TESL 0150 - Resources Development and Integration - Unit 1

Unit 1: Developing Materials and Copyright

Teaching is a lot like carving. You have a goal and a finished project in mind 
and you have to gently and skillfully carve away to reveal the beautiful end result.
In order to achieve your goal you will need the right tools. Tools that are 
designed to perform a precise function and desired effect. In teaching these tools 
are the materials you bring into your classroom to “carve out” of your students their 
highest potential and the end learning goal.

A teacher must choose their materials wisely and fairly. They can create their own materials,
 collaborate with peers, use online resources, teaching resource books or government provided
 materials. There are the wide range of materials that a teacher could use in their classroom: 
worksheets/workbooks, flashcards, interactive online programs, realia, videos, posters, 
flipbooks, picture books, quizzes, picture dictionaries, games, and the list goes on and on! 

The future of material development for the EAL classroom is bright. The amount of online 
resources is amazing with websites like Tutela.ca, ESL Library.com, Twitter, Teacher Pay 
Teachers.com (TPT), Hal and Steve English.com, TEFLtest.com, ESLgames.com, 
TeachHub.com, English Club.com, Woodward English.com, Ellevation Education.com, 
Busy Teacher.org, learnenglish.britishcouncil.org, teachingenglish.org.uk, Finger Tips 
Resources on TPT, Language Gym.com, One Stop English.com, and MORE! Plus there are
 hundreds of published teacher resource books out there which are just an Amazon search 
away. We are living in the golden age of collaborative teacher resources!

Of course the next topic to cover is how to use the materials created by others in a 
respectful and responsible way. Conversely, how can we share materials that we have 
created confidently, knowing that our work is protected. The three main topics to learn about 
are copyright, creative creative commons license, public domain and the fair dealing act. 

Copyright:

“Copyright is the exclusive legal right to produce, reproduce, publish or perform an original
literary, artistic, dramatic or musical work. The creator is usually the copyright owner. However,
an employer—for example, a film studio—may have copyright in works created by employees
unless there is an agreement in place stating otherwise.” (What is copyright?, n.d.)

“Copyright exists automatically when an original work or other subject-matter is created,
provided the conditions set out in the Copyright Act have been met. This means that as soon 
as you create something, it is copyrighted. However, a certificate of registration of copyright is 
evidence that copyright exists and that the person registered is the owner of the copyright. 
Copyright registration is done through the Government of Canada.” (A guide to copyright, n.d.)

Creative Commons License: 

 “A Creative Commons (CC) license is one of several public copyright licenses that enable 
the free distribution of an otherwise copyrighted "work". A CC license is used when an author
wants to give other people the right to share, use, and build upon a work that he or she 
(that author) has created.” (Creative Commons License, n.d.)

“What the symbols mean:

BY indicates that you must attribute the source of the work. Fulfill this requirement by citing 
the source.

NC Some licenses limit the rights to non commercial use, which means that you are not 
allowed to make money from the work.

SA The Share alike icon means that any work you create using others' work must also be
licensed share alike.

ND The ND symbol stands for no derivatives, that means the work must be used as is and 
not changed” (Creative Commons: A new kind of copyright, n.d.)

To create your own creative commons symbol: https://creativecommons.org/choose/

FAQ about Creative Commons:  
https://creativecommons.org/faq/#what-are-creative-commons-licenses

Public Domain: 

“The public domain consists of all the creative works to which no exclusive intellectual 
property rights apply. Those rights may have expired, been forfeited, expressly waived, 
or may be inapplicable. A public domain book is a book with no copyright, a book that was 
created without a license, or a book where its copyrights expired or have been forfeited. In 
most countries the term of protection of copyright lasts until January first, 70 years after the 
death of the latest living author.” (Public Domain, n.d.)

Popular public domain books: https://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/public-domain

The Fair Dealings Act: 

 

“The Canadian Copyright Act allows the use of material from a copyright protected work 
(literature, musical scores, audiovisual works, etc.) without permission when certain conditions
are met. People can use fair dealing for  research, private study, education, parody, satire,
criticism, review, and news reporting. In order to ensure your copying is fair, you need to 
consider several factors such as the amount you are copying, whether you are distributing the
copy to others, and whether your copying might have a detrimental effect on potential sales of 
the original work.” (What is fair dealing?, n.d.)

You must ask consider 6 topics when deciding if somethings falls under the fair dealings act: 
purpose of dealing, the character of the dealing, amount of the dealing, alternatives to the 
dealing, nature of the work and effect of the dealing on the work/impact on the market.

Below are 2 websites to aid in deciding if it’s okay to use a work under the fair dealings act:

https://copyright.uwinnipeg.ca/fair-dealing/two-tests-for-determining-fair-dealing-.html

http://www.fairdealingdecisiontool.ca/DecisionTool/

References:

A guide to copyright. (n.d.). Canadian Intellectual Property Office. 
Retrieved from : https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/h_wr02281.html

Creative Commons Licence. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. 
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license

Creative Commons: A new kind of copyright. (n.d.). West Vancouver Schools, Secondary 
Learning Commons. Retrieved from: http://www.sd45slc.ca/creative-commons.html

[Graphic of creative commons symbol] (2019). 
Retrieved from: http://www.sd45slc.ca/creative-commons.html

[Graphic of copyright symbol] (2019). 
Retrieved from: https://www.lifewire.com/copyright-symbol-on-windows-and-mac-2688246

[Graphic of public domain symbol] (2019). 
Retrieved from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Domain_Mark

[Graphic of justice scale symbol] (2019). 
Retrieved from: https://www.iradio.ie/wpquizzes/the-ao-show-grab-a-grand-quiz/libra-q-9-right/

[Photograph of a carver carving] (2019). 
Retrieved from: https://videohive.net/item/wood-carving-11/3974659

Public Domain. (n.d.). In Wikipedia. 
Retrieved from: (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_domain)

What is copyright? (n.d.). Canadian Intellectual Property Office.  
Retrieved from : https://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/cipointernet-internetopic.nsf/eng/wr03719.html

What is fair dealing? (n.d.). Canadian Association of Research Libraries.  
Retrieved from: https://fair-dealing.ca/what-is-fair-dealing/