Copyright, OER, and Social Media! Oh My!
September 3, 2024
Copyright Laws are put in place to help protect the creative works of individuals or groups which ensures that people do not profit from work they did not create. This protection also encourages people or groups to continue to create new works with the promise of not allowing others to profit from their work. These rights are set for a determined amount of time. When the copyright runs out, the work becomes public domain. An example I am partial to is the works of Jane Austen. All of her novels are now public domain so now current writers can use her work to continue her stories and write spinoffs. The same characters in Austen's novel, Pride and Prejudice, are now being used to continue her stories. These books are my favorite to read because I always want to know how the story continues. What happens to Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, to Mr. Bingley and Jane? Do they have any children?
Open Educational Resources (OER) are items available to teachers to teach with. After this week's readings and lecture, I now feel armed with even more resources at fingertips than I realized. I knew about Khan Academy and everything it has to offer but I did not realize that there are free text books out there that I could pull from to help my instruction. The resources available for images, videos, audio sounds and music, digital lectures, textbooks, animations...wowzah! I thought I was dangerous with my Google slides before; Watch Out!
Social media is another great way to open the door to others in our field to share ideas and resources. Social media can used as a source of advertisement for the users of our libraries and their parents. My current school used to highly suggest that we use Twitter/X to show other schools and parents of our students what teachers are doing in the classroom. Using social media is not only a great way to tell everyone what we are doing but it also is a great source of new ideas and how resources are used. Having the opportunity to see an activity completed with a group of students can help teachers decide if the activity is something they want to complete or pass on. Companies that write curriculum also use social media to present their work and how it can be used. Social media is easy to use but as a teacher, I always forget to take pictures of my students when completing activities. Hopefully this course will provide motivation to use social media more consistently.
No comments:
Post a Comment