Monday, August 26, 2013

Chapter 7: Copyright and the Free Web

Chapter 7: Copyright and the Free Web

I really liked the section of this chapter title "Why Should I Care about Copyright?" Marcovitz makes you feel guilty about not caring about copyright laws and not setting a good example for our students as well as hooks you in with the financial implications of violating the laws. I guess, when I look for information or videos it is not something that comes to my mind, which means that I'm definitely not instilling this practice into my learner's research process. All of the different sites that he posted to get images from go way beyond my limited previous knowledge of Creative Commons. I think that posting all of these different resources as an anchor chart in your room or on your classroom (or the library's) blog would be an excellent way to educate and remind students about copyright laws.

I also took a school law course this summer, so I found the actual laws about time limits for copyrighted material and the 10% usage of text, multi-media, songs rule interesting. I said many times in that course that every school staff member should have to have taken a basic school law course as there is so many potential liabilities within schools. Which makes me wonder, why have I never heard about these rules before? Or, maybe I have but it was brushed over as unimportant? Either way, we do need to be setting good examples for our students and be transparent about where we get our materials as well as sharing this information with colleagues. I also liked that Marcovitz shared his personal story about how copyrighting text actually pushed him into formalizing his work into a book so that he could receive royalties from the sales. I think it's important to share with students why copyrighting exists and what you're doing to the actual owner/creator of the information if you are using it inappropriately.

As Marcovitz describes the three worlds of sharing and copyright issues at the beginning of the chapter, I was immediately reminded of our new digital management system, Educate. Part of my project for this course is to create a Pathway in Educate that is linked to all of our curriculum's learning targets. Another feature of Educate is what Marcovitz describes in the third world. As my district uses this program more, every lesson, activity, assessment, resource, etc. I link to a certain learning target has the ability to be seen by any Educate user in my district (if I choose to "publish" it). This worries a lot of the staff in my building, but I see it as a very powerful tool and idea generator. Just like anything I find in a book or online, I'm probably going to tweak it to fit me and my learners' needs, but think of all the potential (and access to un-copyrighted material!)

8 comments:

  1. The train has left the station..... and some think they get the train to stop... back up and pick them up and then go at a slower speed.

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  2. Keith-- The project setup is due today. What exactly is that/what are your expectations??

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  3. Project setup is different from your proposal... because it focuses on what specific tools you have setup or are setting up to do the ideas you proposed. For example, you may have said I will create a blog that I will post pictures to in your proposal. The setup would be... I will use (or have used) Googles Blogger to create a blog (here is the link to it) and will use a Flicker web album to store my pictures.

    This doesn't mean you have completed it... more what are you using and what have or are in the process of setting up.

    Any more questions?

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  4. Nope, I think that covers it....thanks!

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  5. Do we make a new post for this, or just email you, Keith?

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  6. I know you have told me that I should take school law class, but now I really want to! I think copyright rules is often overlooked. I think a lot of people think "oh if it's online, I can use it".

    I am glad that someone found a need to be able to share without copyright laws and creating Creative Commons.

    Again, there are a lot of great resources listed in this chapter. I think it is important that we model what is right and ethical, even digitally. I think I am going to suggest this book to the staff and teachers in my building because of the great resources and ideas it gives for the classroom.

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  7. Please Post your Setup Proposal as new post so each of us can comment on them... to give you feedback and ideas

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  8. Copyright laws always seem confusing to me, no matter how often I look at them. Creative Commons is great, and I love the filter feature on Google to find images that are CC licensed.

    2 things that come to mind: 1. The movie The Social Network, when the twin bothers get mad and try to say that Mark Zuckerberg owes them more money because he violated copyright laws when he created Facebook (he just took their idea and made it into the Facebook we know and use today). 2. Our school used to hold movie nights, put on by our student council. It was free to get into the movie, but there was a small concession stand where people could purchase snacks and drinks if they wished. Our school is no longer allowed to do these events because we were making money on the movie - violation of copyright.

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