NOTE: Much of this content is antiquated as we've moved to a BYOB policy and currently use student blogs as a communication and assessment tool. Also...we never used iPads, we started off the program using Chromebooks and have always been using GAFE. Follow the IT&DML tag on this blog to see the evolution of the program.One of the more pressing issues we’ve been weighing as the Instructional Technology & Digital Media Literacy (IT&DML) program scales up is the issue of protecting ourselves, students, and the work of others while using ICT tools. First, a little bit of background…
The IT&DML program is pushing to be as “open source” as possible. Additionally, course curriculum for the program will be offered via iTunesU, and students will be required to use an iPad. Instructors will make as much of course content and instruction openly available online as possible. In each class students will be required to post work product from class on the program wiki. It all seems very simple, but in essence it boils down to big questions about copyright and protection of the work of instructors and students of the program.
I’ve whittled down the questions to a few “basic” ones, of which I’ve obtained some answers so far. To obtain these answers I’ve emailed most of the heavy hitters of open curriculum, and also big users of iTunesU. I also participated this week in a webinar on copyright which was put together by my University. The webinar and time with the “experts” was not helpful at all.
Here’s what I’ve been wondering so far:
First, in building course materials in iTunesU and making them available for the world to view, how do I deal with PDFs and research publications? All of our course content will be compiled by the instructors. These materials will be composed of research materials, PDFs, and content freely available online, or through the University libraries VPN. I know that I cannot take a research PDF that I downloaded from UNH, or as a student at UConn and include it in materials and upload to iTunesU. I have been trying to find a better way to deal with this situation. The best I can think of is a citation and a link to each individual PDF and document in iTunesU, and then force our students to use the library VPN. Not exactly the sexy way that iTunesU has it running on the iPad…but it’ll have to work for now.
All in all, it seems that the more questions I ask, the less I receive in terms of answers. As we continue to unpack these questions and come up with short and long term solutions…I’ll continue to document them here.
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