#ioe12 Open Licensing, Copyright, and Public Domain

Before starting this topic my knowledge base on licensing was what I thought to be adequate. I have looked into creative commons licensing and even spent a great deal of time recently looking up how to make sure images I use in online courses are attributed properly. I came across some good resources, such as the Creative Commons  wiki  and very helpful tips from the Australian CC . The OER remix game was fun and it felt good that I understood it without too much effort. However, as the buzz around PIPA and SOPA began to intensify with Wikipedia and other sites going dark, I realized that my knowledge of copyright stopped with Creative Commons. A clear line had been formed in my head, use CC works following the rules for attribution, use public domain works, and stay as far away from copyrighted ones as possible.
However, at the same time I am researching adult learning theories and designing courses that are based on social-constructivist principles. A lot of what I do is based on the idea that adults construct knowledge based on experience and that culture and social interactions are key pieces to the puzzle that is adult learning. So reading “Bound by Law” by Aoki, Boyle, and Jenkins (2006) and Against Perpetual Copyright by Lawrence Lessig (2011) was eye opening. Immediately, I saw how imposing stricter copyright laws could severely inhibit creativity. There are many adult learning theories that come to my mind that have social, cultural, and experiential aspects to them. Social-constructivism, social-cognition, experiential learning, transformative learning, emotional intelligence, humanistic theories, and situated cognition just to name a few. The communities of inquiry model for online learning has shown that online students benefit from social, cognitive and teaching presence. So, I am left wondering how do we navigate the world of copyright, public domain, and fair use in a way that is positive for learning and not detrimental to it? It goes beyond higher education and credit-bearing courses, beyond open courses like this one as well. I am really concerned that by extending copyright and reducing what can be freely shared, we will be discouraging the more informal learning that happens, almost organically, from our social interactions with each other and with culture in general, which more and more happens online. Even worse, we will be letting copyright holders shape what we can learn and share. I absolutely see the benefit of copyright as well, as long as it does not overstay it’s welcome. I am looking forward to learning more and grateful that I am freely able to do so.