Copyright Reflection

Before this class I don’t think I ever really thought about copyright laws. The one thing that really surprised me was the discussion on showing movies or videos to a class. I never would have second guessed a teacher’s right to show an entire movie in class. The impression I got from our discussion and the readings is that a teacher can show a movie in class mostly because the nature of the use is educational.

I think that most of the copyright laws are fair. I guess it depends on who you are. If I created something I would definitely agree with the copyright laws and maybe want them to be stricter. However, as a student and a future student they seem a little ridiculous. I do think they are important because the creators do deserve credit for their work. There seems to be a good balance with the fair use laws in allowing people to build off of other works or ideas.

I will definitely pay attention to the amount of pages I copy or how many copies I distribute of a particular article to my students. Like Micaela suggested, I may even call the publisher and ask permission if I am not sure. Hopefully, I would not be the kind of teacher that uses the same things each year. I think I would get bored with that and the readings suggest avoiding using the same work for many years.

Just as I will inform my students about plagiarism, I will also teach them the basics of copyright and fair use laws. I think that if I, a Master’s student, had no idea about a lot of these laws then my middle school and high school students definitely won’t know. It is also a good way to teach them about respecting the property of others and valuing the time and effort put into each creation.