Fair Use, Copyright and Digital Literacy

Fair Use, Copyright, and Media Literacy

Copyright and Fair Use have been talked about and taught for years. As a high school teacher, I find myself constantly reminding my students about plagiarism. So many students in high school still find it acceptable to copy and paste paragraphs directly from an online article or type them in from a book. This has serious consequences, especially at the collegiate level. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to help my students understand what copyright and fair use are and how to prevent issues. I find myself questioning these exact same things when I am working on a paper or project for school. I always have to ask myself, “Is this appropriate? What do I need to document and give credit for?”

From the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use and Media Literacy Education article, it specifically talks about media literacy as the capacity to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in a wide variety of forms. Media Literacy deals with mass media, popular culture, and digital media. These areas are of concern to educators as it is not set in black and white as much as the Fair Use and Copyright guidelines. This article mentions that teachers sometimes do not have as good of a lesson due to the fear of crossing some boundary they are unsure about. Educators are aware of the increased vigilance with which copyright owners are enforcing their rights. Hence, many know the value of materials to their assignment, but fear crossing the line when using others’ materials to enhance student learning.

The article also discussed the fact that educational guidelines have often hurt more than helping educators to understand what guidelines and regulations should be followed. I can easily see this as no one wants to over step the boundaries and get into trouble for using materials in the wrong way, for a better lesson or not. The five principles in this article apply to all forms of media. I think this too has caused confusion for many. As 21^st century classrooms move forward, it is important that this information pertains to print, images, web sites, and moving/sound images.

As we move forward in education, we have to learn more about what is acceptable and to feel comfortable with all of the resources out there. I would hope any lesson worth giving is not thrown out due to the fact that an educator is uncomfortable with the laws/regulations set forth about Fair Use, Copyright or Media Literacy.

 

Please note: I apologize for my blog being late. Many of you know I have been sick and on bedrest until my baby comes. Thanks for your understanding.

 

Waldo Pafford Elementary School

Technology Training at Waldo Pafford Elementary School

LCSS-Hinesville, Georgia

        

Instructional Technology Use

Liberty County School System has equipped two high schools, three middle schools, and eight elementary schools with a vast amount of technology and professional development in instructional technology. I work as a teacher and intern at Waldo Pafford Elementary School. Our school is equipped with a mounted SMART Board and projector with cable connection and video streaming service available in each classroom. The school has 100% of their classrooms equipped with high-speed Internet connections. It has multimedia instructional centers in each classroom that are complete with an interactive white board, a data projector, and a laptop. The classrooms also have document cameras, digital cameras, video cameras (available for checkout), and 62% of the classrooms have student response systems. There is a 2:1 ratio of students to Internet connected computer. There is also one computer lab staffed by a certified educator and meet quarterly with the instructional technology staff. Available for checkout from the media center is a portable Net book lab with 20 wireless laptops and a portable iPad lab with 17 iPads and a MacBook Pro computer.  The teachers have the following software programs available for use in their instruction:

• ● Pixie ●Word, Excel, PowerPoint ●STAR Reading ●STAR Math ● Timeliner ● Orchard ●Kidspiration/Inspiration ●Harcourt Science and Math programs ●Exam View ●Scholastic Reading Inventory (SRI) ● KidPix ●Renaissance Place Reading program ● ●Scholastic Keys 4●Study Island ● Online Assessment System (OAS) ● SmartBoard ●Classroom Performance System ● PhotoStory ●Movie Maker ●Adobe Premiere Elements ● NetTrekker ●System to Enhance Education Performance (STEEP) ●School Vue ●School Worksite/OnCourse ●         United Streaming ●Atomic Learning ●Audacity ●Camtasia ● Skype ● Tagxedo ● Wordle ● Frames ● Storybird ● Podomatic ●Web Blender/Share ●Image Mate ●Green Screen *OnCourse *Destiny *Power School *My Lunch Money.com

Staff Development

A needs assessment is used to determine the county wide professional learning courses to be offered and the target audience. Funding for technology equipment, software, and training comes from a variety of sources including Title program funding and local funds. Professional learning courses are offered by our district’s Instructional Technology Department. These courses are given at the Liberty County Board Technology Computer Labs. There are five instructional technology specialists, which are assigned to schools. These specialists are in charge of training at the district building and school sites. Site-based training courses are determined through collaboration between the school administrator and the Instructional Technology Department. Additionally, schools can request trainings or select teachers to participate in a variety of technology initiatives. At times the media specialist may give training to the staff or a small group of teachers needing various computer skill training. There are also teachers on each hall that have been thoroughly trained in new technologies in case there is a need from various teachers. The Liberty County Technology/Media Department website and each media specialists’ site has training videos, lessons, and training tutorials for teachers. Each year they train new teachers during new teacher orientation as well.

Dos and Don’ts of Tech Staff Development

Do’s

·      Let teacher’s practice without fear.

·      Show them effective, simple and manageable reasons to use technology.

·      Avoid the glitz. Show them function instead.

·      Show relevant examples.

·      Practice what you preach.

·      Use the appropriate trainers.

·      Involve the “senior” team.

·      Keep in regular touch with users as a support.

   

Don’ts

·        Pair your strong teacher with your reluctant teacher.

·        Set up templates for your reluctant teacher.

·        Encourage using technology because of availability.

·        Rush them. Give them time to learn in small steps.

References

LCSS Technology Plan http://www.liberty.k12.ga.us/Technology

The Dos and Don’ts of Supporting a Reluctant Teacher http://www.fractuslearning.com/2012/07/26/supporting-reluctant-teacher

         

The Playbook for Copyright and Fair Use

What is copyright?  What does it mean?  Even if you don’t know and understand the legal terms and use of it, most people know that it means to not claim something as being yours, that has been written by someone else.  Most people first heard the definition of copyright in school; however, the word that was probably used was plagiarism, also known as copyright.  When gathering information from the internet or print material, the fear of breaking copyright laws seem to cross people’s mind.  There are a lot of situations where people can go wrong when it comes to copyright laws.  For instance, print material, summarizing an author’s information, using images and/or audio from Google, information from the internet, etc. So what is copyright and how do you avoid breaking the laws? Let’s find out!

Copyright is “a legal concept, enacted by most governments, giving the creator of an original work exclusive rights to it, usually for a limited time. Generally, it is "the right to copy", but also gives the copyright holder the right to be credited for the work.”  When talking about copyright, the phrase “fair use” always comes into play.  Fair use is “the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant.”  There are many unknown facts that are socialized with fair use.  Some of these facts include, fair use is sometimes very unclear and hard to follow at times.  Others say that you can use common sense when it comes to copyright and what seems fair and what doesn’t seem fair.  The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education clearly states simple rules and guidelines that easy for people to follow to avoid breaking copyright laws.

As educators, it our job to teach our students the correct way to use information, that is not our own.  It is very important for students to know, especially high school students, the rules and regulation for using someone else's information or material.  I have personally always been told, if I did not think it, then I need to cite where it came from to prevent plagiarism and breaking copyright laws.  If you are uncertain on whether the information you are using could possibly break copyright regulations, use the “The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education” as a source to check or copyright laws that can be found on the internet.  I always say, it’s better to be safe than sorry.