The time is ripe for our school district to provide formal copyright and fair use training to teachers. Many teachers have retired over the last few years and many new teachers simply do not undertstand their limits and rights to using media in their instruction under copyright and Fair Use guidelines. Some feel they are free to use whatever media is available to them and pass this incorrect educational philosophy on to their students. Still, other teachers are so fearful of what they can and cannot do with media that they don't use any at all, and that is sad. Our students know more about digital media than their teachers and we need to be able to educate them using the tools they are familiar with and use themselves.
The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University produced the following video that helps illustrate the current state of copyright and fair use confusion among educators. It's only an overview but sets the stage for further discussion.
The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University produced the following video that helps illustrate the current state of copyright and fair use confusion among educators. It's only an overview but sets the stage for further discussion.
The Code of Best Practices is important for you as an educator to read and share with your students. It provides guidelines that will help you make good decisions when using media in your classroom and when you have students create projects using media. I feel much more confident that I can provide proper guidance to teachers who have questions about what they can and cannot use in their classroom lessons and with student projects. I am ready to dump the "30 second rule" and move on to the true spirit of Fair Use.
We'll learn more about Fair Use in Part 2 and what the Code of Best Practices means for teachers. I will discuss Creative Commons licensing in Part 3 which is a topic I think all educators in D211 should adhear to as a way of implementing a best practice when using media in their classroom.
Until then, I am hopeful the information I provide in this and future blog posts on this topic will help lead the way to a better understanding of the rights teachers and students have when using media in their classrooms and projects.
Please let me know what questions you have about using media.
Until next time...
