ISTE NETS-S 2008
Standard 4 calls for
Promotion of Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility.
Performance Indicator A identifies a
dvocating, modeling, and teaching safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
Can students legally use copyrighted material in multimedia projects? Can these works be posted on a school website? Is copyright a tool for censorship and monopolistic oppression, or a measure to secure a fair return for an author's creative labor?
Consider
this article before you respond.
Certainly the growth of technology and students' ability to readily access information has generated alarm regarding copyright issues. The article provides an interesting history of copyright history in the United States, which I am bit embarassed to admit, I had little knowledge. I feel that as Instructional Technology Coordinators and Directors of Technology in our our respective districts, we routinely face challenges regarding encouraging teachers and their classes to publish their work online, but simultaneously reminding students of the necessity of appropriate documentation of sources.
ReplyDeleteI am glad this question was posed, as I recently completed two multimedia projects with the 1st and 4th grade and have been questioning whether publishing the students' work to our school website is an infringement of copyrighted material.
Our first graders recently completed a podcast on the supermarket. Using Garageband, pairs of student provided a narrative about the supermarket as part of their social studies unit on "markets". I provided them with photos that were located on flickr, which they dragged and dropped into Garageband. Given that this is a photosharing website, I did not request permission to use the photos from the author. Is this a potential violation of copyright? My sense is that it is not, particularly given the various comments in each of the two articles that were provided.
Moreover, our 4th graders recently completed an iMovie on an assigned explorer. The final credits of each group's movie acknowledges where each group obtained its information along with the URL from where every photo from the Internet was obtained. Teaching proper documentation and the necessity of this process when constructing a narrative that is researched based, is an ongoing process at any level, particularly in elementary school. With that said, I am sure there were varying degrees of success with the proper and appropriate citation of sources.
Reflecting on these two recent experiences and reading the "Code of Best Practices for Fair Use in Media Literacy" I felt a bit better regarding each of these projects. As the article states, two questions must be considered:
(1)Did the unlicensed use “transform” the material taken from the copyrighted work
by using it for a different purpose than that of the original?
and
(2) Was the material taken appropriate in kind and amount, considering the nature
of the copyrighted work and of the use?
Given that my answer to each of these questions would be yes, I am inclined to think that any accusation of copyright infringement would be unfounded. In both instances the use of any copyrighted material was clearly used for the "purpose to promote the progress of knowledge and learning."
I also think we should consider the opinions of Professor Lawrence Lessing, he is a writer for Wired Magazine and currently teaches at Harvard University. Professor Lessing created the Creative Commons where one can choose the level of copyright to protect their work. He has been very out spoken and I believe ahead of the curve when it comes to copyright and the digital environment. Like the Open Spaces article he brings copyright laws back to the Constitution.
ReplyDeleteIf you read letters between the founding fathers while crafting the Constitution you can see the arguments for copyright to encourage innovation for the public, not in protecting a copyright owner. If a scientist created an invention the copyright would only last a little while so than the scientist would work on another invention.
The monopolistic copyright laws we currently have are on the way out. You can track copyright laws along the money trail from corporation to politician (see the Disney Mickey Mouse Law). Our lawmakers have not jumped on the digital bandwagon, but corporations just can not police their copyrights in this day and age. Look at the backlash the music industry has received. Innovation is needed in most fields when it comes to the online community, this includes copyright. I am in favor of the liberal use of other's work with proper citation.
Lawrence Lessing on NPR's Fresh Airhttp://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=98591002
Lawrence Lessing on Colbert Report
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/215454/january-08-2009/lawrence-lessig
Lawrence Lessing Blog
http://www.lessig.org/blog/
I would sure hope that they could. It would be a shame, in the case that a student would be motivated to do such a project, that they would be unable to use something because it was copyrighted. I know when students (especially in college) use a piece of someone's work, they must properly cite it. I believe that if it is properly cited it should be okay to use. Often times people care whether other use their work for monetary value and if its not for that purpose that the original author at least get the recognition that they deserve. As far as posting it to a school website, if its cited I don't see why not. Again this is just my personal opinion.
ReplyDelete