This was the look on my face when the news was broken to me that the internet wasn’t an all-you-can-eat buffet of information to be taken and used at my will. When we breached the topic of copyright licensing and ethical standards surrounding the retrieval and redistribution of online content I realized I’ve been blindly stealing intellectual property online since I first discovered the internet.
The topics covered this week were hard to process. And still, despite my enlightened state, I reminisce about the good old days when I was blissfully ignorant of the requirements for being a good digital citizen. Alas, I had to “face the bear” eventually if my plan is to one day become an educator. As it turns out, what I initially experienced as an unconquerable beast of burdensome laws and procedures within an already terrifyingly complex and unfamiliar territory (technology and the internet) in the end was quite digestible. I am still coming to terms with the fact that I’ve unknowingly been a delinquent for most of my life. However, navigating, evaluating, and employing open content? I’ve got that on lock. In the end from what I’ve learned I now have an appreciation for openly licensed content that I didn’t have before. These initiatives give me freedom to access and utilize quality content and educational resources in my learning (and teaching) journey.
In knowing and understanding these concepts and procedures I am able to show appreciation and support for openly licensed content. Openly licensed content is content that creators have chosen to share in the name of growth and accessibility of knowledge.