Here’s
a quick look at the texts I explored:
“Copyright, Fair Use, and Teaching
and Learning Innovation in a Web 2.0 World”
This article is concise and dryly
informational about the challenges surrounding teaching and learning in the Web
2.0 classroom. The article is focused squarely on higher education. The main
points that stuck with me from the article are that the laws are in flux, and
it is important for teachers not only to educate themselves about copyright
laws, but also to educate students -- who, as we read on the first day of
class, may be Digital Natives, but many of them don’t know how be savvy about
legal issues online.
“The Open Future” by David Wiley
This is an article that focuses on higher
education as well, but takes a much more argumentative and conversational tone.
Wiley argues that in our globalized, Web 2.0 world, professors and educators
should share their knowledge as much as possible, because “Education is about
sharing; Education is about being open.” Wiley argues that the more knowledge
we share, the greater we will be as a collective. This puts him in conflict
with a lot of copyright laws that tend to prohibit some of the sharing that he
is endorsing.
Video: “A Fair (y) Use Tale”
This video cleverly demonstrated
key issues of copyright, fair use, and public domain, by repurposing the speech
of Disney characters to make points about these issues. The creators of the
video played with irony, using the (tightly controlled) tools of the culture to
talk about how we should be able to share these tools freely; because this is
how new ideas have always been born.
Copyright resources:
I found the resources helpful.
Especially the K-12 Classroom Copyright Chart, which breaks down what a teacher
can use by medium, e.g., film, poems, music, etc. I also found the creative
commons resources to be potentially useful, especially the copyright-free
photos on Flicker, Library of Congress, etc.
Reflection:
Because my content area is Language
Arts, this copyright information is especially relevant. There is a tension in
my discipline between the pressure to teach texts from a multi-media
perspective (e.g., have students view a film clip or listen to a sound clip
along with the reading of a novel) and the real copyright laws behind it. While
reading the articles, I found that I sympathize with the more progressive
thinkers like David Wiley, who think sharing is at the core of education. At
the same time, however, I can’t just be a blind idealist in this sense. I
realize that I need to educate myself on the laws in place, for my own
teaching, but also so my students can start to navigate this complex, Web 2.0
world.
