It's all monkey business.. EDLD 5316 Week 3

It’s all monkey business….

Until someone gets their work stolen that is. The need for copyright education seems as important as the need for digital citizenship education. After the reading sand videos this week one question remained a constant for me: who is responsible for teaching this information? Is it up to the teachers who use the different materials in their classes? Is up to the administrators who set up the professional development calendar for the year? Is it the responsibility of the student using the internet and searching for this material? Or the technology person campus? I did not see a specific person or entity in the education world named yet the consensus was the same. Educators, no matter where you fall on the teaching spectrum, are responsible for ensuring the people we are connected to understand the laws associated with copy righting. It matters because what students practice is what they often retain. If educators are never seen being good digital citizens, which includes following the laws of copyrighting, and the fair use act, students have no reason to show an interest in it either.

The resources this week explained how fair use guidelines and copyright laws were written for face to face settings like the traditional classroom, and how distance learning is an entirely different dance floor because under certain restrictions things used in the digital world do not require the permission of the copyright holder. I found this to be particularly interesting because it seems that the stringency is lessen for digital learners. Even these restrictions seem to have a loophole: the fair use act. My understanding of it is that any person can use copyrighted material if the purpose is for criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, research, or scholarship. If that is the case, it would seem, a person never has to site the creator of online content so long as they can depend it falling under one of these areas. Renee Hobbs who is the Professor of Communication Studies Director of the Media Education Lab Harrington School of Communication and Media at University of Rhode Island posted a helpful slide share on copyrighting and discussed some of the major misconceptions surrounding the topic.

Because technology has made it easier to use, share, and copy information I found it very helpful to watch the videos this week because they explained things I was unsure of. For instance, the Explanation of the Creative Commons video posted by Sarah Morehouse discussed some of the elements of a Creative Commons License and the different aspects of attribution. I never knew there were so many different branch offs of something so crucial to the digital world. I also learned that sometimes you are not the copyright owner of your work. This is one of the major reasons I have not published my book and have not had an interest in publishing with a journal. I have always been leery of the publishing company or journal saying that they owned my work. How could that even be a possibility?! There are so many ins and outs to copyrighting, laws, availability, accessibility, freedoms, and even attributions. It takes me back to my original thought – who is responsible for educating the educator responsible for the education.

Resources: https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks-getting-started/trademark-basics/trademark-patent-or-copyright https://www.slideshare.net/reneehobbs/copyright-clarity-yes-you-can-use-copyrighted-material-for-digital-learning https://www.plagiarismtoday.com/2013/10/07/difference-copyright-infringement-plagiarism/ https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/licensing-examples/#by

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/fair-use-what-transformative.html https://publicdomainreview.org/ https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-3525433-dt-content-rid-55268937_1/courses/13240.201890/Works%20Made%20for%20Hire.pdf

https://digitalinfolaw.com/

http://cmsimpact.org/code/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education/#code https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/14142/Hirtle-Copyright_final_RGB_lowres-cover1.pdf?sequence=2 https://luonline.blackboard.com/bbcswebdav/pid-3525433-dt-content-rid-55268723_1/courses/13240.201890/copyright_compliance_made_simple.pdf