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Photo by Georgie Cobbs on Unsplash |
A topic that has been severely lacking in professional development for educators (and one that librarians can lead their school on) is that of copyright law and the fair use doctrine. I would guess that most teachers would assume anything they do within the classroom is either fair use or that it's not really an important violation. Even if this knowledge was covered in their degree or teacher training program the realities of limited funding and resources in the classroom will often lead educators to take shortcuts with copyright. The law is tricky and I think it is important that schools are more aware of what is actually covered under fair use and what is not.
The fair use doctrine allows educators to use materials without having to ask the author for permission. However, this does not mean that entire books may be copied or any images being used freely. Education World has a more thorough analysis of what is allowed, but essentially only limited portions of texts may be copied, videos can only be shown for educational purposes, and copy and pasting images is never okay.
This information is more important than ever as access and tools on the internet have made it easier for everyone to violate copyright. And if an educator is ignoring or unaware of copyright law certainly the students are not getting the message either.
Images & Copyright
The unlawful use of images is of particular concern as it is now so easy to do a Google search, then cut and paste. It is also a great place to start regarding training in following copyright as there are fairly easy solutions to stay within the law as there are many sites that offer free images, all under the Creative Commons license.
The Creative Commons license allows users to not only use the images without permission from the creator but to also manipulate the image. This is essential as often educators and students may need to add text, crop images, or use a variety of other tools to meet their needs.
Users do not need to go searching through various licenses however as there are a number of sites that offer only Creative Commons images. They are easy to search and offer professional photographs on a myriad of topics. Below are some of my personal favorite sites:
As mentioned, you can also legally manipulate Creative Commons images without infringing on the author's rights. As educators we often want to present material in a way that grabs students' attention. For students, they often need to use images in the creation of their own projects and assignments. Whether its creating a meme, using photos for a collage, or creating a mock newspaper or magazine there are also online tools that will assist users in these creations.
Canva is a great site that not only utilizes Creative Commons images but has thousands of templates to create everything from brochures to handouts to social media posts. I have relied on Canva to create infographics and posters for my classroom, as well as a more visual appealing syllabus.
There are options for educators when it comes to abiding by copyright law and as librarians I think a good starting point to the conversation is with images. Easing both teachers and students into the idea that copyright law needs to be respected will make it more likely they will stick with it. And images not only has a large number of Creative Commons sites, it also is a fun and creative way to challenge the school with only using those licensed images.
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