MAC_Week 1: Comment#2

Image from:
CreativeCommons / Flickr
Image by Horia Varlan

My Comment for Kimberly Duran:

Plagiarism and copyright is a big issue at my school as well, particularly with the images the students use in their projects. We all try to make it easy for them and just tell them that they have to give credit to the original artist. I think one of the issues that our students don’t have to worry about in the Fair Use arena is that they are not doing the work for profit or commercial use.  I give them the free image sites and the creative commons site to look at but those website too ask for them to include the name of the creator. In the end, we encourage them to take their own photography or do their own art. 

I did like the cartoon movie as well in explaining the concept of fair use.  I think the younger we get this notion of copyright and fair use introduced to our students the fewer copyright infringements there will be when they get to college and in the business world.

Kim's Post:

Copyright issues, and why my butt is scared!!

Wow, so plagiarism and copyright issues has become something of a topic on campus at my school. Trying to teach the children about these topics has become somewhat of a challenging task, and now that I've seen the copyright videos, I'm not sure whether I'm more or less comfortable with what I've shared with my students so far and how to continue on.
The duration of copyright was somewhat news to me, I've always wondered once something has been copyrighted, how long does this actually last for? This is a question that I actually have been asked by my students, so it's nice to have a definitive answer now.
It seemed to me at first that there was a lot of elasticity to the whole idea of fair use. However, after hearing our instructor's explanation of it and it's "narrow loophole" i began to understand it much better. The use of the cartoon movie to explain it was extremely helpful, once I was halfway through it I felt as though I really had a grasp on the concept. Creative ways to teach these types of ideas makes all the difference in the world to me. And who doesn't love Disney movies?!?

Creative Commons was taught to me early on in this degree program. I guess I have used it in the past, but never realized that there was actually a name behind the practice. I think it's a great way to be able use materials and also pay homage to the person who created it through giving them credit.