Technology+Report

Copyright for Educators Tammy D. Allen Foreman The Internet today affords our educational system a great opportunities at the click of a mouse. However, with this privilege comes great responsibility. Boerne Independent School District is charged with educating some 6000 students and along with this comes the task of informing them of how to adhere to Copyright laws and policies that are put into place by the laws of the United States to protect the rights of those who create resources. As with any other law in this country, when a law is broken fines can and will be accessed and at times arrests can be made. This is not a concept to take lightly. BISD has been using the concept of vertical alignment for several years now. Copyright policy is not a stand alone Texas Essential Knowledge and Skill assigned to any one individual course. As the end user of many of these resources Educators must be aware of and teach their students how to adhere to these policies and instill the correct usage of these works so that they can reap the benefits of copyrighted information and products. Although students are not assigned one specific technology class each subject is quickly integrating technology into their subject areas. Teachers are being urged to adjust their teaching styles to use 21st Century Skills for the students who are so deeply connected with digital products. Therefore, every educator should be trained on laws and policies regarding copyrighted works, products, and licensing each and every year. As the district technology coordinator, Julie Turner would work with our Assistant Superintendant, Sandra Radtke and develop a district wide staff development that could be presented by each Campus Instructional Technologists. In this manner, the information would all be standardized. District policies regarding copyright, fair use and acceptable policies are available online and students and parents are required to sign off on their contents but teachers may or may not review these. Parents and student may or may not read them in their entirety. Since each teacher is required to attend both campus and district level professional developments each year this staff development topic could be done prior to the start of the school year thus avoiding any potential misuse for year to come. As stated by Hall Davidson (2005), “An understanding of copyright law gives teachers, librarian, administrator, and others a great deal of power.” He also gives a simple five step suggestion for avoiding copyright problems that outlines his recommendations for avoiding the potential problems that might arise from the those educators that may not have taken the time to reference the online documentation provided by the district. Educators can also be directed to the information that is easily accessible on the Internet. The United States Copyright Office has a wealth of information that is geared towards students, teachers, and professionals online at []. This site not only states the laws and policies but shows the reader how to submit for a copyright, offers forms and publications, and even allows you to search current copyrighted records. The website listed above does offer facts regarding copyrights but the fact that we are in business of education also gives us some slight modifications regarding copyrights. Therefore, I would recommend that the professional development course that we require our teachers to take would also include information from the Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Media. Students develop many multimedia projects over the course of their education in Boerne and this site offers school-specific examples of permitted uses for those projects. Images, music, and video may be used in theses works without permission if a project is deemed educational. However, students would be required to buy the rights if this multimedia project was to be done for entertainment. This is just one of the many examples of the way in which the copyright policy might differ for educational use and should serve as a perfect illustration as to why it is so very important for this district to take time to train all current and future teachers who represent this district. As a veteran of nineteen years in education, with the last nine in the technology department I do feel as though I have some experience to reflect back on and I can honestly say that until this course I was unaware of many of the current rules and regulations regarding copyright. Not because the information isn’t out there but because I was not proactive enough to go and research it on my own. I feel that most teachers would agree. However, if we were required to be trained with a simple, interactive professional development session I think we would all benefit and possibly avoid potential issue that might arise from our ignorance regarding the copyright in education and better prepare our students to go into society using copyrighted resources responsibly. U.S. Copyright Office. (n.d.). //U.S. Copyright Office//. Retrieved May 8, 2010, from [] Davidson, H. (2005). Copyright primer for administrators. Technology & Learning, 25(11), S2-S8. Kruger, R. (2003). || Multimedia Fair Use Guidelines (CCUMC). (n.d.). //The University of Texas System - Nine Universities. Six Health Institutions. Unlimited Possibilities.//. Retrieved May 8, 2010, from []