Module 4 – Legal and Ethical Issues of Collections
Copy cat, dirty rat…
~ sitting on a lump of fat ~
~ sitting on the butcher’s hat ~
Whichever version of the rhyme you used as a child, the message is the same. Nature abhors a copy cat (my sincerest apologies to Aristotle). I recall sitting in Year 5 with my Mathematics exercise book expertly balanced to prevent my neighbour from copying my work.
(It wouldn’t have done them a great deal of good – Maths wasn’t my forte).
The fact remains, I did not want them cheating off me, and I certainly didn’t want to be accused of cheating.
Nothing has changed.
I walked into a Year 3 class recently to start an information literacy lesson. They were completing an assessment. And there, with equal skill and precision, were exercise books positioned in exactly the same way. This clear rejection of cheating is not only evident in student behaviour. We, as teachers, spend a great deal of time (and money) on strategies and content to prevent students copying the work of others. We teach them about plagiarism and copyright, and how to acknowledge the work of others.
We may even spend money on programs such as Turnitin to help student’s maintain a high degree of academic integrity.
If the ethical use of information is so important for our students, why is it that teachers have little understanding of Copyright and how it relates to them? I’m not suggesting that all teachers are naive to the ins and outs of copyright licensing. And most schools are diligent in communicating the licences that affect what teachers can use, copy and communicate across print and digital spheres. What I am suggesting is that, as teacher librarians, we are particularly attuned to such things and, not infrequently, become aware of a breach of copyright in our schools that makes us gasp and reach for the phone.
Copyright laws may seem complicated and navigating educational licences for different information sources can be confusing.
While pondering this idea of, Do as I say, not as I do, I explored the Smartcopying website.
There are three pages I found particularly helpful for educators:
- Educational Licences – briefly explains Statutory Text and Artistic Works, Statutory Broadcast and Music Licences
- Disability Access Exceptions – examines how to accommodate for students needing alternate formats of resources, and
- Frequently Asked Questions – covers a range of different types of materials commonly used by teachers.
Another resource useful for educators and bloggers is The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons, by Kathleen Morris (June 8, 2020). It’s thorough, thoughtfully sequenced and presented simply. It avoids jargon so makes it a useful resource for teachers and students. Some care needs to be exercised as Kathleen is referring to US Copyright Laws.
However, asking teachers (or students) to fact check the blog against Australian Copyright Laws would be an engaging and useful professional learning exercise!
With increasing interest in micro-credentialing as a form of content delivery, it is easy to narrow down on common questions regarding Copyright and position them in a broader learning module on ethical use of information. Units may address:
- Common misunderstandings regarding Copyright
- Copyright laws in Australia
- Specific laws relating to text, media and music, and
- Opportunities to put new knowledge into action
But that’s the subject of another post.
References
Dzemidovich, D. (2021). Hand flips cube and changes the word ‘copycat’ to ‘copyright’ [Image]. https://www.dreamstime.com/photos-images/copycat.html
Turnitin (2021). Logo [Image]. https://www.turnitin.com/
Smartcopying (2021). Logo [Image]. https://smartcopying.edu.au/
Morris, K. (2020, June 8). The Educator’s Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Creative Commons. The edublogger. https://www.theedublogger.com/copyright-fair-use-and-creative-commons/
Smartcopying. (n.d). Educational Licences. https://smartcopying.edu.au/educational-licences/
Smartcopying. (n.d). Frequently Asked Questions. https://smartcopying.edu.au/faqs/text-works/
Smartcopying. (n.d). Library, Exam and Disability Copying. https://smartcopying.edu.au/guidelines/library-exam-and-disability-copying/disability-access-exceptions/