I will be examining a couple of resources which explore the manner in which copyright and fair use apply to teachers and students when using materials that are under copyright terms in the classroom.
Understanding "Fair Use" in a Digital World
My first resource is targeted at how to explain how copyright works to your students. This video is an excellent resource to use when considering how to teach your students about fair use in the classroom. Having students evaluate whether or not a material falls under fair use or not. I really like the model of having students take on the role of both a lawyer defending the use of someone protected by copyright and from the perspective of an educator/student who wants to use a piece of copyrighted material in the classroom. This helps your students engage in higher levels of thinking in Bloom's taxonomy while learning about the process so that they can engage with the idea more in depth.
However, I wish that this video went into more depth regarding specific rules pertaining to fair use and copyright. While it gave a wonderful overview and a fantastic sample lesson, I would add a more in depth follow up discussion regarding specific rules for application with my students.
The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use
The second resource I will be examining is a text based resource. Which can be accessed if you click on the heading above. This guide is extremely comprehensive and has an easy-to-navigate table of contents to jump directly to the area of copyright law that is relevant to your focus. This includes everything from copyright basics, fair use, copyright law, new technologies, to district liability and teacher responsibility.
Something I had not been aware of previously is that school districts are liable for any copyright violations committed by their staff. Considering how teachers now have a significantly larger audience now that we are sharing much more with our students digitally and communicating with others in a digital space it is much easier to track how students and teachers are complying with or violating copyright laws.
While we want to share as many wonderful resources with our students as possible, we must also be cognizant of how we are teaching our students to practice good 21st century stewardship so we must be good examples as well.
I also watched the same video and I wished they did show a little more about how the students should appropriately site their sources and how to do that, etc. I think that it was a nice lesson to make students aware of copyright laws and what is considered "fair use". I think many times students use materials they find on the internet and feel that citing the source is the due diligence. A lesson like this shows the appropriate use of a source. I also agree that, as teachers, we are doing a lot more online and we have to be careful being in the public eye. It's very important as an educator to model appropriate copyright practices.
ReplyDeleteHi Anthony! I completely agree - I really like the idea presented in the video of having students engage in perspective-taking to explore the importance of copyright and fair use but I would use it as an introductory lesson in a series of lessons about copyright and fair use.
DeleteHi Megan,
ReplyDeleteI think your critique of "Understanding Fair Use in the Digital World" is very accurate. This video provides some great tools that teachers can use to teach their students about copyright! While other videos seemed to be most focused on terminology and content, this video was unique in that it seemed to be aimed at giving teachers tools to teach students about these issues. This makes it an excellent resource for us, however, it also left me a little confused. I had to go back and watch some other videos to more fully understand these issues.
The text resource you share is also very useful. When I first learned that schools are liable for any copyright violations of their staff, that seemed like a scary thought. I definitely would not want to cost my district any money because I was not aware of a copyright restriction! This is another reason why it is so important for educators to be informed on these issues, so they do not unintentionally get themselves into legal trouble and are able to teach students the proper way to use materials in their own work.
Hi Sarah! I did like the teacher-focused aspect of the video but I also found it to be lacking in specifics. I learned much more about how copyright and fair use apply to education from my text resource than from the video!
DeleteHi Megan,
ReplyDeleteI liked how you characterized the Understanding Fair Use in the digital world. Like the other videos I watched, it was a great introduction to the concepts of fair use, but a bit short on detail. I assume follow up lessons would let the students and teacher delve deeper into the fair use and copyright.
Like you, I found the text site more comprehensive and expansive on these concepts. I looked at the Fair Use Tube and found it very well organized and detailed. Perhaps this demonstrates Mayer's conclusions that multimedia using pictures and words are more effective for a novice audience than with a more Knowledgeable one. Once you learn the basics from a video or slide show you are more receptive to a text source.
Hi Richard! I think you are definitely right that videos are a great way to introduce a new topic so that learners are more receptive to learning more from a text-based resource once they are familiar with the basics. Since it is easier to skim over a text resource and focus on the parts that are most relevant, it is helpful to have a basic idea of of the concept first.
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