Thing #10

Learning about the new fair use doctrine was great. I hope I'm not the only one out here that didn't know about it. I've been working under the old copyright rules that were extremely restrictive--either you got it from the library or bought materials that could be reproduced.

When it comes to my students, I am absolutely sure they don't know or care about copyrights--anything on the internet is free unless they tell you to pay for it--don't you know! Seriously, though, I am glad so much work has gone into making it easier (and cheaper) to educate our students.

In addition to books and worksheets (either owned by the district or me), I use math videos from the internet. I never questioned whether they were copyrighted or not--I guess I'm like my students in that way. I also use math web sites that the district purchases. For these, the name of the student has to be loaded into the data base.

All in all, I guess I'm glad the fair use guidelines are in place. These days, my material comes from so many places that the fair use guidelines make creating varied lessons easier.