Copyright and Fair Use for Educators and Students
With the influx of media and technology into everyone’s curriculum, questions are raised about how media can be used in the classroom legally. The Fair Use policies for education have always been a little fuzzy, until now. The Center for Social Media in the School of Communication at American University has created a video and a “best practices” document outlining Fair use for educators and students. This document is a code of best practices that helps educators using media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question—as it does for certain narrowly defined classroom activities.
If you ever watch a video in your class or have students use Internet resources to create projects, then this information is a must see. The video is about 6 minutes long and is just an overview. The document is EXCELLENT and the Best Practices are laid out beginning on Page 10. This information should also be passed on to our students. In a time when many kids do not believe it is illegal to download copyrighted material from the web, it is up to us, as educators, to model this behavior. This is a perfect time to help students understand the importance of copyright and fair use.
Essentially, the message is: “If the copyrighted material will enhance your classroom lesson and is relevant to the information you are teaching, you can use it under Fair Use.” But again, I urge you to take a few moments from your extremely busy schedules and take a look at this information.
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Thanks for pointing to this Jerry.
A good video to get teachers/students thinking about fair use. I would follow that up by pointing to and explaining the Creative Commons spectrum of licenses as well. Promoting educational works licensed in this way makes any worry of sharing and remixing works in the classroom a non-issue. A large portion of what I now use in my classroom is CC-licensed (or something effectually similar). Teachers/students should not only learn about fair-use but also licensing models that are inherently harmonious with 21st-century, networked technology.
Hey Jerry
Am a bit behind in my blog reading & just caught your post..be sure to join the wikispace too. Great place for conversation~