Now that we understand content creation, it's our responsibility to not only teach them how to use content appropriately, but to also make sure that we are setting an example for our students on how to ethically use information and images.
While we have all read and signed the agreement every year, do we really understand what copyright, plagiarism, and fair use entails?
Probably not. Wiley, one of the more popular publishers of educational material and content, has created this website to give you a brief overview of all three of these topics and the limitations to each.
Another good website is Copyright & Creativity for Ethical Digital Citizens
This presentation from ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education; awesome professional organization, with great resources!), along with this site will also help you understand what we can and can't do when using materials for educational purposes.
IMAGES
One of the most frequent copyright violation that we tend to commit in education is not using images properly. Admit it, all of us are guilty at some point in time of copying the image we want from Google and pasting it right into our presentations without making sure that we can use it or without giving credit to where we got the image.
Here are a few places where you can get images to use without worrying about copyright violations:
Or, if you are looking for more amusing graphic options, why not make your own?
You can use Canva, who already uses images that can be shared without copyright violations.
Meme Generator is a popular one, just make sure that the images you upload for your picture are not protected by copyright.
SOUNDS AND MUSIC
A lot of us, and our students, like to add extra things to their videos or presentations to make them entertaining. But, are they using sounds and music that are protected by copyright? If they are using popular songs, then they are probably violating a few copyright laws.
Our school has a database of sounds and music that we subscribe to called Soundzabound. It is the ONLY royalty free music library which meets all the licensing and technology requirements needed for education. This website requires a password; contact the media specialist for the current password.