Teaching with digital images

Bull, Glen L., and Lynne Bell (eds.) Teaching with Digital Images ISTE, 2005

Chapter 4: Digital Images and Copyright

The biggest question that comes to copyright in my mind is with images. Once a week at the least, because of some project or assignment, I go on google images to search for an image to use. I often wonder if that is breaking copyright or not. Especially in an educational setting, I don't want to do something that will be illegal in front of the students. This chapter from the book Teaching with Digital Images helps clear up that issue a little. The chapter discusses fair use in the classroom with the four points that were mentioned in Copyright Clarity including the four factors or purpose, nature, amount, and effect on a market, which need to be considered before using from the web. I don't know how I feel about using this as a test before using material. Wouldn't everything be biased? Wouldn't people have different opinions on what is fair use with the four factors? I guess I like cut and dry rules instead of something which it is up to individual people to decide for themselves.

The article also talks about the Creative Commons. I came in contact with this a little this summer during a summer class. I really liked the idea. The chapter mentions that Creative Commons sees and protects the rights of the creators but at the same time allows it to be used for educational purposes. The chapter goes on  to discuss public domain, permission, and attribution. Public domain is another issue which is not clear to what is in public domain and when it becomes public domain. I personally do not remember finding anything online which was public domain, but I also wasn't looking for it or simply didn't see it.

Permission and attribution, I believe, are good behavior to teach students, as the chapter suggests. Attribution requires a simple training of your brain to copy a link from where the material came from or simply listing the name of the person used. This act will help students as they become good digital citizens. Permission is one aspect of copyright I have not been involved in. I have seem where it says contact the author or creator before using but I have never done that. To my it just seems like extra time to do and what's the use. I know that is a wrong philosophy. But it will be interesting to see what Hobbs says about the fact with the transformational usage of such material.