We place a strong emphasis on copyrighting laws to our
students; but when we as teachers want to use something—the concept of
copyright laws seems to fly out the window!
I am not a media specialist, yet, but I see misuse daily. The most common issue I notice is teachers
bringing Disney movies to class and showing them to their students. Disney has very tight copyrighting laws over
their products.
Rebecca Butler in her article, Borrowing Media from Around the World: School Libraries and Copyright
Law, states the following:
“Copyright law
in the school library environment is a gray, cloudy entity with many
interpretations. Add to this the fact
that internationally there is no single copyright law, and the confusion
grows.”
Countries have different copyright laws. If you are using something from another
country, you will need to find out what their copyright law is for that
item. This brings to mind several
questions:
Can students
legally borrow music from the Internet to add to a class project if the
selected Web site comes from a country other than their own?
Is it
acceptable for a teacher to make class copies of an article that he or she read
in a foreign journal for use in his or her classroom?
Are Internet entities
such as blogs, wikis, and social interaction sites copyrighted?
These are good questions to ask before students begin working
on projects. Especially projects, maybe
like a digital story which requires extensive use of online resources. The answers to these questions can be located
in the above article.
Our school has never addressed copyright laws to the faculty
when using different types of media. We
do not have anything formally written at the school in which I work. The only thing that I was able to find in our
District was a statement that “all visual and/or audio material in projects
adheres to the Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers.” I was able to secure a copy of this by going
to the Georgia Department of Education website.
Personally, I think it is the role of the media specialist to
inform the faculty of these guidelines.
With technology becoming an important part of the 21st
Century Classroom; this is an area that needs to be brought up to the
forefront.
Copyright & Fair Use
Guidelines for Teachers
http://halldavidson.org/ - This is a good resource for copyright laws
Butler, R.P. (2007).
Borrowing Media from Around the World:
School Libraries
and Copyright Law. School Libraries Worldwide, 13(2), 73-81.
I completely agree that teachers can be the worst offenders. It's hard to enforce copyright laws in a school with multiple copiers, strained budgets and over worked staff.
ReplyDeleteOne the most helpful things I have learned in this program was on copyright laws. I can't recall which class covered this, however Dr. Cooper taught it and in a Wimba session. In our small group we reviewed current laws, what violated these laws, and what did not. I have used that website and the information many times in my current school, and with my MS.
For example, this week the issue of making an archived copy of a DVD that was purchased (in multiples) in our media center came up. From my class I am aware that making a copy of a purchased DVD for archive use only is acceptable, but it is so concerning and confusing that my MS refuses to do this. While I don't agree, I apprieciate her concerns.
In my opinion, these issues will continue to play a role in a 21st Century learning environments. Being well versed on what is acceptable and what is not is going to become more important than ever.