30 October 2012

© Copyright Not The Right to Copy

I was very happy to discover that a presentation I prepared two years ago has gone a long way and found itself a tiny place among the many wonderful content materials in the four day long Educating for GNH workshop. 'Dealing with Digital Natives' was my award winning presentation from NIIT Chigphen Rigphel master teacher training in Paro College of Education.
The whole presentation was used in its original format, from title to pictures to the words used, and only thing missing was my name I have put on the last slide. The content development for the course must have gone through series of professional screening before it was made into this Educating for GNH Bible, and I was awestruck how a simple credit for intellectual property was overlooked.
Nevertheless I forgave the blunder right away on seeing how well it's serving its purpose of educating teachers on the need to update themselves to match up with their digital genius students. I enjoyed the expressions on the faces of my fellow participants as they saw the slides unfold. It was still doing the magic it did during its debut in Paro college where I packed the house.
Like a happy child I shared my joy of discovery with the chief lady during the lunch. She was wise enough to apologize for failing to credit, reason being that lots of stakeholders were involved in it and it had been difficult to track things. I happily admitted that I was proud to see it doing good job.
Then came the twist in the story, the facilitators, all senior teachers and principals, who were sitting around the chief lady looked at me in confusion. One was honest and said, "Now who could be the real owner of this presentation? When we were in Chhukha Dzongkha there was on teacher who claimed it was his. Then Thimphu, another claimed ownership." Another facilitator confirmed the incidences. I found myself blushing because now my claim could be perceived as another fool seeking attention.
I still remember that day. We were given to answer a set of questions pertaining to our current mode of teaching and what changes are required to cater to our young children. Other groups had obediently answered each question and presented. I chose to differ. I digested all the questions and built a free flowing presentation employing lots of satirical pictures.
I received houseful of laughter on each slide, the certificate of 'Best presentation' and lots of handshakes. Before I could get back to my seat I was handed with handful of pen drives. Some jokingly suggested me to sell it but I was more than happy to share it to all 40 participants in that room. They unanimously agreed that it could be used as the introduction to the whole Chigphen Rigphel Teacher training course.
It's obvious that everyone would have deleted my name from the last slide once they were using in their courses, which is how it reached to my class today without it, but who were those friends who not only let their cow graze on my land but wanted to change my sa-thram to their name?

6 comments:

  1. In Bhutan, plagiarism is done both knowingly or unknowingly. People are not aware of seriousness of crime. But as you mentioned, if it seves the purpose it should be the followers of buddhisim and its principle. I am one of the victim too.But happy it serves the purpose

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  2. Hi Passu, This thing happens in the intellectual world.....No matter what, the gold will always remain as gold....so don't worry about credits... rather continue giving your best.....I hope someday credit will come looking for you....


    All the best.......by the way you should send me one of those pendrives to me (provided you still have it with you), so that i can send the Movie Freedom writers diary" to you this december...all the way from Gujarat to Wangdi with lots of love .......ha ha ha

    by the way..have a nice day..

    Kuenzang (PSN)

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  3. hey i still remember how excited u were with ur new ideas...but i think the last slide doesn't have ur name but ya ur group and ofcourse when u look at its author its still "Passu" so u could have shown them. By the way i also use ur slide as an example in my class but i don't forget to introduce u and ur blog too in the class..so i hope m not misusing it :)
    Sonam peldon

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  4. OMG, thats daylight robbery! You should claim your copyright. Please do it!

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  5. It may be because Bhutanese people inclusive of graduates are used to plagiarism. I feel really sorry when my friends do their assignments "copy-paste" from someones even without changing a sentence; forget the citation.

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