In the twenty-first century, educators and students alike are constantly accessing media from the Internet. Given the fact that we live in such a digital age, it more important than ever for both educators and students to know what copyright laws are, how to protect their own creations, and how to legally share the creations they find.
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| Ribeiro, L. (2008, June 30). Children at Computer. [Photograph]. from https://www.flickr.com/photos/lupuca/8720604364/ |
This week I had the opportunity to do a little bit of research into the issue of copyright so that I could gain a better understanding of what copyright really means and how to properly use it. In North America, all original, tangible work is copyrighted and one must obtain permission to use it for copying, distributing, performing, displaying or adapting. I was surprised to learn that copyright notices are not required as the simple act of creating the work enables the copyright, meaning that only the creator of the original work possesses the right to use the work. [1] While these laws may seem very restrictive, it is important that they are in place to protect artists' and authors' creativity.
Canada does, however, have a clause for fair dealing in its Copyright Act. Fair dealing allows others to use the work for "purposes of private study, research, criticism, review or news reporting that is not considered to constitute infringement of copyright” [2] This allows teachers in non-profit educational settings to communicate and reproduce small excerpts (up to 10%) from a copyrighted work for the purposes listed above. [3]
For artists and authors who wish to share their work more openly, Creative Commons provides an excellent solution. Creative Commons allows artist and authors to provide licenses that specify how their creations can be used by others. For examples, an artist can specify whether he requires attribution, non-commercial use, share alike, or no derivative works. [4] Creative Commons is a great resource for teachers and students as they can search for digital media and easily see the permitted uses.
In today's digital age, it is critical that students learn about copyright laws both with regards to how to protect their own work and how to properly share the work created by others. As a teacher, I would first begin with a class discussion asking students how they would feel if someone took their creation and pretended it was their own, changed it, or used it in a way that the student did not like. This discussion would help students to understand why copyright laws are needed in the first place. From there we could discuss how the Copyright Act protects people's creativity. Then we could talk about how it can be valuable to share our creative works with others and how resources such as the Creative Commons allows us to do so effectively. In order to help students put this into practice, I would have students create a sound clip, video, or photograph and upload it to Creative Commons so that they could see how to apply a Creative Commons license to their own work. I would also have students practice finding an image via the Creative Commons website and giving the proper citation for that work. This is not something that I would have the students practice only once or twice, but it is something we would do throughout the school year with various projects so that students would become very comfortable with using Creative Commons and get in the habit of giving citations when they share the work of others.
The Internet and digital media in general provide teachers and students with a lot of wonderful opportunities to enhance their learning. At the same time, it is critical that both teachers and students become aware of what copyright is and how to properly use it so that they can be responsible digital citizens!
Canada does, however, have a clause for fair dealing in its Copyright Act. Fair dealing allows others to use the work for "purposes of private study, research, criticism, review or news reporting that is not considered to constitute infringement of copyright” [2] This allows teachers in non-profit educational settings to communicate and reproduce small excerpts (up to 10%) from a copyrighted work for the purposes listed above. [3]
For artists and authors who wish to share their work more openly, Creative Commons provides an excellent solution. Creative Commons allows artist and authors to provide licenses that specify how their creations can be used by others. For examples, an artist can specify whether he requires attribution, non-commercial use, share alike, or no derivative works. [4] Creative Commons is a great resource for teachers and students as they can search for digital media and easily see the permitted uses.
In today's digital age, it is critical that students learn about copyright laws both with regards to how to protect their own work and how to properly share the work created by others. As a teacher, I would first begin with a class discussion asking students how they would feel if someone took their creation and pretended it was their own, changed it, or used it in a way that the student did not like. This discussion would help students to understand why copyright laws are needed in the first place. From there we could discuss how the Copyright Act protects people's creativity. Then we could talk about how it can be valuable to share our creative works with others and how resources such as the Creative Commons allows us to do so effectively. In order to help students put this into practice, I would have students create a sound clip, video, or photograph and upload it to Creative Commons so that they could see how to apply a Creative Commons license to their own work. I would also have students practice finding an image via the Creative Commons website and giving the proper citation for that work. This is not something that I would have the students practice only once or twice, but it is something we would do throughout the school year with various projects so that students would become very comfortable with using Creative Commons and get in the habit of giving citations when they share the work of others.
The Internet and digital media in general provide teachers and students with a lot of wonderful opportunities to enhance their learning. At the same time, it is critical that both teachers and students become aware of what copyright is and how to properly use it so that they can be responsible digital citizens!
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| Vandewalker, L. (2014, January 27). Boy at Computer. [Photograph]. from https://pixabay.com/en/little-boy-little-techie-251365/ |
[1] Figg, Candace. (2013). Copyright for Tech-Enhanced Learning. http://www.handy4class.com/tpack-teacher-game/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Copyright-2013c1.pdf
[2] Guide to Canadian Copyright. (2015). http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/sc_mrksv/cipo/cp/copy_gd_protecte.html#6
[3] Canadian Teachers Federation. (2016). Copyright Matters. http://www.cmec.ca/Publications/Lists/Publications/Attachments/291/Copyright_Matters.pdf
[4] Creative Commons. (n.d.). https://creativecommons.org/about/videos/wanna-work-together/
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