Genius Hour

When it comes to teaching and learning in a digital age, an important factor to understand and employ would be copyrights. In Canada, fair dealing is used which essentially covers personal use, study, criticism, etc., of various resources as well as resources used within the classroom. One of the more common copyright licenses would be the Creative Common, or CC, license. This can be found on resources such as youtube videos. For more on copyright, check out the Canadian Teacher’s Federation document titled Copyright Matters!.

Ribeiro, L. (2008, June 30).
Children at school [Online Image].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1hXt0p1 

As far as practices within the classroom goes, teachers have a significant amount of freedom. Many times, lessons and class readings or assignments are inspired by, or found directly from resources on the Internet. In the classroom, single copies of documents can be included in handouts and presentations for educational purposes. Online resources can also be shared with the class for educational purposes as long as protective passwords are included. It is important to note that any resources, performances or medias must be used within educational premises and not be included for personal gain or profit. Again, more information on this can be found in the Copyright Matters! link above.

Plougmann, L. (3011, January, 20).
At the computer [Online Image].
Retrieved from http://bit.ly/1UHf1An 

I believe it is important to teach our students about copyright since it is a relevant legal matter. An easy way of teaching this to students would be to include it as an example in character literacy and education. Depending on the grade level, examples could be used of borrowing a photo that your friend took and not stating that it came from them. Not only is this not your photo, but your friend isn’t getting recognized for their photo! This is a more personal example that students my find easier to relate to. This touches on the concepts of fairness and honesty.