If you’re feeling in the dark about copyright and intellectual property, join the club.

The more I’ve attempted to study copyright the more muddied the water becomes. The simple explanation is that consumers want unlimited use and corporate copyright holders would prefer if you had to pay something every time you use the material in any capacity.

Digital technologies have made an already gray issue even more gray (is that possible?). There are some basic guidelines for understanding Fair Use list in the links at the end of this post, but there’s still a lot of room for interpretation.

Lately, the topic has surfaced in a number of different blogs. There’s a lot of discussion among people trying to get their heads around the issue – people who are pretty conscientious about copyright. Here’s a roundup:

• Copyright Confusion, Kristen Hokanson, The Connected Classroom
• The Subversive View of Copyright, Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blog
  • Reaction to My Last Post on Copyright, Doug Johnson, Blue Skunk Blog
• Fair Use and Transformativeness: It May Shake Your World, Joyce Valenza, School Library Journal
• A Broader Use for Fair Use, Will RIchardson, Weblogg-ed
• Reclaming Fair Use, Tim Wilson, The Savvy Technologist
• The Cost of Copyright, David Warlick, 2¢ Worth

And for another very interesting perspective on student views as they related to ethics and intellectual property:

• The Generational Divide in Copyright Morality, David Pogue, The New York Times

Keep in mind, those are just opinions and interpretations of non-lawyer types, but they are people who are looking hard at the issues.

For some more “authoritative” opinions on the matter see:

• U.S. Copyright Office (copyright.gov)
• Copyright Kids (copyrightkids.org)
• Stanford Copyright & Fair Use Center (fairuse.stanford.edu)

Someday, perhaps, this will all get worked out. In the meantime, continue to teach your students to respect copyright from both the position of the consumer and content creator. Invest time in allowing the students to invest themselves in work that they find worthwhile and then have the discussion around intellectual property. This should help bring a little balance to the discussion.

Coming up next week: Blogging Tools and Topics

In case you’re wondering, the image above is use in according with a Creative Commons “Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works” license.

Image citation: j.kolo, “Gray Scale” j.kolo’s Photostream. 8 Dec 2006. 3 Apr 2008 <http://flickr.com/photos/jessica-jo-jo/318896731/>.

A broader, more complete definition of technology should incorporate the types of developments that enable us to do things better or to do things we could not otherwise do, including other fields like medicine, genetics, construction, manufacturing, and transportation. This applies equally to the pencil and the keyboard, to a rock-and-stick hammer and advanced robotics.

The best of problem-solving and design process, two staples of technological literacy, is displayed in this video clip. It is a solution to a problem (need for clean water), working within significant constraints (power, maintenance, cost) , and using readily available – and renewable – resources (the extra energy kids have that everyone wishes they could bottle and sell).

How are we preparing our students to think about and solve problems like this one?

I realize that this YouTube clip is not Bess-Friendly, but it’s worth finding a place to watch.

Video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQu_Jppvzyk

[via How To Change the World]

A great collection of multimedia resources on the web is at Teachers’ Domain. Developed by PBS affiliate, WGBH, the collection includes a number of free videos, interactive modules, and articles. Age appropriate content is available for essentially all grade levels.

Free registration is required, but worth your time. The primary content areas include: Earth and Space Science, Engineering, Life Science, and Physical Science. A dozen or so Special Collections touch upon Civil Rights and Literacy (e.g., “Between the Lions Early Literacy”).

Good stuff. Good price.

[Side Note: Teachers' Domain also offers a handful of online courses. More information on these at PBS Teacherline]