Week 9: What is fair use and how does it apply to education?

Copyright protection, fair use, public domain: it’s quite a tangled web. Having worked for many years as a commercial photographer I’ve been involved with copyright questions my whole adult life, and yet I found that I had little of the knowledge needed by a teacher. When I took the Fair Use and Copyright Quiz I scored a humbling 50%. This means that, in spite of trying to apply what I know, my answers were no better than random. Sometimes I erred in the direction of being too conservative in my interpretation and sometimes my error was in the opposite direction.

Still, it is important to have an idea of how to identify whether potentially copyrighted materials can legally be used by both teachers and students. An image that is out of copyright is said to be in the public domain. It used to be fairly easy to know if something was in the public domain: it was either old, created with government funding (for example all NASA images) or was identified as being in the public domain. However, copyright law is subject to both changes by congress and re-interpretation by the courts. This leaves copyright laws subject to ongoing interpretation, and uses deemed legitimate are not always clear. Not always, but sometimes. For example most software is copyrighted and has a usage license— that annoying checkbox where you always answer yes or you don’t get to use it. Software is routinely shared or otherwise obtained illegally by students (and teachers and many others) who justify using it illegally by the fact that they are poor and/or not using it to make money. Music downloads also fall into this frequently ignored but clearly illegal category. I do believe that the creators have a right to make money from their efforts, and that we as teachers need to model for, and educate students about, this issue. 

Unfortunately, many other kinds of usage fall into “gray areas” where it is not so obvious. For example, showing students the video of a movie as a reward for good behavior is a violation of copyright because it is not licensed for public showing. However, under other circumstances showing all or part of the film could be legal under fair use. The rules for use can be complicated, imprecise and subject to change at any time.

Here’s a chart showing some major changes to the length of copyright protection over the years:

I believe I’m allowed to show this chart. I copied it from: Langran, E., Langran, R., & Bull, G. (2005). It seems no more than factual, and I could recreate it in a few minutes. I don’t believe it’s copyrightable.

But what about this chart?:

It’s from an article called Copyright Length And The Life Of Mickey Mouse. The copyright act of 1999, while technically called the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (which is funny enough) is frequently referred to as the “Mickey Mouse Act” because the Walt Disney company is well known for spending millions of dollars in political donations and lobbying for extensions that just happen to keep all their characters under copyright.

According to what I’ve read, to qualify for fair use, four factors must be weighed in considering whether I can safely use this chart in this blog: 1. Purpose of use 2. Nature of the work 3. Amount used 4. Effect on the market.

My “purpose of use” for this chart is education, which would qualify for fair use, although I do want to be entertaining too. If my primary intent is entertainment, how much educational intent is enough? The “nature” of the chart is certainly more creative than the first example, so I believe it would be copyrightable. In fact, legally any creative work is considered copyrighted at the moment of creation. Applying for and receiving proof of copyright gives additional rights for economic redress, but technically it’s copyrighted whether or not it is registered with the U.S. Copyright Office, and regardless of whether it appears with a © symbol. As far as “amount used”— this is not a very precise term. I’m using 100% of the chart, but the chart constitutes only a small percentage of the article that I copied it from. Still, I’m not sure I can depend on this to protect my fair use rights. Finally, I’d say my “effect on the market”, i.e. how much my using this chart will diminish the creator’s ability to earn money from it is nil. After balancing all four of these factors I believe I’m virtually 100% safe in using this chart. I say virtually, because if the creator of the chart disagrees they could conceivably sue me and it would be a matter for the courts to decide. For practical matters the creator would probably ask me to take it down under the threat of action, and if I didn’t take it down they would still have to balance the likely court awarded damages against the cost and likelihood of successfully pressing a court case.

Still, each case is different. The article What is fair use? gives an example of a Jeff Koons artwork that used an advertising photo as part of a larger artwork. Koons was sued for copyright infringement but the court ruled it was fair use. I am surprised that the article didn’t also mention a case where Jeff Koons lost. Koons used a black and white photo of a man and a

woman with their arms full of puppies by photographer Art Rogers as the basis for a sculpture.

The Wikipedia article on this case describes the situation, “After removing the copyright label from the postcard, he gave it to his assistants with instructions on how to model the sculpture. He asked that as much detail be copied as possible, though the puppies were to be made blue, their noses exaggerated, and flowers to be added to the hair of the man and woman. The sculpture, entitled, String of Puppies, became a success. Koons sold three of them for a total of $367,000. Upon discovering that his picture had been copied, Rogers sued Koons and the Sonnabend Gallery for copyright infringement. Koons admitted to having copied the image intentionally, but attempted to claim fair use by parody.” A judge disagreed and Koons was forced to share all proceeds from the work with the photographer.

So Jeff Koons’ use of the photograph to create a sculpture was not ruled fair use and he owed the copyright owner compensation, but I believe, using the four criteria, my use of the two copyrighted works in this blog is. 

Another fair use case decided against the appropriator involves the iconic Barack Obama poster created Shepard Fairey in 2006. 

He admitted to downloading the photo of Obama from Google Images in order to create the poster, but claimed he had no idea who had actually taken the photo. According to an article on TechDirt.com this information was easily obtained: “a photo journalist from Philadelphia named Tom Gralish had tracked down the original photograph -- complete with a copyright credit to freelance photographer Mannie Garcia, who was apparently on assignment from the Associated Press.” Fairey licensed the poster image to a company for use on clothing and other merchandise and the Associated Press sued for copyright infringement. It took until March 16, 2011 for the case to be settled (with no admission of guilt) in a profit sharing agreement. Clearly, copyright lawsuits are expensive for everyone involved and the outcomes are far from certain.

School districts understandably want to avoid any chance of an expensive lawsuit, and hold teachers accountable in making sure they and their students do not violate copyright laws. Copyright infringement is also technically theft and there are also moral issues for both teachers and students. We, as teachers, should both model for students and explicitly teach students to respect copyright. Unfortunately, I believe the blurry border between fair use and copyright infringement can lead to student’s rejecting the whole concept. In thinking back to courses I’ve taken at MSU, I believe there were many infringements by the professors. The same is true in many classrooms I’ve been in as a substitute teacher. When the scrutiny of permitted uses are taken to an extreme it is virtually impossible to avoid the possibility of breaking the law. Unfortunately, this tends to create an atmosphere where the law is viewed as stupid or inequitable. This also creates an situation where these minor violations are never enforced which reinforces the perception that the law is both unfair and ignorable. The playing of videos in class is an example. Just like with software, having purchased the video doesn’t mean you own the content and the content owner can restrict what the video is used for, in this case not for showing to an audience. In the article Are you the copy cop? the authors state “showing entertainment videos to keep students occupied during rainy days recess, for perfect attendance rewards, or for assorted babysitting activities” are a violation of copyright. However, this is so specific that I’m not sure that other uses of the same video wouldn’t be covered by fair use. For example, if I’m teaching music and show Fantasia, and then have the students discuss the use of music with images is this fair use? How much discussion or writing would make it legal? Do I have to only show a part of it? If so, how much is legal? This same article suggests that photocopying by teachers should be monitored and “If a teacher requests copies of an item that may be copyrighted, it should be returned to the building principle for his or her signature before the print job is completed.” Isn't this fun!?

I wish that we, as teachers, could concentrate on the obvious copyright issues and ignore the gray areas and minor indiscretions. Unfortunately, from these articles and my knowledge of bureaucracies (such as schools), it appears the weight of this will fall increasingly on the teachers, so we might as well be ready to take it on.

Week 8: Integration of Technology Into the Classroom

This week we explored examples of incorporating technology into the classroom from the Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) produced by the Florida Center for Instructional Technology. The assignment called for analyzing one of the ‘1-1 access’ or ‘Shared access’ activities from the matrix on this page. 

However, there is a “newly revised and expanded Technology Integration Matrix” that is under development. After looking at videos on both sites, I decided to use an example from this new matrix. 

This updated Matrix includes examples from four different content areas (math, science, social studies and Language Arts) and, as a future science teacher, I found it helpful to see examples that translate more directly to what I want students to learn. The examples are a work in progress, and I would have liked more examples from Middle and High Schools, and I suspect that others would agree with me that some of the examples are not all that good. One example that I liked is at “Authentic Learning|Infusion Level| Science.” Students work in groups of four, and each student takes on a different role (scientist, mathematician, sociologist or technologist), to explore a scientific problem.

I believe having each student have something specific for which they are responsible accomplishes several worthwhile learning goals. First, no student can shirk their own responsibility, so it encourages equal contribution by all the team members. Second, each student becomes the expert in their own area, but needs to communicate what they know (acting as instructor) to the other three “researchers”. Third, they experience how complex problems are usually solved by groups rather than individuals. Fourth, the use of technology and the internet flow naturally from the assignment, as does presenting what is learned by combining everyone’s contribution into a presentation that includes the use of technology. I think these are all useful for students, and all of these, with the possible excepting of my first point, encompass 21^st century learning goals.

As a good example of using technology in the classroom, the assignment naturally addresses a number of specific National Technology Standards (NETS) for teachers. These include 1.b “engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources”; 2.a “design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity”; 3.d “model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning”.

This course has made me more aware of ways to both use technology in my teaching and encourage students to learn or improve their own use of technology to aid their own learning. However, I am still reflecting on how, and how much, to emphasize technology integration in my teaching. In looking at the descriptions on the Technology Integration Matrix, I find it hard to place my own current level of proficiency. I see areas which can be incorporated into nearly every lesson, and areas which I would hope to incorporate into some lessons. However, some of the goals seem more appropriate for either elementary school teachers or for whole schools to embrace as they seem outside the power of most teachers, at least in the higher grades. For example,  “Infusion: The teacher creates a learning environment that infuses the power of technology tools throughout the day across subject areas”. Other goals seem as if they could only be achieved with the kinds of radical changes to how we teach, such as “flipping” as described in this TED lecture by Khan Academy founder Salman Kahn. For example, “Transformation: The teacher creates a rich learning environment in which students regularly engage in activities that would have been impossible to achieve without technology” to me implies less time listening to lectures and more time doing. As a believer in the need for students to acquire the basic content knowledge to learn effectively, I believe this could only be accomplished if this knowledge is learned outside of class so that class time can be spent exploring what students have learned. Until I saw the above talk I didn’t have a vision of how this could be accomplished, so I’d recommend it if you are not familiar with this idea.

With the above in mind, I would hope to achieve— on at least one or two assignments during a semester— the highest level of Transformation,  However, on an every day level I’d place myself more at the lower level of Adoption, “The teacher directs students in the conventional use of tool-based software”, or Adaptation, “The teacher directs students in the conventional use of tool-based software.” 

After what I’ve been learning in this course, I can at least now say that I’m looking forward to seeing how I can increase student learning by incorporating the use of technology by both myself and by my students.

Week 7: Using a blog to supplement information from class.

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For my biology classes, I plan on having the students maintain their own blogs in which they will post their thoughts related to what they are learning in class, as well as discuss science articles that they find on their own. For my podcast I chose to explain in more detail both where to look for articles and what they should think about when choosing and writing about them. I think this is something that some students may already be comfortable with, and that others may need more explicit instruction in both the methods and the thinking needed. Podcasts seem like they could be an excellent way to make this information available to those who need extra help without boring those that don’t with long explanations in class.


I am using Garage Band and my .mac account which also allows me to add still images to the podcast, however, the format is M4A which is called “enhanced”. When I save it as an MP3 I lose the images. I don’t know if it’s possible to get the enhanced files to show on our blogs, but I’d like to, as I always learn better myself when I have something to look at.


Here is a link to the Podcast on .Mac which has the images. If you are interested, you can compare the difference. If I could embed the M4A file on this blog you would just have the small player window in the middle of the page. You will see that the player offers more control than the PodBean player. You can easily move forward and backward to skip or replay sections. I didn't do it for this podcast, but you can also mark "chapters" to allow moving directly to the section you want to review.


I did try to make the podcast understandable (and interesting) for someone who wasn’t looking at the images. In any case, I believe a series of podcasts like these would be a valuable resource for students that need more help with the technology, and/or the thinking needed. I know that sometimes after I have started an assignment I realize there are parts of it I don’t understand; I like that student’s can listen to the directions again if they realize there is some part they don’t understand. Reading (and writing) step-by-step directions can be tedious, and I think learning this kind of information from a podcast instead might be easier.


I don’t know why Blogger doesn’t support the “enhanced” M4A files which allow images. BeanPod can use these files, so it’s not a proprietary format issue, but when I tried to embed that BeanPod code I got an error message on my Blog. Perhaps there is another blog host that does support these files?