At my school we’ve worked hard to create an awareness of ethical use, putting emphasis on citing sources and considering copyright. I’ve read books on copyright, tried to keep learning, and encouraged people at my school to try to use Creative Commons licensed work. In the digital age when it comes to copyright, things are murky and, often, downright confusing.
I was able to sit in on the tail end of Doug Johnson’s session Beating the No U-Turn Syndrome: A New Approach to Teaching and Enforcing Copyright Compliance. Johnson wrote an article that appeared School Library Journal about copyright called “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad ©?” recently as well. During the session Johnson talked about taking full advantage of fair use, becoming more “user-centric” in our interpretation of copyright, and addressing issues of intellectual property from the standpoint of content creators (which our students and faculty are so often) as well as users.
Earlier today, Temple University unveiled The Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. There were two panels of speakers to help release the document. The first group was comprised of lawyers and academics who led the project. The second group was made up of educational practitioners, including Joyce Valenza who talked about the school library perspective. You can link to the complete document, teaching guides, and the archive of the panel discussion here.
Lots of food for thought…
Erin Wyatt, Highland Middle School, Libertyville
