Copyright and Fair Use

The University of Maryland University College released guidelines on copyright and fair use in 2011. Copyright guidelines are important for teachers and students to learn about and to follow because they provide the author of a work with ownership, control, and protection. Giving power to an author is not only for preserving ownership, but also to promote the author and others who view the work to be motivated to create more works. For a work to receive copyright, it must be recorded in some way, be original or adapted, and possess some creativity.

Fair use builds on copyright because it is a set of limitations on the copyright holder's rights. When considering if material is fair use, it must fit a certain purpose, such as for nonprofit or educational activities. The work should also be published, out of print, and factual to be fair use. The fair use guidelines also encourage using small portions, rather than the entire work. When a work is being used by a teacher, there are several rules that should be followed in order to abide by fair use. Copying should be done only near the time the material will be used and should acknowledge the author. Teachers should be seeking permission from the author after more than nine uses in a single semester because repeated use through the years is highly discouraged and not considered fair use. As long as the purpose is not for commercial use, a single use does not require permission. If the work is greater than 2,500 words, only portions can be used.

Fair use guidelines are something that affect all teachers and students. It is fundamental that teachers model appropriate use of works and communicate why this is important to all students. It goes without saying that most authors would like credit for anything they create. With that being said, teachers may have to do more work on the front end of lesson planning to find resources that are appropriate and do not require permission. If the material requires permission, teachers should be working on obtaining this as soon as possible.

Many forms of copyrighted work do not require permission for fair use. However, there are several guidelines for purpose, size, and quantity of works that are fair use. Using a work for learning activities does not require permission. However, after two years of use, teachers must obtain permission for further incorporation in the classroom. For clips and videos, only ten percent or three minutes can be shown, whichever is shorter. For text sources, only ten percent or up to 1,000 words can be used, whichever is less. For music, ten percent or up to 30 seconds can be shared. Illustrations and photos have a limit of five from one photographer or 10% (15 photos) of a collection. Data sets should contain up to ten percent or 2,500 cells of the copyrighted data, whichever is smaller. These guidelines allow teachers to use works in the classroom fairly easily, but allow the author credibility and ownership. Following fair use guidelines requires careful research and consistent documentation. Fair use is using resources respectfully, and teachers should be doing this each and every day.

Wiki Walk-Through

An effective and efficient way to collaborate with teachers and students is through a wiki. Wiki Walk-Through is an online resource found on a website powered by TeachersFirst and written by educators for sharing technology resources with teachers to use in the classroom and with other professionals.

The site discusses how a wiki can be a powerful tool for teachers to conduct and communicate about important professional development, both within a specific content area and school wide. This would be beneficial for teachers who may not have a common planning period, but teach the same content. They could create pages for each unit of a course and use text or files to share lesson plans and teaching strategies. Teachers can work in an even broader group by making the wiki public through a link from their blog or website. Other educators can share pedagogical strategies and classroom management resources. Free sites such as PBworks and Wikispaces make creating and editing a wiki simple and economical for educators.

The greatest use for a wiki can be with students and parents. Teachers can create a wiki for students and parents to access classroom expectations, grading policies, and upcoming assignments. The wiki can also be designed to help students study and collaborate on projects. In mathematics, students can create and add to a vocabulary list for the school year. This would be especially beneficial in a geometry course, where algebra I skills are applied to more real life applications. The teacher could also create a page for students to compile important concepts and steps for an upcoming test. To increase the use the of the study guide, students can add example problems with step-by-step procedures for others to review and solve. Members can discuss problems or solutions by using the comment feature at the bottom of each page. Students could also use text, images, and videos to develop a project in class, such as to explain why a certain mathematical procedure exists, how it is used, and what a problem might look like that uses this procedure. If it is a group project, each group member has the same capability to log in and edit the project. Since students can be given the ability to edit pages, it is important for teachers to carefully explain the rules and expectations for the wiki, as well as enforce consequences for inappropriate wiki use. Teachers should closely monitor the wiki and share any helpful information with other teachers who use a wiki or are considering using a wiki.

MathyCathy has the Right Ideas

Cathy Yenca is a middle school math educator and an award-winning blogger. She finds, uses, and shares web tools teachers can implement for students to use on iPads to enhance their learning and increase their motivation. Cathy's blog is designed to provide teachers with a thorough assessment and description of web resources she finds helpful in the classroom. These range from fun math tools for students, such as Kahoot, a free account for teachers to create questions for students to answer and track their points on iPads, to descriptions about the execution of and the positive experience she had with the online state assessment tools for students. This blog may seem a little overwhelming at first glance, but the site layout is very user-friendly. She includes archives, a tweet tracker, links to sites to purchase and download resources that she and others have created, and lists of recent posts. 

One of the more interesting highlights of her blog is that she incorporates screenshots of student work and videos that they have helped create in her math classroom. By seeing evidence of the success, other teachers may feel more confident about implementing a new tool in the classroom. 

Screenshot of student work that Cathy Yenca posted on her blog. Students were required to use an app called Explain Everything where they showed their work and narrated their steps using an audio recorder built in the iPad.

Although my classroom is not 1:1, I still believe that many of the resources she has found could be beneficial for students, even at the high school level. I could periodically check out iPads from the library and have students use the Kahoot app to answer questions I create. They could compete against one another or themselves to track their points and earn a place in the top 5. I could also incorporate the Desmos graphing calculator to help my students prepare for the upcoming online state assessment, TNReady. By incorporating just a few tools, I am already exposing my students to more than they have seen before. All strategies, even small ones, are important. Cathy Lenca does an excellent job of communicating to teachers about what works in the classroom and what pushes her students to never stop learning. She acknowledges others who work hard alongside her by embedding Twitter conversations and comments left by teachers. Her level of organization and effectiveness in the classroom sets a high standard for teachers and students.

Welcome! Throughout the summer, I will be blogging as I review resources on technology and its effectiveness in the education. I hope you enjoy!