As a TL it is part of my responsibility to “provide information about copyright to the school community” (Fitzgerald, 2018). I suspect teachers in my school know very little about copyright, and breach it through lack of knowledge. Teachers are time poor and part of my role as TL is to provide resources that teachers can use in their teaching and learning activities, without breaking copyright.
Copyright in Australia is governed by Commonwealth Government’s Copyright Act 1968, but this legislation is complex and daunting for most people. Smartcopying is a website run by the National Copyright Unit for the NSW Department of Education to help guide teachers through copyright issues.
To assist staff make smart choices about materials to use in class I would suggest presenting a staff meeting covering the issue of copyright in a useful and informative way. I have found that giving teachers easy to use resources encourages them to use them. I would begin a session by introducing them to the Smartcopying website, in particular the section on Educational Licences in Schools and TAFE so they have some background knowledge. This would then lead on to a discussion about what we can do to ensure we do not breach copyright.
I would then introduce them to Creative Commons exploring the website via the IWB and how we as teachers can use it to make life easier. I would show them the search function and run through some creative commons material examples I have used and provide them with a copy of Finding Creative Commons Materials.
In small groups (years or stages) I would then get them to search and share 1 creative commons resource they could use in their classrooms right now. The staff meeting would conclude with a discussion on how we as a staff can continue to make the right choices to ensure our teaching and learning activities are not breaking copyright.
References:
Australian Government. (n.d.) Copyright Act 1968. In Federal register of legislation. Retrieved from https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2016C00741
Fitzgerald, L. (2018). Copyright in educational organisations. In Legal and Ethical Issues of Collections [ETL503 Modules: Topic 40 Retrieved from Charles Sturt University website: https://interact2.csu.edu.au/webapps/blackboard/content/listContent.jsp?course_id=_32995_1&content_id=_2550575_1
Creative Commons (n.d.) Retrieved from https://creativecommons.org.au/
National Copyright Unit (n.d.) Smart Copying. Retrieved from http://www.smartcopying.edu.au/
Just finished reading: The Forgotten Pearl by Belinda Murrel
