Week 4: Copyright Law, Plagiarism, and Ethical Issues

In class this week we covered the laws that govern technology and media. Unfortunately not everything can be simply copy and pasted. Section 106 of the 1976 Copyright Act gives the owner of the material the authority to do and give others the use of their own work. Copyright protects original works of authorship which can include, among others, literary works, architectural works, and sound recordings. The safest way to keep out of trouble when it comes to copyright, is to get permission from the authors themselves.

As a future educator, I can see how learning about these legal issues relates to the education field. Teachers base their entire lessons on an assortment of ideas from various sources and they need to know how much of these sources they can use. Are teachers allowed to show entire videos in their classrooms? Can they make copies from pages in a book for their students? Can they print out lectures from other teachers and use them for their own lesson? Teachers benefit greatly (and keep themselves out of trouble) if they know the proper copyright laws, rules about plagiarism, and ethical issues that go along with technology and media.

This Copyright Chart gives examples of what is okay for teachers to use in their classrooms. I thought it was a good tool for teachers to use when they have questions about material they may want to use in their classrooms. For example if they want to show a video in class, they'll learn that under Section 110 of the Copyright Act they are unable to use the video for entertainment or as a reward. The video must also come from a non-profit educational institution (no wonder sometimes the most boring videos are shown in schools)... I think that all teachers should have a copy of this chart in their classrooms as a quick reference.