Fair use Can Be Foggy for Teachers & Students
Fair use when used for educational purposes is usually okay. However, the guidelines for fair use are written very loosely and are very vague. They are intentionally written this way to cover a variety of subjects (Media Education Lab, 2013). Sometimes as teachers and students, when doing the work in education, we tend to borrow from text and written materials for the sake of learning. As media specialists, it is vital for us to educate our teachers and students on the importance of following copyright and fair use guidelines. Copying and using materials inappropriately is not an option. I encourage the use of technology to avoid breaking laws. Using technology, you can share information and teacher book resources on using the LCD projector. You can also use sharing applications such as "my big campus" to share items with students without printing them. Also, students must learn this skill over and over. They must learn fair use.
It becomes real once they graduate and go to college and even when they work on the job. I work for a company and recently had to complete an e-learning on intellectual property. When completing the course, we were sharing various examples of trademarks, copyrighted material, patented materials, etc. Employees had to categorize the items based on the content they had received in the course. I asked to use other company logos and products to illustrate that other employees should not use them. I was told by the legal department that I could not use other logos...even for educational purposes. We were covered by fair use but because of the room for interpretation, they do not take a chance that it will be misinterpreted by someone else. Companies do not want a lawsuit. So, even though we are usually safe in education, it is vital to make sure that our students and teachers understand the policies and guidelines that govern copyrights and fair use of information.
http://mediaeducationlab.com/sites/mediaeducationlab.com/files/CodeofBestPracticesinFairUse_0.pdf
Copyright and fair use are definitely two issues that tend to get overlooked but it should not be this way. How can teachers teach their students not to plagiarize and then do it themselves? I have taught school for eight years and have never had any training or information passed on to me about copyright or fair use. There is one posted that hangs above a copy machine in my school reminding you of copyright laws, however, I don't think this poster should be the tool passing along this kind of information to teachers,
ReplyDeleteWhen I get a media specialist position, I would really like to get the word out and remind teachers and students the importance of not violating copyright laws. I checked out the My Big Campus app. It looks very interesting and I am going to have to investigate it further.
Sometimes being broad can be damaging, as is the case with fair use. I think we as educators need to be more intentional when it comes to this gray area, and justify in advance our use of copyright materials and making sure that it holds to current policy on fair use. This requires us to be more competent on the policy and also building a mental habit of thinking about fair use as second nature within situations and buidling positive behavior habits on how we proceed once the situation arises.
ReplyDeleteI really understand the apprehension of your company using others companies logo even for education purposes. Unlike, schools businesses are more likely to get sued and loss large amounts of money. Companies are not willing to take the chance when coming to being sued and I don't blame them. Yes, we must educate our teachers and administrators on copyright laws and stress the importance of following the laws always. I believe this is not going to be a major issue until a school get sued and loss big money. Then and only then will school take the copyrighting serious.
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