Blog # 7 Copyright

Of all of the aspects of this course that have taken me out of my comfort zone, this was perhaps the most frightening exploration from the perspective of teacher and student.

I watched all of the videos and explored all of the text-based resources provided in Five-Minute Film Festival: Copyright and Fair Use for Educators.  I found that each source both answered questions,and raised many more. 

I found myself wondering how anyone could possibly engage in any 21^st century learning experiences as a teacher or student without having explored this topic well in advance?  The fact is that we live in a transitional time in education.  Many teachers are afraid of technology, and this aspect of things certainly complicates that further.  If we expect teachers to take risks and try new things, there must be a huge level of support and understanding coming from school districts, teacher training programs, and available professional development.  In Education World’s Five Part Series on Copyright, section 5 presents District Liability and Teaching Responsibility.  This section highlights the ways in which the district is responsible for copyright infringement within the district for individual teachers.  It also presents the need to train and protect teachers in this area.  I wonder how many administrators are even aware of this responsibility?

At the beginning of each year, teachers in our district are required to use Safe Schools online training courses to cover mandated topics by the state and district.  This year, training included “Keeping Your Computer and Our Network Safe, Avoiding Malware.”  As digital media becomes more commonly used in the classroom, I suspect there will be the need for a copyright installment as part of this training.  The challenge from a realistic perspective, is that if we already have teachers who are scared to take a risk, does this deter educators rather than encourage them?

Where I did find more comfort was in the video section when I viewed the Get Creative video by Creative Commons.  It seems that this approach has narrowed down the leg work for teachers a bit by providing resources that have already been identified for various uses in the classroom.  Whereas many of the resources provided me with unanswered questions and a more fear-based mindset, this video presented the possibilities of working within a more collaborative and creative mindset.  This got me thinking about how we can begin to translate this mindset to our students from the very beginning.

After watching the Fair Use lesson on the Teaching Channel, I decided to consider ways in which I could address the idea of copyright with young children.  This week I decided to test it out in my classroom.  The lesson I planned included the following Kindergarten standards:

LA.K.RI.K.5 - [Progress Indicator] - Identify the front cover, back cover, and title page of a book.

LA.K.RI.K.6 - [Progress Indicator] - Name the author and illustrator of a text and define the role of each in presenting the ideas or information in a text.

LA.K.W.K.6 - [Progress Indicator] - With guidance and support from adults, explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.

Lesson Overview:

During the first part of this lesson, I handed out little books to each child, and together we explored the parts of the book: front, back, title page.  Within the title page, we looked for the author and illustrator name and described the job of each person, looking for evidence in the text to show that they had done their job.  We then looked for the “little c in a circle that shows us when the book was born”.  Children discussed whether their book was old or new, and compared it to their own age.   After collecting the little books, I explained that the little c we saw in the book has another job as well.  That little c protects the book from other people taking the book and claiming it as their own.  It tells us that the words and pictures belong to someone, and we can use it to inspire our work, but we can’t take their work from them. 

Then I introduced another symbol that they might see if they are looking online.  We called this the double c.  The double c means that the creator is really proud of the work, but is willing to share it with other people who might like to use it as part of their own work.  Double c is willing to share, whereas little c wants to keep the creative part of his work to himself.  We looked at some images on the smart board that showed the double c in the circle and discussed the ways in which we could use them creatively in our classroom work.

I then introduced this activity to children:

As part of our writing workshop process, the children each create digital published versions of their story.  We have always added a copyright to celebrate the book’s birthday, but now children will have a choice.  He or she may decide  to give your book one little c or two.  The child’s decision decision will determine how other children in our class may use the book.  One c means the child wants to keep your work all to himself and other children may read it, but may not use any part of it for their own story.  Double c means the child is happy to share so that others can use parts of the book to create something new.

Once the children have their digital version created, we always print out a copy of the story as well.  Our child-created library holds the most popular books in our classroom.  I met with children to talk to them about how they would like to copyright their story by having them choose a label to place on the back of the book in our classroom child-created library. 

Here you can see an overview of the lesson on copyright:

                                                        Please excuse the somewhat choppy video footage.
                                                        Capturing a quick video with 5 and 6 year olds
                                                        is not always an easy task!

Lesson Reflection:

After completing this lesson, I thought about the ways in which we have a responsibility to consider the needs of all of our learners given the digital world in which they live.  By allowing young children to consider the idea of copyright, we help to heighten their awareness as they explore and create with digital tools.  We also help them to become responsible digital citizens as they interact with the world around them.  This lesson was a simple and practical way to incorporate the unique needs of 21^st century learners into daily classroom experience.

(VideoAmy), A. E. (2015, December 02). Five-Minute Film Festival: Copyright and Fair Use for Educators. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/film-festival-copyright-fair-use

[Creative Commons]. (2009, August 17). Get Creative. [Video File]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlhJUJ9DC4A&list=PLvzOwE5lWqhTbOCIFp_OxsN6nC-l20kMT&index=9.

Starr, L. (2010, May 25). The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use. Retrieved March 19, 2017, from http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr280.shtml