What is Copyright? What is Fair Use? Educational Use of Copyright Material Misunderstanding of Copyright Laws and Fair Use Media literacy education goals are to inform and promote critical thinking about media and its purpose in culture and in society while strengthening creative communication skills that are compromised due to lack of understanding about copyright laws and restrictions cause by fair use to educators. Misconceptions of Copyright Laws for Media Literacy from K-12 Teachers By: Stacie Fernandez

Copyright is a type of protection in the United States by law to protect authors of “original work,” which includes literary, dramatic, musical, artistic, and certain other intellectual works, from plagiarism by other people. “Fair use” is a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research of copyright material. For more information on copyright, fair use, laws, and so forth are found at: There are links of information about how, where, why, what, when, and who on copyright.

Many educators and administrators mis-learned about copyright; therefore, casing this misinformation to be passed on to students and causing copyright material not being using in the classroom or even shared among educators. Educators would used copyright material in the classroom. Then teachers would tell students they were not allowed to use certain type of media but yet were allowed to used information or media from the Internet. Teachers were very caution about using any type of material due to the lawsuits that are coming from the entertainment industries about piracy and copyright laws. Teachers have used copyright material to the point where someone sue them causing the teacher to state that it was “fair use.” This misunderstanding becomes a huge social justice issue with using materials for educational purposes to learn from the different cultures found in society.

Educators have the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and communicate messages in the a wide variety forms of media. The teaching practices depend solely on the ability of educators to display and manipulate copyrighted materials form mass media and popular culture. Media teachers teach analytic skills with use of examples of news, advertising, reality shows, comedies, sports programs, music videos, documentaries, and even home shopping shows. The skills they teach are production skills along with critical thinking skills by assigning students to produce new work from comments on or viewing from existing working. Communication skills are also taught with copyright materials. Students are able to be creative with existing work while building on student’s existing knowledge base. As information technologies changes, so does the copyright laws and fair use. To place it play it safe, educators and students should cite any work they use to help with the assignment or presentation even if it was just used as an inspiration.

K-12 teachers are required to teach to GLOs and HCP III. Students are graded on the ability to use different types of technology in an ethical manner. General Learner Outcome: GLO #6 Effective and Ethical User of Technology is the ability to use a variety of technologies effectively and ethically. Hawaii State Content and Performance Standards (HCP III): Standard 1: TECHNOLOGICAL DESIGN—Design, modify, and apply technology to effectively and efficiently solve problems

The Cost of Copyright Confusion for Media Literacy is study that was done with many interviews of teachers about media literacy being used and showed. There are many misunderstanding of the copyright and fair use by educators. _report.pdf _report.pdf Kathy Schrock’s Guide for Educators is a website that have resources how to teach citations and examples of citation of using copyright work for grades Nauset Publish Schools is a research and style manual with information about how to do research and citations. There is information about plagiarism.