Creative Commons

Creative commons is a non-profit corporation that provides a modification to copyright. It provides free tools and licenses that allow creators of information of any kind to label and mark their work with the freedom they would like it to have. When an individual creates something, they automatically own an all rights reserved copyright which protects their creativity. However, if full copyright is too restrictive and they want to be able to share their work, they can specify which parts they want to give free access to and what kind of uses of their creation they will allow. Therefor, creators can refine the rules of copyright and specify if they want "no rights reserved" or "some rights reserved" for their work rather than "all rights reserved," and which specific rights those are. This makes it easier for creators of information to share their creativity and allow others to use it, learn from it, and build upon it. This allows for more collaboration between people, as they are able to freely exchange information and work together to accomplish something. Creative commons also provides people with the opportunity to take information from a variety of different sources already created and make it their own creation. Creative commons plays an important role in increasing the amount of cultural, educational, and scientific content that is shared around the world, on a GLOBAL scale, through "the commons," which is the collection of work that is available to anyone for free and legal sharing, use, repurposing, and remixing. This global scale sharing is imperative, for in today's information and technology based age, it is virtually impossible to go a day without utilizing creative commons, whether you know it or not. Without this corporation, information and creativity sharing would cease to exist as we know it.

As an elementary education major, it is very important that I am familiar with creative commons. In order to teach my students and provide them with the information they need, I am going to have to access a variety of information from a variety of sources in order to form lesson plans, make activities, and operate my classroom in a fun, informative, and creative manner. Whether its printing worksheets or activities from online for my students to complete or playing a video or audiotape during free time or to enhance a lesson plan, I will be utilizing a multitude of educational resources and teaching materials made legally accessible and reusable by creative commons. With creative commons, I can provide for my students and allow them to utilize resources to be inspired and develop their own creativity. The entire field of education, not just my area of study, is based on information and creativity sharing between educators and educational institutions. Without the freedom creative commons gives, information sharing and collaboration would not be possible on a local or global scale, and the wealth of knowledge would be far less.

GET CREATIVE!

This PDF file is a great resource for information about creative commons. I included it because it has a variety of information pertaining to creative commons. It explains what creative commons is and how it works, the direction creative commons is going and what it hopes to accomplish in the future (really cool stuff!), its implications for education (which I obviously find interesting as an education major), and even some negative aspects of creative commons.