At the start of the start of this course, I never would have thought that copyright would have been the most interesting or informative part. As it turns out, I found it to be both and very applicable to what I am doing in the classroom. At the bottom of this post is a UBD “unit” that strives to teach students about copyright and fair use.

I really thought about how my views changed on the subject while in class. I think one of the hardest things about teaching is that you never remember how hard something was to learn once you actually learn it – because then it is easy. So when planning this unit about copyright and fair use, I really looked back to some of the things we did in COETAIL class.

I wanted to include some videos for several reasons. First, they are funny and catchy. I still sing that stupid “Copyright, What’s Copyright” song at random times during the day. One of main takeaways I want for students is that they are AWARE of these issues. Look no further than my post Teaching About Copyright to see how unaware my students are. Second is that they do a good job of getting some basic ideas out there. The videos are good discussion starters.

Another trick I borrowed from COETAIL is to have students use CC images and give attribution in their blog posts. I was kind of doing this before, but only because I had seen some COETAIL discussion on Twitter and professional blogs before taking the course.

Although I plan to run this mini-unit in the first semester next year, I am hoping to sneak in some of the ideas with my classes this year too. If I really believe it to be valuable (and I do), then I should be able to find the time. These issues are important.