Copyright, Creative Commons, and Fair Use in The Classroom

This week, we had two Weekly Topic Videos from YouTube, CreativeCommons & Copyright Info and Understanding "Fair Use" in aDigital World. These two videos were all about copyright, creative commons, and fair use. As a future educator, knowing about what I can and can’t do with someone else’s work is so important, because the internet makes sharing and using things you find seem effortless and that you can do it without a second thought. I never knew that if someone creates and posts content, they automatically own a copyright to it. I thought it was something you needed to apply for. I also didn't know that creative commons licenses were free and could be as restrictive or not restrictive as the creator wants it to be. 

            In my future classroom, I need to make sure that I am only using things I have a legal right to use. I know as a future early childhood education educator websites like Pinterest have a lot of ideas, and I need to do my best to make sure anything I download for use in my classroom is something the original content source has permission to post, along with myself having permission to use it as well in the way that I intend to use it. There are also certain rules regarding copyright in the classroom. I knew teachers had a bit more leeway than others with fair use, but the University of Akron's library has this guide that lays out some of the specifics that I thought was very helpful regarding classroom exceptions, such as using things in the classroom but not anywhere else in a school, and things can be performed or displayed, but not passed out/distributed. 

            As for my students, I know at that young of an age there isn’t going to be too much worry with them violating any copyright laws, because I doubt at the early childhood level there is going to be too much opportunity for them to even do so. The beginning of that stage however could be in the third grade, the tail end of early childhood where sometimes students start doing reports. When it comes to that point, I would explain that using things without the owner’s permission is stealing, and that stealing is wrong and we cannot do it and be respectful citizens in our classroom. One of the required readings this week was this page about Teaching Copyright, which lays out a curriculum, including work sheets, about teaching copyright, which could definitely come in handy with older students that actually need to know the rules regarding copyright. 

            The biggest thing I see an issue with regarding copyright is the illegal downloading of music, movies/tv shows, and pictures. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve never really seen the big deal – they make so much money already, it’s so easy, what’s the impact of one download? The problem is that many other people share that attitude, and it can spiral out of control and the creator of the content loses out on a lot of possible money because of it. Like I said previously, it is stealing, it just doesn’t really “seem” as bad as, say, stealing a physical copy from Best Buy seems. With my students, I can explain that they’re really hurting the people they’re stealing from if things are illegally downloaded, because it can prevent them from making money and living their lives. Hopefully that plants the seed that in the future, they need to make sure they are only using/downloading things on the internet they have the right to.