work in order to enhance our own work. In addition, some of the people who create original work want others around the world to use and refine/build on it, but don’t want people coming directly to them to seek their permission. That is why the people who have created original products open up their work to millions of people around the world. They use sites that protect their work from particular uses, but give permission for people to use their work in other ways. For example, an individual may not open up their work for commercial use, but may choose to allow people to modify their original work. When people visit these sites hoping to use an original piece of work, the copyright licence is clearly communicated to them so that they know how they can and cannot use it.

The use of technology in the classroom has become extremely prevalent in the last decade. Therefore, as educators of the 21st century, it is extremely important for us to know this information so that when our students use pictures, videos, or music for class assignments, they know how to gain permission before using the creative work. Teachers must model for their students the appropriate places to find pictures, videos, and music so that students know that the work is okay for them to use and how to cite their source within their assignment. If the teacher is not demonstrating the appropriate procedure for copyrighted works, it is likely that their students will do the same, leading to teachers passing down the incorrect information to future generations and devaluing the importance of copyright.

Ribeiro, L. (2008, June 30). Children at school [Photograph]. Retrieved from http://bit.ly/2jttS72

I think it would be extremely important to teach my students where to go if they want to access original work that they have permission to use. For example, I would show them Creative Commons, a site where there is an abundance of original work that they may use when they need pictures, videos, or music. It is free and easy to use so that students can find the creative pieces that will fit with what they are creating in class. I would also encourage my students to learn how to get copyright licenses for their original pieces of work through the same site.  

For more information about Creative Commons, visit their site using this 

link: https://creativecommons.org/