Teaching Digital Kids to Respect Ownership: Copyright Resources
Posted by Marti Weston on November 8, 2012
The other day I chatted with a parent about the concept of copyright. Both of us are concerned that digital kids understand very little about intellectual property. The free-for-all digital information climate ensures that children have considerable ease accessing information and considerable difficulty comprehending what belongs to whom. Given this easy access parents and educators need to spend time helping children understand the basics.
Copyright laws are arcane, and even a bit crazy, but it’s critical to teach kids that protecting the intellectual property of others is a necessary 21st Century skill. With your child take the Copyright Challenge quiz at Copyright for Kids to see how much you know. When you finish the quiz check out these frequently asked questions about copyright.
Another excellent blog post, Copyright and Kids, by Brigid Ashwood over at the GeekMom blog offers a broad range of information. The explanations are easy to understand, and her step-by-step conversation using the bicycle analogy is easy for any child to follow. Ashwood touches on all the significant issues and ends with a clear explanation of fair use.
Three Other Resources and a Good Video
- The Copyright for Kids at the Copyright Society
- The Library of Congress: Taking the Mystery Out of Copyright
- Copyright Definitions : from Copyright for Kids
- The video below explains copyright and offers an introduction to searching with creative commons.
