Copyrights and copywrongs? This week's readings and videos have reminded me how important copyrights are and how important it is to teach my students about copyrights and laws. It is important to be able to identify and define plagiarism, copyright infringement, attribution, and transformation. The reading materials this week made me take a deeper look into the laws of copyright and discovered things I forgot or never even knew. One article that sticks out in my mind was about the U.S. Congress and Copyright Office. I have discovered how important these laws are and how they affect us educators and our students.

When going through the first couple sections of the assignment I had to give a response to the statement "The effective use of copyrighted materials enhances the teaching and learning process." In my elementary education program one of my majors was language arts so most of the material this week was a good reminder and review. As a teacher, it is my responsibility to teach digital citizenship. A section within digital citizenship is about copyright laws and giving credit when using other's work. My students need to know about fair use laws and copyright laws. When my students complete their research projects in seventh grade, they often do not have a citation page. When I ask them about it, they usually say they put everything into their own words, did not use any quotes, so they don't need to site anything. This is a huge misconception and even when I was younger in school, I had a hard time distinguishing between what I needed to site or not. I teach my students it is better to be safe and give credit to a source than ending up in trouble later.

This week has been a good reminder about plagiarism, copyright infringement, attribution, and transformation. Many educators and students do not understand the copyright laws and I admit some get confusing. It is my job to ensure my students are taught copyright laws and the importance of giving credit where credit is due. It is my job to teach the misconceptions around these topics. I was also reminded of digital laws related to responsibility for our actions as digital citizens online. Through this online learning period it makes me go back through my lessons or books I read and recorded for my students to watch and make sure I have given credit where credit is due.

This responsibility includes the basics of copyright in the United States, plagiarism, public domain, fair use, creative commons, and the TEACH Act. The basic copyright authorizes individuals to use works regarding copyrighted materials. Plagiarism is when individuals use someone else's work or ideas as if they are their own. Public domain is when pieces of work are open for the public to use and are not subject to copyright. Fair use means the copyrighted materials can be used word for word like news reporting, teaching, or research. Creative commons are a non-profit organization the tries to expand the range of creative works to grow and then to share. The TEACH Act stands for technology, education, and copyright harmonization. This is amazing because it allows teachers to use and make copies of copyrighted material for face to face learning.

Week three has reminded me of the legal side of copyrights and taught me more. Many of these terms I have not seen since I was in college and it has been a good reminder to make sure I give credit where credit is due. Although this class has been an overwhelming amount of work considering we all have full time jobs along with the virtual side of things, I look forward to continuing to learn over the next couple weeks. Digital citizenship is a necessity and I need to learn how I can better teach it to my students.

Resources

Copyright Basics

• A monkey took a "selfie." An interesting debate ensued as to who owned the copyright to this photo. For a brief background this article and view the video: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/monkey-selfie-cant-be-copyrighted-u-s-regulators-confirm-n186296
  
• Read pages 1-6 of the United States Federal Government document on copyright: Copyright Basics.pdf
• Read the material from Brigham Young University Library, pay close attention to copyright myths: Copyright Basics
• The Copyright Law of the United States, Title 17 of the U.S. Code. Read section 110 located in Chapter 1: Chapter_1.pdf
• A Framework for Analyzing an Copyright Problem: A Framework for Analyzing any Copyright Problem.docx  

Plagiarism

• The Difference Between Copyright Infringement and Plagiarism

Public Domain

• Copyright Term and Public Domain: Copyright Term and Public Domain.pdf
• Creative Comons makes it possible to immediately release material to the public domain: https://creativecommons.org/about/cc0

Fair Use

• McCord Text: Fair Use: The Secrets No One Tells You
  
• Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Academic and Research Libraries: code-of-best-practices-fair-use.pdf

Creative Commons

• Understanding Creating Commons: https://creativecommons.org/about
• Understanding Various Licenses:https://creativecommons.org/licenses/
• Best Practices for Attribution: https://wiki.creativecommons.org/wiki/Best_practices_for_attribution

TEACH ACT

• The Teach Act Toolkit