Copyright & Fair Use

 

In the field of education, there is always a constant flow of information. Therefore, it is imperative for both educators and students to know and understand what copyright and fair use is and how it applies to our flow of information. 

Copyright protects an individual's rights as it relates to their work/creation, whether the work is published or non-published (beginning at the moment of creation). Although this law protects the artist's work, it does not protect intangible items such as systematic procedures, ideas and facts. Therefore, in order to be protected under the copyright law, a piece of work must be considered fixed/established, original and can not contain a substantial amount of material from another person's work.

Once a work is completed and copyright is established, the author or creator of the work has the right to transfer their rights to another individual or entity, this is called an assignment. Once transferred, the original author will no longer be the copyright owner. The author also has the option to grant someone else permission to use their work. This permission is called a license. Unless transferred, copyright extends 70 years pass an author/creator's life. 

In order to avoid copyright infringement, individuals normally seek work that falls under the Creative Commons license. A Creative Common license allows users to more freely use work without having to pay or negotiate terms of usage. Furthermore, fair use promotes the unlicensed usage of copyrighted work as long as it falls within certain guidelines. These guidelines are as follow: 1) non-commercial, educational, and transformative, 2) Elements of Creativity, 3) Level of Originality (less than 10% of original work), and 4) Minimum to no market impact on the original work. These are the factors that a court takes into consideration when judging whether or not a work was fairly used according to the license. Therefore, these are definitely key points in which we should keep in mind and monitor as we contribute to the flow of information.

Should you consider using Wikis?

 As we explore different resources to bridge the gap between conventional and virtual learning, lets take a look at wikis. Wiki is defined as a website that allows users to collaboratively edit and structure content. Because of this information sharing, the content of a wiki is ever evolving. The most popular wiki is Wikipedia - an online encyclopedia which appears in almost every internet search result. Wikis have helped to remove the barriers of distance that once existed as it relates to content sharing.

Wikis are becoming more and more popular in regards to content sharing in the classroom when there are a number of collaborators. Wikis are free to create, can be created on any topic or subject matter, and includes a wide variety of posting features  (links, videos, images, articles, etc.). Thanks to the internet, information sharing is done in real-time and document versions are recorded, alleviating the lost of important information. In short, wikis are really great at sharing information collaboratively, but not necessary at project management.

It appears as though as the number of collaborators increase, so will the level of website management needed. I currently teach about 120 students at once, so it would probably be nearly impossible for me to efficiently manage a wiki for my kids. Therefore, it may be most useful for my students to share resource tools only (website links/articles where they found information) rather than a working document for management purposes. Can wikis be used in your class? Please leave me a comment, I'd love to hear whether or not wikis can work for you.

Welcome

 

Welcome to my blog! My students call me Ms. York. I am from Prairieville, La. I now teach 7th Computer Science in Baton Rouge, LA. I have a BS in Computer Science, and I am currently pursuing my Masters of Arts in  Educational Technology. Outside of teaching, I love coaching basketball, traveling, spending time with my loved ones, and taking on various DIY projects.

With this being my second year of teaching, transitioning to an all virtual environment has definitely been a challenge for me. I am sure moving to a hybrid teaching environment will pose its challenges as well. During this process, I have been trying to observe and adjust to the needs of my students to ensure their academic success. My hope is that this course will provide me with knowledge and tools to help me conquer this endeavor.