Creative Commons and Copyright Laws

I was just posting a comment on the Edublogger Teacher Challenge and it was becoming so long that I decided I should make it into a post to help those that read here too.

I recently became very aware of Copyright Laws because I took over the Advisor Position on our School's Yearbook. It was an extremely daunting task to take on and I had to learn laws very fast, and be able to turn around and teach them. I was extremely overwhelmed. What is Copyright? What is Fair Use? What is this Creative Commons thing I have heard about? Is it the same as Fair Use? I had no idea. I started in with research of my own and soon the legalise was so far over my head that my brain felt like mush. I called our yearbook company representative to ask where I could find out information with out all the legal jargon and she pointed to their website that was somewhat helpful, but not really. Then I just started with a Google Search. I should know by now that this is somewhere I should always start because the information always seems to be much more abundant and I am able to get a quicker and more clearer answer (even if it's where to do more research at) than anywhere else. I came across these 3 Youtube videos: Copyright, What's Copyright?; A Fair(y) Use Tale; Creative Commons, Let's Get Creative; that helped me learn what these things are, as well as help me teach the concepts to my class quite easily. My students picked up the concepts and ran with it on their own after watching the videos, in fact they are still singing the copyright song months later.


Have a Blessed One.
Miss Tabitha

Edublogger Challenge

So, I decided back in December to take the kick start your blog challenge, but when it started, I completely forgot about it. Good news is, it only started yesterday...so I was able to catch up. The second challenge is to make a post, simple enough...but I'm kinda stumped as to what to write about....

Today at school, I have been starting the kids on a new art contest project. Unfortunaltly our school is so small that we cannot actually participate in the huge Houston Live Stock Show and Rodeo contest, so we hold our own. Last year the kids did an awesome job and really enjoyed the competition between one another, this year I opened the constet up to our older students too and I am allowing them to work in any medium they choose, so far I am extremely impressed by what they are deciding to do. I have several students working in 3D mediums, creating wire sculptures, bead art, and I even have one student working in duct tape! I am actually really excited to see his final project.