Copyright
We try to teach our students to be honest. Are we also teaching them how to be honest with the information they get from other sources such as books, magazines, and the internet? Are we ourselves being honest by crediting our sources when we find information? I believe that it is vitally important for us to not let something like copyright ethics slip by because the chances of being caught are slim.
We as educators must learn the basics of copyright rules and follow them and we must teach these basics to our students. You would expect high school teachers to require this from their students when they do research and most of us would be shocked if we learned that a teacher didn’t follow through on this practice. But what about a first grade teacher? Can we expect these young children to cite their sources? Isn’t this a bit much? Most teachers and parents would never even consider this a copyright violation. So where do we start? When is it OK to use information and not give credit to the creator of that information? I believe that this must start in the lowest grades. Do you have your children cut pictures from magazines to paste on posters or projects? Have them show the magazine they got the pictures from. Did they learn something from a book they read? They can show the book when they present their information to the class. Did they get pictures from the internet? They can tell how they found the pictures. By these acts they are crediting their sources in an age appropriate manner.
When students get to third grade and above, they are old enough to understand that they need to have a list of sources for the information they find. At our school we do not allow students to print from the internet. Instead we teach them to copy and paste only the information they need into a Word document. Then we also have the children copy and paste the URL address either under the picture or on a separate page to include in their report. By printing from Word, we can consolidate the information and save quite a bit of paper.
I do not accept “Google” as a source. I tell students that saying I got this from Google is the same as saying “Come to my house for my birthday party. I live in the United States.” If someone issued us an invitation like that, we would all say that we need quite a bit more information. If students try to push you on this, have them type in www.google.com and see what comes up. Their information will not automatically appear. The Google logo appears. That is a good way to illustrate that “Google” is NOT a source, but a place to start from.
Many teachers say the ‘Fair Use’ clause entitles them to use material if it is for educational purposes. This is partly true. ‘Fair use’ means that we can use a small portion of the information for educational purposes without contacting the author for permission to use the material. It does not mean that we can use the material without citing the source. You can use the material. You still must cite your source. Fair use does not mean that you can use anything and everything you want just because you are an educator.
Here is just one example of a fair use situation. You are teaching a unit on the Civil War. One evening you notice that there is a special television program on the Civil War and it would be perfect for your unit and the lesson you will be presenting tomorrow. You have no time to write and get permission to use the video. Can you tape the program and use it or will this be a violation of copyright? The answer is “Yes, you can tape the program and use it tomorrow in your class. This is not a violation of copyright.” The information is for educational purposes and you have the problem of time constraints here. But what if you teach this unit every year? Can you keep your copy and use it again each time you teach the unit? This is where a copyright issue comes up. Now, you DO have time to contact the author and ask for permission to use the whole video or DVD in your class or you now have time to purchase the program for classroom use. At this point, you legally cannot save your copy and use it again without permission.
There is a lot to know about copyright. Thick books are written about the subject and legal battles fought daily over this. We likely will not learn all there is to know about copyright, but I believe that educators need to be informed of the basics. I am ready to help you with this. I found a short online course for teachers to use. It is entertaining, it takes about 30 minutes or less, and it is very informative. The course was made for staff development in Henrico County public schools. You can go through the same presentation and learn the same information; you just will not be able to take the quiz at the end. I hope you will take time to look at this site and either learn or refresh your memory about copyright.
Have a great week,
Audrey
Henrico County Staff Development presentation on Copyright http://henricostaffdev.org/copyright/
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