Copyright and Fair Use

In terms of coping with copyright issues, teachers fall into three categories according to the Media Ed Lab at Temple University: "See no evil", "Close the door", "Hyper-comply". I am definitely the hyper-comply type, always paranoid that I'm using something I shouldn't or in a way that's against some sort of law. Which one are you?

It is ironic that when you think Copyright, the first things that come into mind are… “prohibited, infringement, illegal, fines, stay away from”… when in theory the purpose of copyright according to the US Constitution is “to promote creativity, innovation and the spread of knowledge.”

Copyright law is actually very vague and most of the warnings/ threats that are attached to copyrighted materials (eg. fines, jail time, hell, etc.) are unwarranted and not backed up by the law. The basic principles behind copyright are:

• All tangible creative works are protected by copyright right when they are created.
• Citing or quoting the source doesn’t necessarily mean you are in the clear when using copyrighted material.
• When in doubt, ask for permission to use.

I set off to write a nice, neat, prescriptive post with guidelines to follow concerning use of copyrighted material by teachers and students. However, after reading some of the literature out there, I found that the guidelines available are by no means black and white. Education World has a great series on The Educator's Guide to Copyright and Fair Use, but I found it somewhat stressful to read the information because it seems so specific (only use 1 chapter from a book, 10% from a short essay, 250 words of a short poem, newspaper excerpts of 1000 words...) After listening to a webinar recording on Copyright and Creative Commons and exploring some of the resources on Fair Use made available by the Media Ed Lab at Temple, I was a bit more enlightened.

I see the Fair Use Doctrine as a type of amnesty clause for using copyrighted materials, Fair Use principles applied to media literacy education are...

Teachers can:
1.Make copies of newspaper articles, TV shows and other copyrighted works, use them and keep them for educational purposes.
2. Create curriculum resources which include copyrighted materials.
3. Share, sell and distribute curriculum resources they have created which include the copyrighted materials.

Students can:
4. Use copyrighted works in creating new material.
5. Distribute their works digitally if they meet the transformativeness standard.

That's the theory anyway, the fine print/ factors used by judges when determining whether a copyright infringement is protected under Fair Use are:

• purpose and character of your use (eg. personal use more likely to be "forgiven" than commercial)
  
• nature of the copyrighted work (eg. use of factual vs creative, published and out of print works more likely to be considered fair use)
  
• the amount and substaintability of the portion taken (eg. was more taken than was actually needed?)
  
• the effect on the use upon the potential market (eg. does the new material take away from the potential market of the original work?)
  

After reviewing the literature, the main conclusive/ useful statement I have come accross regarding use of copyrighted materials in education is that they key to Fair Use is TRANSFORMATIVENESS (ie. changing the nature of the copyrighted work from what it was originally created for, creating something new from the original work or adding value to it).

Select resources pertaining to copyright, fair use and teaching (worth checking out):

• Unlocking Copyright Confusion wiki- From the Media Ed Lab at Temple University, this collaborative wiki aims to end "copyright confusion" and includes information for teachers, resources for reasoning fair use, discussion forums on the topic, a Q&A space, best practices, case studies...
  
• http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com- A very useful resource, includes a HUGE collection of sites from which to obtain copyright "friendly" media.
• Great chart detailing Fair Use Guidelines for Teachers: What you CAN do, and the fine print...
• To teach students about Copyright issues, you can find lesson plans and materials for discussion here, and copyrightconfusion.wikispaces.com has links to songs and videos to learn about these issues.

A different take on copyright than what we are used to...
"Copyright, What is Copyright?" Musical Video

Using Real Data Sets in the Science Classroom

"Research findings indicate that using online data in inquiry-based instruction has many potential benefits including gains in students' content knowledge and increases in student interest, engagement, motivation and sense of control of learning."(p.64 of Technology in the Secondary Classroom)

I have never used authentic online data sets in my teaching, but after reading the text, I am excited at the prospect of incorporating them. The six steps I would follow in doing so are:

1. Refer back to Guiding Principles to make sure activity meets criteria for worthwhile integration.
   
2. Find data sets that are real and relevant to students' lives, information that they would actually care about.
   
3. Pick data set easy enough for students to use without much teacher guidance
4. Help students formulate questions they could answer by analyzing the data.
5. Students analyze data and determine best way to illustrate/ present their findings.
6. Students share findings with their classmates with slides, blog, etc.

Here are some sources of data sets I found (I focused on Biology ones since that is what I teach):

Public Health Data Sets
Betty C. Jung has compiled a HUGE collection of links to all sorts of data sets related to public health. There are hundreds of them organized by topic obtained by the CDC, NIH, WHO and other public health agencies. Some examples of interesting data sets that could be used in a high school Biology classroom:
Alcohol-Attributable Deaths and Years of Potential Life Lost
Trends in HIV- and STD-Related Risk Behaviors Among High School Students (1991--2007)
Injuries Resulting from Car Surfing --- United States, 1990--2008
There are lists, there are tables, there are graphs, some are basic, some are complex, but if you want to incorporate some real-world health stats into your teaching, this is the place to go for them.

Students as Scientists- Pollution Prevention through Education
This Data Visualization Tool allows students to obtain and manipulate real data that has been collected by Cape Fear River Program Scientists over a 5 year period. Data includes water parameters such as temp, pH, DO, salinity and fecal coliform. Simple interface, data sets can be selected from the raw data and displayed as tables or graphs.

WhaleNet
An educational website sponsored by Wheelock College which focuses on marine mammal research. Has satellite tagging information, curriculum resources, research tools and photographs of different species.
Includes data set resources for teachers, like this list of questions that can be used to analyze satellite tagging data in order to get an idea of the animal's behavior and position. Find all archived satellite tagging projects including data sheets, tracking maps and other information for each marine mammal here.

Roadkill Project
This project aims to teach students about the different animals that are found along the road, understand how environmental conditions might play a role in roadkill and as a way for students from different parts of the country to collaborate online. Somewhat morbid, the project will definitely motivate even the most resilient students in the class (eg. with terms like "U.R.P"= unidentified roadside pizza (what you enter when you can't identify the type of animal killed)).
Students can register to participate in collection real data or use past roadkill data for analysis (can be simply exported into an Excel file).
Teachers can use the Roadkill Project to teach ecological principals, statistical analysis and ways to illustrate data. The website provides lesson ideas & activities and has been featured in an EdTechTalk "Making Connections" Webcast, listen to it here.

N.B. Here is a list of resources/ webtools for analyzing and illustrating data that might come in handy for presenting data.

Week 4 Reflections

Week 4 was a little hectic for me and didn't see too much action in terms of connecting with my PLN. We had to stay in the hospital for the whole week after my daughter was born because she needed extra care. She's doing great now, thanks to everyone for their warm wishes! Here are a few pictures of her (created with Photopeach).

Sofia Pics



I did get a few web tool tips here and there through out the week from my PLN... Here they are:

Dinkypage.com- A free service which creates disposable webpages (thanks to @skipz)

Medtropolis.com- The virtual body allows you to take a tour of the human body in English or in Spanish (also thanks to @skipz)

Vocaroo.com- A voice recording online tool. REALLY easy to use, no sign up needed, just click the record button. Sound recordings can be downloaded as .wav files, share them via email, embed them into a website... (thanks to @Teachakid)

NSTA Lab Out Loud Podcasts for Teachers- "Lab Out Loud is a podcast and blog that discusses science news and science education with leading scientists, researchers, science writers and other important figures in the field." Episode 26- Stories of Evolution with Sean Carroll is interesting.

If you like Podcasts... check out The Naked Scientists podcasts, these guys are funny plus the British accent is a nice bonus. A good podcast is the one for 24th of May 2009 called Getting Under Your Skin about albinism, toxic komodo dragon bites and link between cancer and depression.

Through @Teachakid I found a blog post called Twitter Transforms Teaching which has tons of links and references to other blog posts on the topic. This is how I found TwiTip (a blog about Tips on Using Twitter). I like this video of how a professor integrated Twitter into her teaching.






I was planning on attending the webinar on Glogster this weekend but wasn't able to. I went back and listened to the recording. It's definitely a neat tool and one that I will be using. I have always incorporated a lot of poster work into my teaching, but they are time consuming and the amount of effort students put into them varies. Interactive, virtual posters seem like a great idea for making PSAs, summarizing project research, creating review material... and the tool is easy enough that it can be mastered in minutes. I love it, can't wait to have time to play around with it (it seems like the kind of thing you could be suckered into for hours though, so I have to approach it with caution).

So much to learn... so little time!

Animations and ShareTabs Tool

I find computer models to be among the most valuable tools in my Science teaching. There are many complex and abstract concepts in Science but most can be easily understood with a simple computer simulation (eg. DNA Translation and Transcription, Enzymatic action) or animations in which you can manipulate variables. The value of simulations is summarized on p. 23 of the Technology in Secondary Science Classroom text: "Learners can observe, explore, recreate, and receive immediate feedback about real objects, phenomena, and processes that would otherwise be too complex, time consuming or dangerous."

Other benefits of using computer simulations that were mentioned:

• Simplifying real world environments helps students focus
• 3D manipulatives as opposed to the 2D picture presented in textbooks
• Highlight student preconceptions about specific scientific concepts
• Promote learning about what ifs and possibilities
• Ability to manipulate environment and control variables easily
• Make many more observations quicker and more accurately (so results are easier to understand/ analyze when you decrease the potential for human error when measuring, etc).
  
• Simple to predict outcomes/ test out multiple hypotheses
  
• Students are enthusiastic, more focused and engaged when working on simulation activities

The first place I always go to when looking for Science animations is: http://nhscience.lonestar.edu/biol//animatio.htm which encompasses a great collection of links to all sorts of interactive activities and simulations. I also frequently use the CDs that come with most textbooks now or download videos from YouTube. One of my favorite activities in the past has been to have students make their own computer simulations of a difficult topic in Biology (most made claymation movies), I have also made them myself using iStop Motion software which is fun and easy to use (it's for Macs and you have to pay, but I'm sure there are free ones and for PCs as well). You could probably also do it with any video editing tool, all you need is a basic digital video camera and playdough (or markers to animate drawings). I wish I could put one up but I have to figure out how I could do that since I have them in a finalized DVD and in iMovie format... any ideas?

On a separate note, I came across a tool called "ShareTabs" recently (they use it in the Classroom 2.0 live webinars to share the links at the end of each session). It allows you to share up to 30 links. It does this by creating a webpage with its own URL which displays all the links as icons you can click on, but also as open tabs at the top of the page. You can open all links and navigate through them or copy them all at once. It is similar to what Natasha shared called "All My Faves" but simplified and there is no registration or anything required. They links can't however be organized into categories or edited once the page has been created. It is really easy and quick to use, I think it would be great to share links with students for projects or for students to share links when working as a group.

To show you an example, I have made a page for the simulation links provided by some classmates on the iTeachSTEM website. Check it out http://sharetabs.com/?animations

Google Earth- Data Sets for Bio

The following data sets could be used when incorporating Google Earth into the Biology classroom:

From Google Earth Gallery
World Population Density Could be used when teaching Ecology/ Population Dynamics. This data set shows the distribution of the world population, from the sparsely inhabited Australian Outback to densely populated areas like the Eastern Coast of the US
Coral Reef Monitoring Explore the state of coral reefs around the world, their distribution, major threats to their like global warming and conservation efforts to protect them.
California's Marine Protected Areas Explore the coastline and marine biodiversity of California through its ocean conservation legacy (a network of 29 marine protected areas from Santa Barbara to San Francisco). Fact sheets for each protected area include: ecological value of the site, aerial and underwater photos and video of wildlife and ecosystems.
From the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation:

• Ecological Zone Shows the areas in New York state that have ecological value. Includes attributes of each zone such as topography, type of vegetation and what the land is currently being used for.
• Bird Conservation Areas Tours the areas established by the NY State Bird Conservation Area Program as being important bird habitats. This type of information is valuable to research projects and conservation efforts currently under way.

From Pedagogy in Action, the SERC (Science Education Resource Center) portal for educators- These include lesson plans

• Energy Consumption Rate Across the US and the World Students use Google Earth and information from other web sites to investigate total and per capita rates of oil and total energy consumption in countries around the world.

• Salt Marsh Ecology Students use Google Earth, GPS, aerial photos and an online plant ID guide to identify and map out plant species and other ecological characteristics of a salt marsh.
  
• Renewable Energy Study Students will investigate case studies involving the use of renewable energy.
• US Carbon Dioxide Emission Shows carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels, you can select for total CO2 emissions, emissions by aircraft, commercial, industrial, residential, etc.
  
• Northwest Passage Explore climate change in polar regions (eg. shrinking ice cap, melting of ice shelves, shipping routes, effects of polar bears, rising oceans, secondary effects of climate change in other regions.)