Copyright Clarity
When working with the interns at my company this past summer, they
were shocked when they learned that they could reuse code. Their schools
always scan code for plagiarism, and they can’t even reuse their own code; it
always has to be from scratch. But in the real world, engineers share code for
efficiency.
I had a conversation about this with an engineer,
and they said, “if someone already created it, we use it and build on it”. We
compared it to the structure of a story. Every story or fairytale follows the
same structure (exposition, initiating event, rising action, climax, falling
action, resolution).
What worries me is if students are able to
understand the difference between copyright use in school vs real life (aka
when is it appropriate and when is it inappropriate?). If we print copies or
save a PDF of a document and give it to students, how would they understand
that it’s not plagiarism/illegal? Or, if we find material online and present it
to our students, what are our actions really teaching them?
I do believe that it would be up to the teacher to
explain to the students. Even if we’re allowed to “repurpose” works for
educational use, we, as educators, should still cite it properly. Specifically
in an English classroom (or the real world), citing where your facts came from
are incredibly important, so I would want to lead by example even if I had
leniency.
I like what one of your engineers said: "if someone already created it, we use it and build on it" This helps clarify some of the challenges that I have as an educator. I equate this to using an inspiration from and updo, we use the idea and make it our own. I need to keep this in mind when educating my learners.
ReplyDeleteOne of my high school students struggles with what he can do in school vs. the real world. He's in the automotive academy and copies instructions for his projects. He needs to prove that he knows the steps to change oil, so he copies and pastes the instructions. To his automotive teacher, that's acceptable. He has gotten into a lot of trouble in his language arts class; especially on biography and non-fiction units. If he has to tell about a fact, he believes that he can copy and paste what he finds on the internet for his report. It's the same thing as copying and pasting accurate steps in automotive to him. This is the opposite of what you're describing, but it's still a problem with what can be used in different situations. I think modeling will definitely help reduce confusion. His language arts teacher thinks that the kids should already have the skills to transform work that they find. Really, she should be showing them examples of how to research and rephrase works to make them new material.
ReplyDeleteTotally agreed about printing and distributing PDFs--what does this tell our students about our own practices? Like teacher, like student. Modeling and coaching (of fair use and fact using) is a really important part that is left out of the learning process; students are expected how to know that they must ask and cite permissions or put a fact into their own words. The reality is a copy+paste job, leaving both teacher and student frustrated. I like Rachel's point of "showing examples of how to research and rephrase."
ReplyDeleteAren't we accomplishing the purpose of copyright when we use materials to build on it? The real challenge is how to use what is already available in order to create something new, awesome and authentic. In my practice, I have few online trusted resources that I frequent for reinforcing my lessons. In The Physics Classroom website, their copyright and usage policy indicated "The pages of The Physics Classroom are made available as a service to physics students, physics teachers, and the general public. Their use is encouraged and is free of charge." (physicsclassroom.com/about)
ReplyDelete