Fair Use in the Classroom

Listen to the attached podcast covering the topic of Ethics in education. After listening to the podcast, spend some time researching the role of copyright issues in the classroom.

Your blog entry should answer this question: How will I deal with copyright issues in my classroom? Consider the use of music, images, video, and other media in student projects and teacher work.

Dealing with copyright issues can be difficult for teachers because often they don't realize that their infringing upon copyright laws when they use music, film and images from the internet in a classroom. After having listened to this podcast, I now know that it's illegal to use full length films in a class so instead of showing an entire movie, I would only show 15 minutes of it. In doing this, not only would I be respecting fair use laws, I would also ensuring that the film is being used for education purposes only- not as a baby-sitting technique. If for some reason I needed to show the full length film for my lesson, I would either get permisson for the copy right holder or give the students extra credit for renting or buying the movie themselves.

From this podcast, I also learned that it's illegal to use more than one chapter in a book in the classroom. In order to stay within Fair Use laws, I would encourage my students to buy the book for extra credit, or to get the book from the library.

The penalties for breaking Fair Use laws are severe. The copyright holder has the right to file a suit against the school, and the school can be fined up to 150,00$ therefore, I will be sure to follow the laws once I am a teacher.

Technology in the classroom

How do you see yourself using technology in the classroom as an educator?
How have your views of technology changed over the past seven weeks?



After having completed this class, I can certainly see myself incorporating technology into a classroom setting by using activities such as web quests, scavenger hunts, google docs, power point presentations, as well as videos, images, and music according to fair use laws. In particular, I think that scavenger hunts are a great way to introduce a new topic to a class; I will probably use one to introduce each new unit of study. Furthermore, considering that French is a foreign language, I will incorporate movies and music into my classroom as well so that my students have the opportunity to hear what French sounds like in real life.

Over the past seven weeks, my views of technology have changed drastically. Before taking this class, I had no idea that technology standards even existed for students and teachers. I also wasn't aware that webquests and scavenger hunts existed as activities to help incorporate technology into the classroom. The only thing that I knew of before this class was the use of power point presentations. This class has broadened my horizens about all the wonderful ways that teachers can make a successfull 21st century classroom and incorporate technology into class everyday.