What Protects You?
“What sources did you use for this lesson?” How will you present these materials to the class?” Will you have the materials on Schoology or Google Classroom?” Are you making a copy and sending the copy home?” Beep Beep Beep! Time to wake up! At the beginning of this week I thought I cared very little about copyright laws. No one was going to come to the school and fine us for the sources we used. As the week went on and I read more and more articles, it’s true, no one will come to our school and check on the materials we use in class or fine us. The schools have a few exceptions in the use of others materials and as long as we are educating our students and modeling in good faith these exceptions our public school district sould fair just fine.
"Technology, Education, and Copyright Harmonization Act (TEACH Act)", passed in 2002 (LSU Libraries, 2018). The act was not a change to the copyright laws is was more of a extension and explanation for use of learning materials in a digital form. Distribution and collections needed a clear explanation. Using the TEACH toolkit, a clear path to face to face classroom use and distant learning classrooms can be used for teachers. The teacher can also learn how and if they can collect and distribute the works of their students.
Fair Use - commonly used in education to explain why we can use a piece of information education. That is not the only use of fair use. Using copyrighted piece of work is ok as long as a few guidelines are used. Use Fairly, Not too Much and Have Reasons seven words that quickly let you check if it is ok to use another’s work, (University of Virginia Library,2017). This is for any pieces of copyrighted material, in any situation. Teaching our students, best practices for education and in real life should be the goal of all teachers. Students of life should have this tool in their educational toolbelt to be able to decide between good and bad uses.
This week has been a huge week of learning for me. I have studied and read so much this week because I knew this is an area that I need more knowledge in. I even found myself dreaming ot checking fellow staff members material to make sure we were in compliance. I think before the week started I had the basics of copyright law but through the lessons and the case studies I had to research and interpret the research so that I could make decisions. I think that I have much better idea where to find answers when asked about educational and life issues with copyrighted works.
LSU Libraries. (2018). The Original TEACH Act Toolkit. Retrieved from https://www.lib.lsu.edu/services/copyright/teach/index
University of Virginia Library. (2017, April 28). Fair Use in Seven Words. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6DEu-cVYcI0&feature=youtu.be
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