Learning reflection for Session 3: 10th - 11th September 2013 - OCL4Ed

My 3^rd learning Reflections - OCL4Ed

The first activity consisted of MCQ’s on copyright issues. Well without reading the notes, I worked out these questions, the feedback provided was constructive since it explains the reason why the answers are correct or incorrect and these helped me to better understand the laws pertaining to different situation. Later I tried the MCQ’s again and I got all of them correct which means that I now understood the concept.

Being a Muslim, I learnt since childhood that the bible has been modified by early priests and monks, it is now through learning about history on copyright that I came to know that before the 18^th century, there was no such law or term to qualify plagiarism, this is why the bible is not in its original form.

Moreover I like the quote which says:

“Imitation is natural to man from childhood [and] the first things that he learns come to him through imitation.” - Aristotle 

Yes I totally agree with Greek Philosopher Aristotle as I believe that since childhood we tend to imitate our family members, teachers, friends, people who has had an impact on our life.

Furthermore I am learning about the Berne convention and Mauritius is one among its signatories. I am also able to differentiate between civil laws and common laws. I think that in m country it is the common law which is applied. In Mauritius, the curriculum-based text books for primary and prevocational streams are developed by the Mauritius Institute of Education (MIE). Officially those contents are under copyrights to the MIE but it the lecturers, inspectors and teachers who provide ideas, diagrams, task activities, questions and other contents to be inserted in the books. They are recognized for their contributions but they do not become the owner, it is the MIE who owns these materials under common laws. However if an individual decides to write a book, he will then need a publisher who will acknowledge his work and market it through the distributer.

Personally If I create an educational material, being a person who like to share, I would be delighted to see my work be of help to people even if they make money out of it, I would tell myself that at least I am able to contribute to someone earning his living, I will not feel frustrated that my work is being attributed to an institution or some people making my personal work like commodities. I would release my work in the public domain for people to use, share, modify, re-use, remix, re-adapt, etc… for I believe that this will bring more variety to educational resources and copyright laws will not act as barrier in the education sector. 

If educational institutions are able to make themselves recognized as owner for materials created by people who work for them, I agree, because when working for them, the people also become part of the family of the institution. Making the institution the owner of the educational materials also brings some satisfaction and self-confidence for the worker; this may be considered as moral rights. According to me, it is not making the developer’s or editor’s name appear public that will bring big change to the person’s life. If we talk about the economic right, well the developers and editors are already receiving a salary for creating learning materials.