Copyright, Intellectual Freedom and Intellectual Property: The View from Here

As Rebecca Butler states in “Borrowing Media from Around the World: School Libraries and Copyright Law “Copyright law in the school library environment is a gray, cloudy entity with many interpretations.”  What I’ve attempted to do is clear up some of the gray, cloudy areas for myself, staff and students in my little corner of the world.  Here’s a description of my new, clearer view on this topic from the beautiful school library in our 110 year heritage designated school building.

As Doug Johnson explains in Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad © “As information professionals, we have a responsibility to make sure our staff and students have access to all of the copyrighted materials they’re entitled to—and we also need to help them develop a healthy respect for copyright laws.”

My husband recently reminded me of  this Aboriginal perspective of knowledge/intellectual property  and how Aboriginal Elders always preface everything they share with acknowledging those that came before them. An Aboriginal perspective acknowledges that all knowledge is a culmination of a collective process, so how can anyone claim ownership over that which belongs to everyone? Yet, there are some cultural traditions associated with this oral culture  that must be respected when sharing traditional songs and teachings.

When viewing this issue from a social constructivist perspective it’s easy to see that everything we learn hinges upon what we already know. This in itself is a humbling recognition, and serves to inspire those adhering to a constructivism to consciously recognize and acknowledge that all knowledge is a cumulative, highly social entity. All great minds stand on the shoulders of other great minds. Our current ways and means of acknowledging sources does not always capture this. For example, I need to thank Joanie and Sheila here for guiding a discussion related to this topic, and for all the insights offered by my online learning buddies, and to Joanne for providing a great reading list.

Perhaps the most exciting trend today is Creative Commons licensing based on the recognition that many content creators believe good ideas and work are for sharing, so  a formal means has been provided by which to do so. It is worth emphasizing that when using Creative Commons licensed materials, one must attribute the creator.

I must thank turrean / from my Twitter Network for sharing this  acknowledgement/sources/attribution sample. It’s from this VoiceThread school project.

In Canada, we’re awaiting the passing of Bill C-61 on copyright and can look forward to Dr. John Tooth’s highly anticipated Canadian copyright book ”in layman’s terms”.

What can I do as a Teacher-librarian in the meantime? – LOTS!

There is plenty I  can do to help staff and students and  find their own personal comfort levels in times of uncertainty when accessing others’ intellectual property. I must first acknowledge Annette Lamb for her description of 8 roles for a T-L to take action in the article: Intellectual Freedom for Youth which helped me form the following list for my own personal action plan:

• Consult, and if possible involve, Aboriginal Elders and community when sharing traditional songs, art, teachings and knowledge.
• Promote Intellectual Freedom with students – use readings  the from ALA’s Kids, Know Your Rights! – Add Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury to the list for Senior high and adult students.
• Teach the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship as outlined in Mike Ribble’s Passport to Digital Citizenship:
• Examine Web 2.0 Terms of Service agreements to provide clarification for staff and  students.

1. For example, examine  Google Docs Terms of Service  to see how ownership is retained by Google Docs, then pass this information on to staff and students.
2. Examine VoiceThread’s terms of use to learn that all uploaded content remains the property of the owner/creator.
3. Ask students to examine terms of use and find out how they feel about Facebook’s new terms of use which retain ownership of the content posted there.

• Encourage blogging as student assignments because academic honesty is “built in”.  Just knowing they’re writing for a  global audience compells students to be  accountable. Others (including classmates) may read their work and challenge ownership/authenticity. Blogging also allows students to link to their electronic sources of information easily and it’s easy for teachers to verify the sources of information.
• When a teacher asks me to come and do a talk on plagiarism, I  turn it around and talk about academic honesty, and much more practically, demonstrate how to use Word 2007 to cite sources easily in any essay style!
• Demonstrate, discuss and educate others on the educational uses of least restrictive internet filtering policies.
• Make a list of royalty free for educational use music and image websites off the library website like this one.
• If a student insists on using an image or music which isn’t cleared for educational use, simply ask them to e-mail the creator. (Most often they choose to use an image or music that is already cleared for educational use instead.)
• Make a list of age appropriate/locally relevant sites on copyright for students and staff like this one.
• Help students and teachers frame their inquiry questions so that it requires original thinking and avoids copy and pasting (e.g. “What is a polar bear’s habitat?” is a question which could easily result in copy and pasting vs. “Can polar bears survive in a Mexican zoos?” which requires a great deal of both research and original thinking.)
• Encourage students (and teachers) to use original artwork and photographs, and assign creative commons licensing to it. A good way to start teaching this is by uploading original photographs or images to Flickr, then requiring students to assign the licensing that they’re comfortable with.
• Suggest that teachers include ethical and responsible use of others’ intellectual property as part of their assessment criteria.

This post wouldn’t be complete without acknowledging my husband’s contribution  on Aboriginal perspectives and social constructionist perspectives on intellectual property, so I’m sending him this digital valentine. As we celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversay on Valentine’s Day we talked about anything and everything, including intellectual freedom and intellectual property. Thank you Vern.

The Digital Divide and the Teacher-librarian

• the belief that people, communities and organizations need universal and equitable access to information, ideas and works of imagination for their social, educational, cultural, democratic and economic well-being
• the conviction that delivery of high quality library and information services helps guarantee that access
  (2 of 4 core values - International Federation of Library Association)

The differential between groups’ effective access to digital information is a concern on global, national, provincial and community levels.

Globally the digital divide is evident between developing and developed countries. Strategies to bridge that divide include the “One Laptop per Child” initiative .

In North America the digital divide has been shown to exist between groups based on gender, income and race and includes access to ICTs AND the acquisition of skills required to use them effectively.

In Canada, data collected in 2000 indicates that the lowest income groups “continue to lose ground” for equal access to internet-connected computers. (The Digital Divide in Canada p.5)

In Manitoba the digital divide is most evident between urban and rural areas, and especially remote areas. The situation is so dire on some northern Aboriginal reserves that Winnipeg FreePress columnist Colleen Simard challenged readers in December 2007 to donate through the “Get One Give One” program of the “One Laptop per Child” initiative to put one laptop into the hands of a child in a developing country, and the other to an Aboriginal child in Northern Manitoba.

Our education system strives to promote equity and equality of opportunity. Senior administrators of the division in which I work are committed to providing equal access and equal opportunity for their students, as evidenced by the following policy.

INTEGRATION OF TECHNOLOGY GOALS Within the resources available, The Winnipeg School Division No.1 will strive towards the following goal:  Students will have equitable access to a variety of technologies to enhance learning and productivity across the curricula.

So what is it a Teacher-librarian can do in his/her little corner of the world?

I think a starting point is by learning as much as possible about your students, staff and community. Access to technology in homogenous affluent neighborhoods may not be as great a concern as in schools in mixed or lower income neighborhoods. Skill levels of teachers to teach the necessary information and communication technology skills may be more lacking in some schools than others, and barriers like internet filtering differ greatly between school divisions.

To further examine what role I could take to even the digital playing field, I’m going to refer to the four levels of influence as shown in this model developed by mmardis and posted on the AASLBlog .

Access – I conducted a survey with staff and students in the spring of 2007  shortly after I arrived at my adult high school. When I looked at the data to compare percentage of staff and students in our different programs with internet access outside of school – the evidence of a digital divide is shocking:

• Staff – 84%

• Grade 12 Students – 70%

• Grade 9-11 /EAL Students – 57%

• Adolescent Parent Centre – 56%

• Basic Ed. Program (Gr.2 to 9) – 28%

Our staff prides itself on providing equality of opportunity for our students. Looking at these results will no doubt help our technology committee make decisions to provide even more opportunities to interact with technology to those groups with the least amount of access outside of school. They need  easily accessed, inviting and user-friendly computers that work even more than our grade 12 students, yet have less and older technology available to them. These figures also indicate a need for a laptop lending program.

Teacher-librarians may also be able to help access grant money that is available to increase and address disparities in student access to technology.

Skills –As Heather Eby states in the digitalarithmetic wiki “Many schools have some of the best technology equipment and computer access available, yet if they don’t have the staff, who are willing to make the effort to learn about it and understand the needs of the 21st century learner, than a digital divide exists for our students’ access to the education they require for their future.” Not all teachers in my school have the literacy skills to enable them to teach students to use technology proficiently. mmardis asserts that  Web 2.0 tools are gaining in popularity in education, but not all teachers have the skills, motivation or confidence to integrate them into their teaching.

I know from the survey I conducted in 2007 that teachers have expertise in critically analyzing the information available on the internet (p.3) yet only a few staff have started to look at taking full advantage of the potential of integrating blogging, wikis, podcasts and other web 2.0 into their teaching practices. Teacher-librarians can work collaboratively with teachers to continue to strengthen students’ critical web literacy skills, and also include learning experiences that include social bookmarking, blogging, wikis, and other web 2.0 tools as part of inquiry based learning projects. This helps eliminate some of the “technology anxiety” experienced by some teachers and students.

Teacher-librarians can also advocate that technology integration/infusion remain a priority in school professional development planning and take a lead in planning PD opportunities.

Policy – In my last post I made a plea for least restrictive filtering in schools to allow inquiry learning projects and web 2.0 applications. Teacher-librarians will need to continually monitor and advocate for access to the learning resources their students need. They must also advocate for equipment that works well.

Motivation – Given the multitude of concerns pressing overwhelmed teachers today, it’s important to bring issues of equal access to digital resources to the forefront in an efficient, non-threatening manner. All educators want what’s best for their students so it’s important to outline what students need to succeed in today’s society. Student employment and future prospects can be enhanced by careful instruction, integration and infusion of information and communication technology into our programs. This is where a Teacher-librarian can help!