I think that I will always be battling copyright laws and myself over whether or not I am breaking them. In the wimba session this week I was overwhelmed with all of the things to think about and how many issues/laws that there are regarding copyright, fair use, and creative commons. One thing that I took away from the wimba as it was said more than once was that we need to ask ourselves "can we teach the unit without this"? I need to ask that of a lot of my teachers as sometimes they find things that have nothing to do with their unit or they just think is fun and it is a direct violation of copyright. Can you successfully teach this unit without using that media? It is a very direct question that most of us could probably say yes to, but on the other hand this"piece" of media will enhance my unit and help the kids to better understand it. So at the same time we probably don't need this, it sure would be nice and help me out. I think this is a question that I will struggle with every time I use something that is not mine. There are some blatant cases law breaking when I show a Disney movie just to fill time or when I put songs into my presentations or videos that are not created by me and I have not gained permission for the use of them. Those are easy, but when it is a movie or a picture that would help me describe the situation I am teaching than I would love to use, even if I don't have to have it. I am not sure that this will ever go away...
But now you are in the position to ask the informed questions that might help you use media in your lessons in a constructive and legal way. It's good to have some handle on it, even if the problem of copyright is so huge and unwieldy.
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