WK1-Response to blog post # 1

Marsona Jackson Blogged:

Since we are reading and discussing copyright, I thought this was the perfect time to get feedback on an ongoing problem with students today. I teach 8th grade Computer Literacy and I think I really have some really great students. I teach a three week unit on Copyright where we discuss what is copyright, what can and cannot be copy-written, and fair use guidelines. Our students have a lot expected of them and are required to complete Science and History Fair projects where they must do research. The problem is when doing their research, they tend to just copy just what they see instead of rephrasing and/or siting their sources.

This really becomes a problem when they attempt to compete in district and state fairs and are often disqualified because of copyright issues. Some say they are too young to really understand that using someone else's material and claiming it as their own is not really a big problem. But they tend to understand everything else.

Please feel free to comment on this issue your thoughts and or solutions. Thanks

Marsona,

You bring up a very valid point about students not understanding when to use and not use copyrighted items.  To be honest, no matter how many times I have studied, how many times I have taught this unit, it never seems to stay the same is always changing.  I'm confused!!!  The next time I do this unit I am going to do something different.  I will either have a student do a project, do the process of a copyright and maybe have students do the same thing they did and get feedback to see how each students feels about getting their stuff copied.  I think only then when they feel a personal violation, can they feel like they truly understand the project.