Copyright and Fair Use
With the installation of Common Core many teachers have now
had to change the way they have been teaching and what they have included in
their lesson plans in the past.
Recently, I have seen teachers making copies of entire chapters of workbooks
and using them for classwork or homework for the students. I do realize that this is much easier than
coming up with the information themselves however it is copyright infringement. So it sounds like our school needs to ramp up
their efforts to educate the staff on copyright laws and Fair Use.
While copyright laws can be confusing and daunting,
educators cannot just rely on “rules of thumb” to make their decisions on what
to include in their lesson plans, they do need to know the regulations. For instance, they can make multiple copies
of parts of documents for their classes (one per student); however they should
not make copies of whole workbooks. When
they make copies they must include the citation (copyright information) for the
work. As long as the staff knows the
rules they can make more educated decisions and one way to do this is get it in
their faces, but do it nicely. So with
this assignment I started thinking that it would be nice to have a single informational
poster that could be posted at every copy machine, in the media center and in
all computer labs. I was able to find a
couple that I really liked and thought could be used in our school; both of
which are legally reproducible. The one
for staff is pictured below along with the link; the link that is referenced on
the poster no longer works. There is
also a poster that can be used for students at this link http://www.kleinisd.net/studentnet/index_files/Copyright%20and%20Fair%20Use%20for%20Students.pdf.
To remind our teachers at our school about copyright laws one
of our LMS’s sends out an email to the staff during pre-planning which goes
over copyright laws. There is no other discussion
about it. Our school district references
copyright laws in their Board Policies and Rules which is short and not very descriptive,
but it is part of the Media Policy.
“Copyright Laws:
a.
Adherence to fair use guidelines and other relevant copyright stipulations
shall be assured. In no instance shall library media materials and/or equipment
be used in such a manner as to violate Board Policy, District Administrative
Rules or state and federal law.
b. The
library media specialist shall be responsible for ensuring the availability of
copyright information, dealing with copyright and clearance questions
(Administrative Rule GBT-R [Professional Publishing] and Administrative Rule
IFBG-R [Internet Acceptable Use]). Provisions for copyright clearance are
outlined on Form IFBG-2 (Permission to Use a Third Party Work Copyright
Permission Request)”. (Cobb County, 2014)
I think educating our staff and students could be greatly
enhanced. When I become a LMS I will try
to be a part of our pre-planning meetings and explain, in person, our copyright
policy. I also want to put together videos,
one for staff and one for students, to be performed by our video broadcast
students explaining key points of Fair Use.
These can be shown during pre-planning for staff and during the first
week of school for students. Another
website that I found interesting was http://beckercopyright.com/. This site had so much information, including
PowerPoint presentations you could use for professional development and a
section with Q & A.
Becker, Gary H. (2015). Retrieved from http://beckercopyright.com/
Cobb County School District. (2012). District administrative
rule IFBC-R: Media programs. Retrieved
from http://www.cobbk12.org/centraloffice/adminrules/I/IFBC-R.pdf.
KISD Media and Library Service Department. (n.d.).
Copyright and Fair Use for students. Retrieved from http://www.kleinisd.net/studentnet/index_files/Copyright%20and%20Fair%20Use%20for%20Students.pdf
Media Education Lab University of Rhode Island. (2012).
Intro video: Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy
education. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/intro-video-code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education
Connie,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing such wonderful tools for simplifying Copyright and Fair Use issues. The biggest question at my school has been showing movies. Many teachers have Netflix accounts and want to know if they can show movies from that. From what I have found, there are very conflicting views on the legality of showing entire copyrighted films. Here is a good article I found on this topic:
http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education
Here is an additional link that offers information.
http://www.teachwithmovies.org/copyright.html
The other big concern is copying pages from books or images from websites. I think that all teachers and students should be educated on rules regarding this.
Thank you again for a great blog,
Meghen Bassel
I think the idea of having posters posted in the copy room is a good idea but many times when I go to make copies reading a poster is not something that I’m interested in. If I’ve got to go to a website to get more information, you can forget it. I’m loaded with so much that this would definitely take the backseat for me. I do think that addressing copyright issues at the beginning of the year is a great idea. Many teachers have no idea what they should or shouldn’t be doing when it comes to copy right use or fair use policy. When an issue does arise teachers are so busy and they need a resource right then, they often just don’t worry if what they are doing is wrong. Explaining to teachers in a PowerPoint or short video is a great way to help them understand the dos and don’ts. That way you can address specific concerns that you may have noticed, answer questions, and clear up any confusion anyone might have.
ReplyDeleteConnie, I like the way you brought the attention to the lack of knowledge of copyright laws and fair use on behalf of students and teachers. As a teacher, I didn’t know much about copy right laws. I just copied material because that was the norm at the school. By being introduced to the copyright laws and fair use, I can share my knowledge with students and teachers when it comes to the laws for educational purposes. I believe that we should have resources available, such as posters and flyers to remind the school environment what is legal and not legal when copying material. Our high school has a link available on their web page pertaining to copyright law, but I believe in order for it to be successful, it has to be taught to individuals instead of referencing it to links.
ReplyDeleteConnie, I truly appreciate the information that you provided in your blog as well as the actions that we can take as LMS to assist in preventing illegal activity as it relates to copyright laws. Our county requires all of its staff to complete an online power point/assessment. It includes several topics that could incur legal actions. Some of these themes include recognizing child abuse, the use of social media within the school community and Copyright Laws (to name a few). I thought this was a very effective technique in that every staff member is required to review the presentation and then complete the tests at the end. This is usually required within the first 2 - 3 months of school and you must complete it EVERY year. If you answer a question incorrectly, then you are immediately returned to the power point in order that you may review and then, try again.
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, and thank you!!!!!! You just made my life a whole lot easier with your blog and its contents. I immediately printed off the teacher poster and student copyright and fair use guidelines. I am going to laminate and put the teacher one up in our copy room for the teachers and one or two of the student ones in each classroom for the students. I am so excited about these. Presenting this information in this way being clear and to the point is more likely to get the students and teachers to read and follow. I have found giving the staff or students a wordy document containing all the copyright laws and fair use guidelines is a real waste of time. The wording and content is confusing and not clear to most. Therefore, posters such as the ones you suggested are perfect.
ReplyDeleteOur school system has also implemented an LMS course for the teachers to listen to and sign off on for these laws and policies. In reality, (I too am guilty) the teacher will more than likely hit play on the recording and have it play in the background as they move on to something else not paying much attention to it. The reason for most people doing this is how difficult it is to understand all the laws and types of uses. I feel the posters could help alleviate this for both the faculty and students. Thanks again!!!
I agree with you that copyright laws can be very confusing and daunting and that educators need to know the rules and regulations. Copyright is an issue that most if not all Media Specialists will encounter at some point in his/her career. A Media Specialist should be aware of the laws regarding copyright protection. The poster you provided would be an excellent reference to have on hand in the media center as well as in all classrooms. I also like your idea of posting the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers poster at every copy machine as well as in the computer lab. Students also need to be educated on Copyright laws and Fair Use and the poster you provided for students is a great resource for the students to have should they need a quick reference or friendly reminder. As educators we are required to review the copyright guidelines once every school year so the Media Specialist at the school where I previously taught would give a brief overview of the copyright laws to the faculty and staff at the beginning of every school year but did not spend a lot of time on the topic. I’m pretty sure for most people the information went in one ear and out the other. After reading all of the information on copyright and fair use, I definitely believe it is necessary for educators to have more in depth conversations or possibly a staff development on these two issues. Thank you again for the Posters. What an excellent Resource!! :-)
ReplyDeleteHi Connie,
ReplyDeleteI think you make a great comment that you realize that more attention needs to be paid to fair use training in your school system. I think that is where the problem is. If teachers and staff are not properly trained with how to correctly use another's work there will be many problems. An email sent out is generally not enough for people to understand the importance of fair use. That one email shows how important the school thinks it is. In my school system the media specialist must conduct professional learning training on it. It is mandated by the district. An important topic such as this should not be left for staff to figure out. If the school was sued then I think it would become a topic or more importance.
I like that there was a poster for students to refer to as well. I teach in an elementary school, but I believe we have to do a better job with informing our students and parents about the copyright, fair use and plagiarism. Having a quick visual in chart form makes the information easier to digest and more likely to be read.
ReplyDelete