Week One- The Evolution of Copyright

This weeks reading dealt entirely with copyright, fair use and Creative Commons licensing. The first section of videos and lessons dealt with the explanation of copyright low and how it works. The lesson I took away from this section is that in order to use copyrighted material for publishing or sharing I must get permission from the copyright holder. It is their intellectual property. It is there prerogative how it is used.

            The second section of this weeks reading dealt with the concept of Fair Use.  Fair Use policy is not a low but a defendable position. The idea of fair use tries to balance  the rights of the copyright holder with the need of society to preserve cultural information. Fair Use application has a very limited outline in how material can be used in other publications without getting copyright holders permission. I can see myself choosing to use this type of rational in a very limited way to help me further explain what it is I am trying to teach my students. That is if I can’t find another way.

            The third section of this weeks reading explain Creative Commons licensing.  Frankly, I love Creative Commons. Creative Commons licensing opens content for people to share under 4 different type of licensing. Without going into the details of the 4 type I would like to say that I have used Creative Commons licensing Quite a bit in the EMDT program as well as media I create for my classroom. As a matter of fact we talk about creative commons licensing in my fourth grade class. My students look at it as people who share, versus people who don’t.

One more thing. In my opinion this class, or at least information, should be offered more towards the front of the program, instead of Month 11.  Just Sayin!