Copyright

How many times were you told as a student not to copy the work of others? In post secondary education this becomes an even more serious warning as you could jeopardize your educational career by not referencing the work of others correctly.

Now, how many times have you copy and pasted something off the Internet? Whether it be words or pictures. There are even programs that allow you to record videos that are online in order to have them on your own computer. It is a strange phenomenon when we know not to copy academic works, but somehow feel it is okay to do this in other realms. Just as if you were using information from a scholarly journal or news article, all resources that are created by other people must be properly referenced and cited... if the author allows you to use it by doing so.

I think it is very important to teach students about the importance of giving others credit for the work they have done, but also not to be frightened. I can see students becoming terrified of using a picture of Google, but that isn't necessary! Rather we should teach them about copyright and how to identify if the resource they are looking at is able to be shared or not. I think this would also be an excellent way to promote the students doing more of their own work, such as taking their own pictures, when circumstances permit.

Gomez Monroy, Carla. (2008, January 17). One Laptop per Child [photograph]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/4YjhMe

Ribeiro, Lucella. (2008, June 30). Children at School [photograph]. Retrieved from https://flic.kr/p/ehBnRE