Michael Marassa
Intellectual Property


Permission
Commentary


The majority of the readings appeared geared toward business infringement of property.   But the information in the first article (E. Pianfetti), some of which I will place here for review, I think best addresses the rights that educators and students do and do not have with regards to intellectual property.  Let look at Pianfetti's summary and then comment on applications to a middle school teacher.

Permitted Uses

Students

Students may use portions of legally acquired copyrighted materials in their own educational multimedia projects for a specific
course

* Students may retain project in a portfolio for personal use such as job and graduate school interviews.

* Students may perform and display project in the course for which it was created

Educators

Educators may use portions of legally acquired copyrighted materials when producing their own educational multimedia
projects for their own teaching tools in support of curriculum based instructional activities at educational institutions

* Face-to-face instruction

* Assigned to students for directed self-study

* Distance education

       o Secure electronic network with password protection

       o Technology prevents the making of copies

* Peer conferences

* Professional portfolio

-------------------------

 Limitations Time, Portion, Copying and Distribution

       Time: 2 years
       Portion: Motion media 10% or 3 minutes
       Text 1000 words
       Music: 10% or 30 seconds Entire
       Illustrations/ work / photos/ no more than 5 by one artist
       Numerical Data sets: 10% or 2500 fields
       Copying: 2 copies including the distribution original

Commentary

In terms of the middle school classroom, most of these concerns of student use do not worry me.  Currently my students are publishing documents, multimedia, and some web authoring, with resources being copied from the internet.  These student publications are being used for evaluation purposes only, and students are not taking these with them as part of their own portfolio of work.  If I was a high school educator, I might be more concerned, as students will be using these assignments possibly might serve as a portfolio for future college applications.

As for my own work ann publishing, I have used the internet and some of its information and graphics extensively in my work.  And yes, some of this work has been published online.  I have diligently tried to cite resources as they are used.  Most of my publishing has been for educational purposes: professional development and academic courses for students.  If there is anything this document has opened my eyes to, it is first the "rights" we as educators have with regards to Intellectual Property.  We seem to be given a "pass" so to speak for our educational endeavors, as long as we cite sources.  Second, in the long term of my teaching career, this document will serve as a resource for what I can and can't do with some presentations I may create.  The limitations sections of Pianfetti's document was very helpful.  Lastly, I think this information will serve me well if I ever endeavor into the role of a technology director.  This type of information will be vital in oversight of educators and their publishing.  I am quite surprised that I was not aware of the specifics; we educators that use technology need to know information such as this.

last updated 6.15.2000