Blog Post April 27th

Discuss copyright for teachers. What surprised you? What ways have you observed copyright laws being violated in schools (no names, please. Just examples)? How about violations outside of the school environment? Is it your job to teach copyright respect to your students? How can you do this?


Answer: 


I don't really understand the copyright laws and how they pertain to teachers. Yes, I know that copyright means you cannot use someone else's work without permission but I don't understand the fair use policy and how teachers use it. 


What surprised me the most about copyright was the video example you gave us. That a teacher must have permission to show a video to her class, even if the video is just for fun. So I can't show my kids a video on the last Friday before summer vacation just for fun without someone's permission?


I probably observe copyright laws being violated everyday and just don't realize it. Teachers are constantly using things off the internet and never actually giving proper recognition to the person who created it. I violate copyright laws myself. Last semester I printed off worksheets for something I was doing. I didn't create those worksheets and I didn't give proper recognition to the person who did. To be honest, I don't even know who created them. Second, myself and thousands of other people violate copyright laws when we download illegal music off line or make copies of movies. We are never given permission to download that music or make those copies. The only way to get music legally is to buy, from expensive places like Itunes, and lets be honest here, who actually does that?


Is it my job to teach copyright laws to my students? Yes, I believe it is. If I didn't, my students would be plagiarizing every day and never having a clue why or how they did it. Then parents would come to me or the school board and complain about their students getting bad grades all the time. If I don't teach my students about copyright, it's pretty much my fault that they are receiving those bad grades. 


How can I teach my students about copyright ?? The same way most people teach their students about copyright. I would have them read articles, Id give them examples of things that should be copyrighted and things that shouldn't and see if they can distinguish a difference.