As educators, we must work to educate ourselves, model, and educate students on understanding copyright law. Personally, I did not receive very much training on copyright law, other than a focus on not plagiarizing. However, upon learning more, I see there is merit in ensuring we are preparing our students for success when they reach the “real world”.
We know how powerful modeling is in our career as educators. Our students learn so much from seeing educators model how to do something. I frequently find myself modeling how to complete an assignment, how to treat another person, or how to handle a specific situation. Once we model, students can easily see the expectation that they are being asked to follow. Whether we are modeling how to complete an activity, or how to correctly follow copyright law, our students are able to see and understand how feasible it is to do the right thing.
When students see correct and effective use of copyrighted materials in the day-to-day practices of schools, they are able to learn by seeing those examples. So frequently in school, we did not have effective-use modeled for us, and as a result, it was easy to tell ourselves that “it didn’t really matter” or “no one cares very much”. We did, however, learn that plagiarism is very bad. We were able to see consequences in real-life for our actions through the zero our neighbor earned on their essay because they copied it from online.
Moving forward, it is imperative that we educate our students on the importance of understanding copyright law with a variety of works so they will know what is legal and what is illegal.
There are several ways I can work to model copyright law in the classroom. See some examples below:
- Hosting a discussion on why I can use 10% or ideally less of a material such as a book or journal in class.
- Explaining why I can make digital copies of assignments for each student with the TEACH Act.
- Explaining why we cannot make copies of workbooks or textbooks just to avoid paying for them.
- Explaining the importance of citing sources in essays and citing the author of specific quotes to avoid plagiarism.
- Having a discussion about what photos can legally be used in a work, where to source them, and why we need to include attribution.
- Not using movies in class without written permission or consent.
- Explaining and discussing the various copyright laws for older works versus newer works and what public domain is.
- Discussing the benefits of going to the effort of copyrighting your materials.
Giving students a place to explore and visualize what copyright law looks like in real life is helpful. I, personally, struggle with thinking through abstract situations. I have realized that there is a lot that goes into whether or not we legally can use a work through public domain, fair use, or attribution. However, I know my understanding has improved since the start of this course. I am certain that explicitly and implicitly teaching students about copyright law will be a valuable part of the education, especially since the world is becoming more digitally-focused.
Education with Meaning 