Updating Copyright Information Jolaine Sims, Media Specialist Buchanan Elementary School Buchanan, Georgia

I really enjoy attending the GaETC conference each year. It helps to get ideas relating to technology, media, etc. from others. I don’t like dealing with copyright issues, but as the media specialist I’m the copyright representative for my school. I decided I needed an update and attended the session “Copyright in the Electronic Age”.  The presenter was Aleph H. Fore, Instructional Technology Director for Heart of GA RESA. She made a potentially boring topic interesting and incorporated technology into her presentation.

It was good to be reminded of the Copyright law and to learn how it is effecting electronic information. She began with a discussion of the 1976 Copyright Act. Then she gave us guidelines for educational multimedia projects from the 1994 Conference on Fair Use (CONFU). While these are not official they do give “reasonable” measures. I found more information at www.ptc.edu/copyright_center/CONFU.htm. From the information that was shared at the conference, I prepared a handout for the teachers and staff to give them a copyright update. The handout includes how much electronic media may be used in students’ projects, how to request permission to use Internet copyrighted work, and what kind of records should be kept after permission is granted. This information would be especially helpful when students are creating Web sites or PowerPoint for competition. I emailed the copyright update to the faculty and staff at my school. I’ve already received two replies thanking me for the handout.

At the beginning of each year I give each member of our faculty and staff a handout summarizing copyright issues. They are provided the opportunity to discuss the handout at a faculty meeting. I try to make sure that they know that I will be glad to help them find answers to any copyright questions they may have. I will include my new information with my yearly handout. I will also keep the handouts that Ms. Fore provided for us in my copyright file to help answer copyright questions.  While I don’t have many opportunities to deal with copyright issues, I hope that the information that I received from the GaETC conference that I shared with the faculty and staff from my school will help each of us as we make every effort to abide by the copyright laws.         

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