Clarity Restored

Copyright Clarity did indeed bring some much needed clarity to a very thorny issue. What does fair use mean within an educational context? How does the educational sphere differ from the corporate sphere? It was eye opening to learn just how far an educator can go when it comes to using information found on the Internet and beyond. It is perhaps more disturbing to know that a myth is widely perpetuated by the American educational system. I remember being taught in school that using advanced search on Google was a must. It was necessary to avoid using something that you “did not have the rights to use.” I always knew that educators and students had a wide berth when it came to using information, but I did not realize that it also extends to most of the general public. The only time copyright seems to make an impact is when an exchange of money enters the picture. The perspective of Hobbs makes sense to me as it follows practical logic. It would be difficult to enforce copyright restrictions on the Internet, a platform that lends itself to sharing. If something is not meant to be shared, the open web would not be a logical place to keep the information.

Personally, it has always been my practice to use whatever picture I can find as long as I did not plan on sharing the content in public. Now that I have some “clarity” surrounding this issue, I do want to dispel this myth amongst my colleagues. I would, however, use a different approach with students. Even though educators do not need to worry about copyright issues as much as previously thought, it is necessary to keep the lessons learned from The Information Diet in mind. Even though it may be easier to use information fairly, this ease of use does not negate the need to exercise prudent information sorting. Students still need to question their information sources. Just because information can be used, does not necessarily mean that it should be. I still believe that plagiarism is something that needs to be taken seriously. There is still a line that should not be crossed. Blindly copying information from the Internet does not help students achieve anything; students need to take that information and make it their own through reflection, application and extension. This is what we need to include when we teach students to find information online. They need to understand that there are different standards depending on the information (and form of information) that is being accessed. Students still need to be taught that they need to cite sources. They still need to investigate who is providing them with different information on websites.  With all of this in mind, I do think that teaching students to exercise caution in the area of information sorting is still worthwhile.