Licenses and Copyrights in the classroom

Teachers presently face many questions and challenges in terms of using copyrighted materials in the classroom. Before the lesson on copyrights, I had many questions regarding which materials could be used and the legality of that use but those questions and concerned were eased by the end of the lesson. First of all teachers must be aware of what materials they are able to use by determining what licenses the material possesses. The most crucial factor is recognizing which materials are usable and which ones are not. During the lesson my group mate and I researched the license CC BY-SA, which was a type of license that allows the materials to be used/adopted and altered as long as the one doing the adopting recognizes that they post license the new work under the same license and same criteria. For instance, if I were to compose a song and license it under CC BY-SA, it would be available to the public on my website. However, if someone were to take my song and change the chorus, their new song would need to have the same license as my original work and this new piece would also be available to the public for adaptation or alteration.

           In the case of the students, a teacher must be aware of what can legally be used and posted on the internet. Teachers must be capable of preventing copy right infringement of their students by understanding the different licenses.

           I feel the best way to address copyright in the classroom is to limit students ability to take/gather others materials and present them together in a project. Instead, I would encourage the use of such items as tools to developing and expanding ideas and I would do my best to discourage any unlawful materials to be used. The exception to the rule would be materials licenses under terms that allow them to be freely altered, in this instance I would allow my students to utilize these resources as long as I explain the terms of the license. I would also feel an obligation to alert the students to the fact that since they took parts from others work to make their own, that new work must be released under the same conditions.

Flipped classroom

I think the flipped classroom is a great idea. It enables teachers to utilize classroom time more efficiently and have a more direct impact on answering questions or leading discussions. By using video and audio online to teach students at home and using the class time to clarify and help the instruction teachers are able to double their impact on the students. The video benefits students because they can use it as a tool for learning, they are able to pause, rewind and re-watch the videos so that the instruction can be fully understood. In the future I plan to use the idea of the flipped classroom more and more once I am comfortable with my teaching technique.

2 Blogs:
History=http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/mission-dialogue-christianity-wake-indian-independence-audio  while both of these podcasts are meant for higher education classes, they offer great advantages to both students and teachers. The podcasts featured by Oxford offer an in depth look at India in the wake of British control and they can teach a great deal on the subject. While this particular podcast is a bit advanced for students in high schools, there are many more in the internet that can be used with great success, the trick is finding an accurate, detailed, credible podcast to feature in the classroom.
Other=http://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/intergenerational-justice-what-do-we-owe-future-generations-hilary-term-seminar-series-2011  this podcast examines our decisions in the past and present and the effects they will have on our future generations and the planet. This is more a human behavior and sociology theme but ties closely with social studies and social sciences. This podcast could help my students better understand the decisions we have made and the consequences of those decisions.