Copyright and Fair Use

         Copy right laws are vitally important in education today.  With countless numbers of videos, papers, music, and other forms of media readily available over the internet, the rules and regulations become more important today than they were before the information age.  With the implementation of fair use it get a little confusing.  I would surmise that if one is in doubt, and unable to find a difinitive answer when looking at the laws, don't use it.  The safest way to assure oneself as a teacher is to create your own material.  When teaching students about copy rights and fair use, it is also important to inform them of the difference between plaigarism and copyright laws.  It can be very tempting for a young student who is an ESL student to cut and paste an entire paper and pass it off as his own.  This is completely different from the copyright laws which demand compensation for original works used by others. 

         Cyberbullying is a new phenomenon much created by the advent of social networks such as facebook or myspace.  Before the internet, kids were bullied on the playground and in the hallways or on the way home from school.  Every kid who was bullied knew that once they were home, they would be safe and live to fight another day.  However, with these new social networks, the bullying continues even in the safety as ones own home.  The difference between online safety and cyberbullying is online safety is the protection of those being bullied online, and safety from online predators.  Information on people is readily and easily accessable to the trained stalker.  Computer hacks can get any information about a person they want with virtual ease.  Even if you try to be safe and not post address, phone number, school address, predators can still assertain from pictures posted where your neighborhood is, what places you visit frequently and where you may go to school.  It's a scary world out there, and parents and educators both need to be careful what information is posted about their children online. 

This weeks assignment was very enlightening.  I was regretably informed of the fact that I know nothing about copyright laws.  Cyberbullying has been advertised lately with commercials run during popular sporting events and television shows, so I had base knowledge of that.  I thought, however that I was pretty well educated about what was legal and what wasn't regarding fair use, and copyright laws.  I scored a 72 on the quiz which was disappointing.  Everytime the quiz told me I was wrong I was surprised.  It will be beneficial to have the "cheat sheet" about what is okay, and what is illegal.  Overall, I think I'm still a little confused.

Newsome, C. (1997). A teacher's right to fair use and copyright. Manuscript submitted for publication, Educational Technology Leadership Program, The George Washington University, Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://home.earthlink.net/~cnew/research.htm#Teachers and Fair Use