Wednesday, September 29, 2010

CopyRight

It's been my experience that teachers don't always have access to all teaching materials needed. Therefore, many teachers share equipment, knowledge, ideas, and copyrighted material. Are they really going to get in legal trouble for sharing this information. And if so, shouldn't the employer also be held accountable for not providing enough material.
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1 comment:

  1. Christine HSeptember 30, 2010 at 8:42 PM

    Angela,

    I understand the frustrations that can arise in finding usable materials. One of my professors said that it is common for fellow teachers to beg, barrow and steal good resources from each other. Sometimes districts and their individual schools fall behind on acquiring needed materials. They are also set to specific budgets.

    A good source for funds is your school's PTA, PTSA, or PTO. Speak to them about the kind of materials you are needing and they will work with you in getting them.

    Our middle school history department was really wanting to get some workbooks for a class set that they could not get through the district. Our PTA was able to get them. They also assisted the fine arts department in acquiring music stands, a multi-cd duplicator, and music. They helped out the special needs instructors by providing movies, cooking equipment and a variety of other special items.

    At our elementary school, each year our PTA has the grade level lead teachers create a wish list of items they really need. The PTA has been great about filling just about all of those needs each year. Some of those items were DVD players and printers for each classroom, special workbooks for some subjects and all kinds of visual and hands on materials for student learning activities.

    Sadly, when it comes right down to it, there are those legal requirements that must be followed to protect the intellectual rights of the creators. I found it quite confusing trying to decipher all the legal jargon on what can and can not be done. The "Copy Right and Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers" found at http://www.techlearning.com/techlearning/pdf/db_area/archives/TL/2002/10/copyright_chart.pdf looks like it will be a good resource for the basic determination on what a teacher can use. I guess we should just stick to the general rule: If you are not sure, do not use it.

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