Week 9: Thing #23

There has been an interesting thread on Calibk12 during the last couple of days concerning creative commons versus a physical site. David Loertscher posed the following questions:

If you combine the textbook budget, the library budget, the technology budget, and the salaries attached, at what point does it become cheaper to provide and maintain a virtual learning commons?

In answering this question, consider the safe and free Google Apps for Education, Open source textbooks, the growing number of free ebooks, etc., etc., etc... along side the movement toward blended and online education?

What is the appropriate mix of physical and virtual learning commons right now? In six months? And, how fast is this all changing? And, what should we as teacher librarians be prepared to provide leadership for?

None of these questions carries much weight for me right now--my library had virtually no budget except salaries and maintenance this year--and those are about to be cut, at least partially. A creative commons needs to have funding from somewhere in order to staff and maintain even a virtual site. Students still need a "safe and free" physical environment in which to work, not just digitize their products.

Nevertheless, I see much potential for a creative commons in a world of, at least partial, virtual education. Students are now able to collaborate in ways never dreamed of; thinking this can only go on in the physical proximity of a school or school library no longer is logical. Just as many workers now telecommute--and do so interacting with other employees--students will begin to this routinely. Some of our students are currently taking classes online. There is real potential in going to school, to a building, on fewer days--especially for high school students. We currently encourage them to use cloud based productivity tools and collaboration and project based learning are the order of the day. Or are they? Many of our students do not have access to any digital equipment outside school. Cell phones may become the productivity tools of the very near future--I have had students use them in the library, but they still do not print and are of little use for word processing.

The idea of creative commons is more than freedom of space and time, easy collaboration, and a few million free or inexpensive apps that allow quick access and adaptation. There is an international, multicultural, gender-free, and ageless quality to the world arena where the creative commons fits. It also has some multi-dimensional, untamed, and frightening aspects. Privacy and personal rights are at risk and need to be scrutinized very carefully by each of us.

Ethics is a much bigger issue now than in the past--at least digital ethics. Copyright laws are much more difficult to understand, much fuzzier in concept, for professionals as well as for students of any age. Piracy is rampant and responsibility is nil. Teaching and enforcing rules against plagiarism is mind boggling at times, so finding ways to make it comprehensible is difficult. I was impressed with the Duke publication "Tales from the Public Domain." I have bookmarked it and sent it to English and government teachers.

I started School Library Learning 2.0 fairly early--in the fall after it had been announced. I did not finish it then, but figured I would "someday." In the interim, I have done many, most, nearly all, at one training or another, preparing for a lesson, or just out of personal interest. The most useful part has probably been doing a sustained blog--I have created several for different purposes, but always abandon them after the original event. So, this has been a good exercise for me--especially anything to do with images because I really hate working with them. I got a little more practice.

Thanks for the opportunity.