The timing is perfect for this topic. Our district recently offered a session on
copyright given by a prestigious presenter Dr. Carol Simpson, a lawyer, former
librarian and teacher and is the author of ten publications and has a book
currently available called Copyright in Schools. With all this background and experience I
came away from her presentation feeling attacked and with no resources or idea
of what I should be doing. The feeling
from the presentation was we are all breaking the law and she used many court
cases to scare us to ever even considering using anything copyrighted. It was like an Oprah show shouting “you break
the law, and you break the law”! It was
a very uncomfortable feeling and I was not the only one frustrated after
speaking with other librarians who attended.
The pacing was not very good, and the presenter focused a very long time
on the Dynastudy
case, which seemed pretty obvious to me that is was going to not be a fair use situation. The fines were in the millions, so it was a
pretty effective scare to all of us. I
did not come out of there feeling confident that I would be able to get a
better understanding of how to use fair use.
I wished it could have been presented like the book title “eat this not
that” but for copyright “do this but not that.”
While I am still trying to think about my practice in teaching
resources, citing works and sharing projects I am being much more mindful about
fair use. It has been a long time in covering
that specific subject in library school and I did not get a whole lot of warm
fuzzies reading the Copyright Clarity book. She portrayed the librarians being a barrier
to fair use and I think that is a fair assessment – I feel that I have been the
copyright police on more than one occasion but more for teachers or students
not citing sources. After reading the
book I see copyright in a whole new light but still a bit scared when it goes
out of our building.
I continue to study fair use as we prepare to make our slide
presentation. The resources in the back
of Copyright Clarity are amazing. I listened
to all of the copyright
podcasts with my husband by Dr. Kenneth Crews – it was very informative and
really enjoyable to listen to. He is a
professor of copyright at Columbia University.
The other links Media Education
Lab and Teaching Copyright
have great lesson plans and ideas that really help in teaching and determining
fair use. This is where we need to be,
not only informed but willing to be brave and take risks to teach our
students. I will be attending the
library state conference later this week and would you know, there is a session
on copyright and fair use – I will be in the front row.
Such a shame that a potential avenue for growth and enlightenment turned out to be a dud. I have also been to many presentations that have turned out to be lack-luster and unhelpful.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, I am impressed, though not surprised, that you dug more deeply into the resources the book provided and that you are excited to attend more presentations in the hopes of getting better information. Perhaps one day you might be the one making the presentation?
Thanks for sharing the links in your blog. I did check them out and like the Teaching Copyright site which gives ideas for lesson plans. It also explained a little about copyright and fair use which can help us decide what we can do in our classroom. Sounds like you could give us a presentation on copyright and fair use. Maybe the next presenter at a professional development in-service.
ReplyDeleteWhat are your thoughts on second graders learning about copyright and fair use? I think there could be an easy way to get them to understand it.
My first thoughts with 2nd grade is when we are creating projects with powerpoint. I am not doing a whole lot of research with them until 3rd grade - that is when I typically start. However, when we are doing our projects we always use the pictures online to insert - these are from BING and they are free to use. So I am able to give a short lesson that the person who took the pictures doesn't mind that we are using them in our project. It is a pretty short lesson but we come back to it again in 3rd grade.
DeleteBetsy, did you look at all the resources Angie posted? Is the one you reference (Teaching Copyright) the most worthwhile in your opinion to investigate?
DeleteI'm with Norm; what a shame to walk away even more scared than before about a topic. But this is exactly why we need this course because walking away from a presentation as you did, didn't it just leave you feeling more confused and looking for the truth?!?! I made it a point to ask Dawn in class about this...something like, is this person Renee Hobbs (Copyright Clarity) on the up and up...is she the truth?? I was delighted to hear that yes, she is one of the premier experts on the subject. But then you have your experience on the other hand, also claiming to be an expert. What I wouldn't give to have seen you ask her a question and site Hobbs' work.
ReplyDeleteI'll also say that I don't think I've ever had a class or even a presentation on copyright...as a student or as a teacher. I wonder if that's a FCPS MyPLT topic that should be created and required?
I completely know that feeling where you try to do things the correct way, but then when you dig deeper it becomes more confusing and blurred and you feel like everything you do is now considered wrong. Fair use and copyright are tricky, there are many grey areas (although people expect us to see it as black and white). I would enjoy hearing someone speak about copyright in the classroom, except not from the person who came to your school. I don't want to feel more confused when I leave. I want to feel empowered about fair use. Brandi, it is interesting that you say maybe there should be teacher training through MyPLT (MyPDE). I do not typically find those trainings super beneficial, having a real person come in with examples that are relevant in our world would definitely be something to consider!
ReplyDelete