Keep Your Eyes On Your Own Paper

This is a common saying of teachers when students are taking a test. Having a student look at another student's answers is not acceptable and considered cheating or stealing. In the same way, it's not right to take someone else's work and use it without their permission. This is why copyright and fair use is so important, especially in the classroom. This video titled "Creative Commons & Copyright Info" gives a great overview of Creative Commons, a copyright license that allows people to share their content with others and allow them to use it in different ways. Another good resource to look at to learn more about copyright in general is this article titled "A Teacher's Guide to Fair Use and Copyright" It does a good job of going over all of the rules of fair use and copyright.

Teaching students about copyright is important because of the topic of last week's post, digital citizenship. As I said last week, teaching students to be digital citizens is crucial to their success. Therefore, it is important for teachers to know about copyright rules to be an example for their students. If teachers are not following the rules, how can students be expected to?

Copyright is a very serious topic to talk about in class, but it is necessary so that students understand that it is not right to take another person's creation without permission. There are plenty of resources on the internet that can be used in the classroom to teach students about copyright and Creative Commons. Showing students how to use digital content properly will help them succeed in the future and allow them to be good digital citizens.