Teachers vs copyright — modern educational practices
To see, to hear, and, best of all, to click — this is what nowadays students expect from their teachers. In the Internet era, there are many things a teacher can do to engage his students. To catch the attention of the students and to make them interested, teachers show videos, play music from YouTube, print articles, or download photos available online. In each of these situations they are dealing with copyright — although they often do not realize this usually remaining unaware of what they are allowed or not allowed to do.
Copyright determines how a teacher can use, share, or remix materials made by someone else. We decided to discover whether copyright affects the daily work of teachers, and development of innovation and creativity at schools. that. We interviewed 30 teachers from Poland, Estonia, France, the Netherlands and Germany. We surveyed teachers who would distinguish themselves from others by introducing educational innovations and actively using new technologies. The interviews concerned the impact of copyright on their work.
What did we find out?
The ambitious and innovative teachers know how copyright works. They usually do not gain that knowledge at a formal institutions, but on their own or participating in additional trainings. The fact that they are creators themselves — they create their own resources (presentations, lesson scenarios) and share them is one of the things that increases their awareness of the law. Others are motivated by the need to help students understanding what copyright allows them to do and when they break the law. There are also teachers that do not (yet) have any knowledge of copyright. This refrains them from using digital technologies and widening the range of used materials.
A rebel, or perhaps a guardian?
In the Communia report, we have distinguished the four most typical teacher attitudes to copyright: Creator, Guardian, Rebel, and, the most common, Unconscious User. The role teachers have depends, among other factors, on how much they use new technologies in their everyday work and whether educational purposes or compliance with copyright are more important to them. For example, a rebel is a teacher who is willing to risk breaking the law in order to provide interesting material to the students. For such teachers the educational purpose and the good of students are in the first place. In turn, the guardian will primarily care for compliance with the law and avoid risky ideas even at the expense of not diversifying the lesson.
Apparently, also many teachers who create content use copyright not to protect their work, but to share it. They emphasize the importance of a community with other teachers and the desire to exchange resources. Current regulations, differing between countries and, in addition, uncertainty, make this difficult. The educators should enjoy the freedom of teaching without having to explore the intricacies of copyright law. The current draft of regulations prepared by the European Commission does not guarantee this freedom. See COMMUNIA’S position on the Commission’s proposal and its effect for education here.
The Modern Educational Practices report is a part of this campaign for better copyright for education. To increase the awareness about copyright related challenges in education and the need for a better copyright reform, we created the campaign rightcopyright.eu. We encourage you to go to the rightcopyright.eu and sign the petition for a better copyright for education.
