Open Licenses - Creative Commons

A good working definition of "open," as we intend it in this course, includes materials that are "free from copyright restrictions or are publicly licensed for anyone to use, adapt, and redistribute." (Ahrash Bissell, ccLearn)

So then, would a license that prohibits any changes to the work (such as CC BY ND) be "open"? How about one that forces that any derivative works also be open licensed (such as CC BY SA)? These are the subtle debates that open aficianados love to have!

Here are just a few of the heated debates on this topic:

Look at the main Creative Commons (CC) open licenses and think about them. Which license would you prefer to use for your own work, and why? Post a comment about this, or if you'd rather blog about it on your own blog, just post a link.

Other Open Licenses

In addition to the licenses published by Creative Commons, which are the most common and straightforward licenses, some publishers opt to write their own open licenses.

Review some of these licenses and post an opinion about whether or not you think they are truly open.

• Teachers Domain
• NROC
• Stock.XCHNG
   

Citing Sources

So after you find something open-licensed that you want to use, what do you do?

You don't need to contact the creator or ask permission, but you do need to credit the creator of the work. This is a requirement of all CC licenses. (It is not required for public domain works.)

There are a few ways to do credits. One is to put the credit right with the work, as a caption.

Note that if all you can find is a screen name for the creator, that's fine to use.

For school work, many teachers like to have students include a link to where they got the work as well as a credit.

You can also include all the credits at the end of the work in a final slide or rolling credits. This is especially convenient for movies.

Choose one of these collaborative projects (or make up one of your own):

• Places of the World A-B-C book
• Geographic features
• Math in the Everyday World

Find one or more open-licensed images that fit the template (or again, create a new section). Add the image and write an appropriate credit.

When we're all done, we'll have not only found open-licensed content and written credits but also remixed content. If it's good, maybe we can make it into an ebook or movie and post it online.