After reading the book, Copyright Clarity, the only
thing that is clear is how confused I was about copyright laws. A couple of years
ago I participated in a program where students created videos about concepts in
class, and then we shared these videos with the district on a YouTube page. We
were given several tablets as well as a GoPro camera to record and make these
videos. The reason for this story is because I remember at one of the trainings
one of the presenters was giving us the “no longer than 30 seconds” line. I’m
not faulting her for that, because that is what has been beat into our minds
for so long, but I’m glad to have a little more understanding with free use and
copyright at this point. While I’m certainly not an advocate of plagiarism, nor
would I stand for students only copying and pasting someone else’s work, there
is tremendous power in using someone else’s creative touch and putting your own
spin on it—there’s some higher level synthesis going on there! We, as teachers,
do it all the time! “Don’t recreate the
wheel,” they say. Therefore, we so often
go online and find previous made lessons and incorporate those with our own
touches for our students. That’s what makes it transformative, putting our own
touches on the material.
The tricky part is it’s a judgment call for educators. While
we do have constitutional rights with using copyrighted material, so many are
still so hesitant, including me prior to reading the book. What some view as
free use, some may view as breaking copyright laws. The big take home message
for me from the book was that there’s not a clear answer, it’s more using your
own judgement about the material you’re using and deciding if the social
benefit is greater than the cost to the copyright holder.
My newfound clarity of copyright law and free use carries
over into my classroom because I know the power of other’s work and how it can
guide students down the right path to achieve the PICKLE. While I will be
insistent that my students put their own touch on whatever material they use, I
now feel like there’s a little bit more freedom to incorporate some copyrighted
material in their designs and projects.
Going back to the year I did the program with videos, students asked me
numerous times if they could include a song in their video and I had to turn
them down and guide them to a website with music clips they could use that
weren’t copyrighted. Now I know that if
the songs they want to use are beneficial to their project, we can use and transform clips of the song!
I love your newfound sense of freedom. I think it would be great to move ahead with confidence. I'm still really cautious about all this. Wonderful possibilities lurk around the corner, but I may be like your colleague who cautioned for 30 seconds or less. I took the online quiz the first time and confidently clicked on answers that I felt fit the Fair Use criterion. I got most of the questions wrong. I went back and typed in answers the fit what I've done in the past and got a great score... I still have a lot of questions!
ReplyDeleteCopyright Clarity created a shift in my thinking as well. I typically allowed my students to use copyrighted material in their video productions; however, I did not publish their films to YouTube or disperse them to the community. This was out of fear of copyright infringement. I can now see the value of having my student create media messages for authentic audiences by transforming copyrighted material. Although using copyrighted materials is a difficult decision for teachers to make, one must remember that transformative use promotes creativity and inquiry.
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I was also confused (and still am) after reading Copyright Clarity. After we commented on the main ideas in class I feel I have a better grasp, but fair use is still not 100% clear to me. I agree with you in that there’s indeed tremendous potential for developing critical thinking and higher level synthesis skills in our students. It’s definitely worth using copyrighted materials, both for us and our students. You are right, I think, when you say that the tricky part is when making the judgement call as to what constitutes fair use.
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