Andy Carvin’s posts offering an international perspective on the digital divide always makes me feel hopeful and guilty at the same time. Internet-based technologies are spreading and connecting us all, but we take the ease and relative low cost of our own opportunities for granted. The perspective of what you can do from where and the related costs is worth a look.
A student in one of my classes brought a copyright resource to class and I thought I should pass the resource on. Technology and Learning offers a copyright primer and chart for administrators (you may have to register to use this site). I have to bite my tongue when I see that a resource has been created for administrators, but if I say anything more I may get myself in trouble. Hall Davidson (the author) has made an effort to use concrete examples and organize issues within a convenient table.
The trouble I have attempting to understand copyright is that the language of copyright law always seems vague and my mind quickly jumps to very specific examples that remain unclear. Here is an example based on the chart provided by Technology and Learning and not the original law or related cases. One topic within the chart concerns the use of copyrighted characters (e.g., Bugs Bunny) and the description of violation claims – “Copyrighted characters may not be used without permission for any school purpose other than instruction.” This actually surprised me because I would probably not assume I could use an image of Bugs or a recording of “that’s all folks” for any purpose. Then I started to wonder about the meaning of instruction. Does the word “instruction” mean use of the image/sound as an example that preserves a focus on the original use of the protected resources (e.g., a discussion of copyrighted material, a discussion of branding as a business strategy) or does it mean the use of a resource as part of a general educational enterprise (e.g., creating a stamp of bugs and using this stamp to reward good student work). See what I mean by the problems that arise when considering specific cases?
I have not been an administrator now for several years. Perhaps if I was presently in such a capacity, I would be able to think more clearly about such issues.
That is all folks.
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.