The Educator’s Guide to Copyright and Fair Use

This article gets down to the nitty-gritty on what media is acceptable to use in the classroom. The article gives very specific guidelines to follow if you plan to use an item that may be copyrighted or protected in some way. The general rule provided is that if you are not sure if a work is copyrighted or prohibited from use, seek permission from the holder just in case. I really liked that the article gave instructions for how to seek permission for use. This article would be very helpful to me if I had a technical question about what I could use in the classroom. I typically do not run into problems that could be answered by this article. I am careful to not load unauthorized software, show clips taped from television, etc. if nothing else than to set a good example for the kids. In the past, I have taped shows from PBS but I made sure I followed the instructions provided on their website for such use. I did not have this problem in my classroom, but I noticed that students were using copyrighted pictures from websites for Power Point presentations. The article did not answer my most pressing question on the issue (which I think I know the answer to but am not quite sure) which is can I show a DVD I have purchased legally to my class if it is for instructional purposes only.