The Importance of Copyright

It is very interesting for me to finally grasp the idea of copyright. In our undergrad, copyright was explained to us in the form of plagiarism and how important it is to ensure your work is original and protected. However, there is so much more to copyright than the fear of plagiarizing or being plagiarized. Copyright stems from the idea that everything, and I mean EVERYTHING that you produce online automatically has copyright, and it is the choice of the author to share it or not. But not only does copyright protect your work, it also governs what you can and cannot do not do when creating work using resources from online. As a student, I found it very difficult to follow copyright laws, as it is so easy to simply go onto Google and have so many images, resources and videos at your finger tips. I did not feel that I had proper training on how to maneuver through the online world and therefore I feel a sense of responsibility to be that resource for my students. For example, teaching students to used advanced search in Google to find resources that follow copyright law or having discussions about the responsibilities they have online to follow certain rules could harbour an awareness for students to be careful of what they use and create online. However, I think it is also vital to show students the collaborative power the internet can have and how they can access it through creative commons. In the 21st century, it is not necessarily about creating something brand new but rather interpreting and adapting ideas in different ways to add perspective.

Ribeiro, L. (2008, June 30). Children at school [Online Image]. Retrieved from.

Wikimedia Commons. (2009, November 22). Walden computer [Online Image]. Retrieved from.