Copyright & Fair Use Blog

Corry A. Worrell

ELRC 4507

Copyright & Fair Use Blog

 

Copyright & Fair Use Blog

            One of the most important areas to comprehend when it comes to using information for lessons in education is in understanding the kinds of information we can use.  Copyright and fair use are essential components to know when utilizing different resources to educate students.  With this said, I will begin explaining copyright, fair use and the permissible amounts of copyrighted information that can be used  by teachers and students.

            Copyright is a form of protection given by the U.S. Constitution and the law to authors of works of art, literature, drama in the capacity of how the work is used or expressed.  When we look at the specifics of what copyright covers, that would include things such as computer software, songs, movies, novels, architecture and poetry.  With these things in mind, we must be careful of the kinds of online videos, blogs and photographs that we may post online because they can be against in violation of what copyright laws permits.  I would say that some of the aspects that can give us flexibility and solace as educators and students when it comes to what is not cover under copyright laws would be that facts, ideas, systems and methods of operations do not fall under copyright protection directly.

            Another important aspect to consider is what the requirements are for works to be copyrighted.  There are three aspects which qualify works to be copyrighted and they are fixed, originality and minimal creativity. Fixed refers to works that have a permanent medium where it can be perceived, reproduced or communicated for more than a short period of time (2020). An example of this could be if there is a work that was written on paper, posted online, stored on a computer or phone, recorded on audio, video or electronic device. Originality is a work that is created by a human that has at least a small amount of creativity.  Minimal Creativity is when the work is based on another piece of work.  The new work has to be a piece that is above and beyond the original work.  With this said, there may just need to be a spark of creativity in order to meet this requirement.    

            Fair use is another important concept to comprehend.  Fair use is an advocate that promotes the freedom of expression by permitting unlicensed use of copyrighted protected works in certain circumstances (2020) . The only conundrum is that there isn’t any set guidelines to determine per say, that something is fair use.  There are, four factors courts use to determine whether or not it is okay to use copyrighted content (fair use) without consent of the copyright holder.  The first is purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes. Here, there is a focus on transformative potential.  It analyzes whether or not it merely repackages the content or creates or even adds something new.  The second is the nature of the copyrighted work. In the second factor, there is a focus on its creative nature and how factual it is. The third is the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole.  In the third factor, what’s assessed is whether or not more content is utilized than what is actually needed. The fourth is the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.  For the fourth factor, the focus is on the works impact on the traditional market of the orignal work (2020).

            Copyright and fair use can be confusing at times.  What has helped to alleviate some of the stress that goes into what we can use comes in the form of Creative Common License (CC license).  When we think of copyrighted information students and teachers can use, this is the best route to travel.  The great thing about CC license is that users don’t have to negotiate terms for the license or pay for use of the work.  Through this license the copyright holder agrees to share their work for free.  There are four (4) main CC licenses. These are Attribution (CC BY), Attribution ShareAlike (CC BY-SA), Attribution-NoDerivs (CC BY-ND), and Attribution-Non Commercial (CC BY-NC).  All of these licenses have terms and conditions.  The Attribution is the most basic license, but still requires providing proper attribution to the authors, a copyright notice and a link to the license agreement.  The four basic attributions are title, author, source and license.  This is a minimum, because each license may have their own additional requirements.  With this said, the CC license provides a great way for teachers and students alike to use copyrighted content without the formal approval of copyright holders.

 

 

            

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Resources

 

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines. (2020, July 8). Retrieved September 29, 2020, from https://sites.umgc.edu/library/libhow/copyright.cfm

 

Wiki Reflection Blog

Corry A. Worrell

ELRC 4507

Wikis Reflection Blog

 

Wiki Reflection Blog

 

            One of the great aspects of learning that continue to allow students and educators alike to grow is the ability to work together.  Amongst the many different ways we can work together, wikis in particular, allows us another opportunity to align in such a capacity.  When I think of wiki, I think of Wikipedia.  It has allowed not only myself, but many people around the world to gain insight on specific subject matters.  A wiki is an online platform that allows users to edit or contribute to a document online (Pappas, 2019).  There are many individuals who dislike wikis because of the ability of its information to be edited or altered by anyone.  Despite this fact, it can still provide us with an opportunity to crowdsource information from everyone.  By us working together it can allow us to grow our knowledge base.  When we think of education, it wasn’t built in one day or from merely one person.  Many people over years continue to add to it until we have the education and learning we possess today.  In somewhat of the same way, a wiki allows users to add and grow our information and knowledge.  It’s an open environment platform that allows for everyone to be able to put their input.

            There are many advantages of wikis.  One of the many advantages for using wikis in the classroom is that it compels students to become actively engaged in the learning process versus being passive (Pappas, 2019).  In traditional classroom settings, students will often sit and listen to the teacher.  By merely sitting and listening, it can cause students to disengage and not actively think of how to use the information.  Utilizing wikis allows student to play a much more active role in learning by truly giving thought to the information they are inputting into the wikis.  This also serves as an out of box activity that can excite students to participate more intimately with the lesson.  Another idea for using wikis in education and learning, is if students are using it to create study guide pages for their class.  The class of students could continue to add and update course content for the learning benefit of everyone in the course.  This provides students with a great group project that actively engages them in learning.  Lastly, wikis can be used for more than doing projects for students.  It can be used to update parents on assignments, projects and class related topics.  With the busy schedule of educators, this provides a convenient way to keep parents updated on what’s happening in the classroom.

            

    There are many ways to use wikis to drive learning in a classroom.  One way I found interesting is 

if there is a particular subject you’re discussing in class, perhaps students can create a wiki fan page 

around a television show, movie or cartoon that relates to the subject matter.  It will be a project that is fun 

to them, while at the same time, it covers the subject matter we’re discussing in class.  Another great way 

to engage students is to have students fact check certain wiki pages (Pappas, 2019).  One of the challenges 

wikis have is that anyone can edit the information and the information on the site is not always credible.  

This exercise will allow students to do research and fact check the wiki.  I truly believe that wikis provide 

a great way to enhance the learning experience, engagement, and connection in students, parents and 

educators.

Growing into the World of Educational Technology (EdTech Teacher Blog)

Greetings Friends,

My name is Corry Worrell, educational training and development speaker. I have a Bachelors in Psychology with a minor in Communication. Currently, I am completing my Masters in Educational Technology from Louisiana State University. I was one of five National Corporate Trainers for Robbins Research International. With this said, I’ve had the privilege of being able to train and develop employees from various Fortune 500 companies as well as train and develop students enrolled in higher education institutions.  Student success has been a passion of mine for quite some time.  So much so, I decided to step away from Robbins Research and found my own company WE Nation Enterprises.  WE Nation is dedicate to empower college students with the tools and competence to thrive in college and in life after graduation.  I have created keynotes, workshops as well as published a book on career development for college students titled “The Career Path MaxxOut”.  I believe there are so many opportunities for students to thrive and I know that expanding pedagogy through educational technology is one of the engaging ways to do it.

ELRC 4507 provides a great opportunity for me to expand my knowledge on teaching through the use of different technology platforms.  My expectations for this class is that I’m able to learn new ways to share with others different training and development content I’ve created. Thus far learning about how to create and utilize blogs has been pivotal.  It has helped to alleviate insecurities I may have had when contemplating how complex it could be to develop and design. My hope is that this course will continue to push me out of my comfort zone as I learn to use different techniques for courses I intend on developing in the future. I believe educational technology is the future of learning and this course has given me the head start I need to get a jump on its innovation. 

For more information visit us here: CorryWorrell EdTech