Copyright, Fair Use, and Public Domain Made Simple-r

I am often asked questions about what materials or media are OK for teachers and students to use for various purposes.  So, today I researched, and learned a lot about, Copyright, Fair Use, and Public Domain.  

The available information on this topic is voluminous and much of it is written in legal terms.   So,  I wanted to make a reference for myself and others that would be easy to understand.  

Here's what I found...

COPYRIGHT

Copyrighted material is any original content in fixed form.  Copyright gives the owner exclusive rights to the material and others must obtain permission from the author to use it.

Copyright does not include ideas in your head, government generated materials, titles, phrases, slogans, or other non-fixed materials.  It is not legal to use copyrighted material without the permission of the author.  Copyright is automatic upon creation of your original work in fixed, tangible form.  Registration with the US Copyright Office is not needed for protection, unless you want to take someone to court for infringement.  Exceptions to copyright use are Public Domain and Fair Use (see below)

Creative Commons License:  A creative commons license is a copyright license that gives credit to the author while allowing others to have creative use of the material.  There are several types of Creative Commons licences.   Here is an overview:

PUBLIC DOMAIN

Not covered by copyright law for one of three reasons:

1.  Copyright has expired.  See here for more detailed information.

2.  Author put them in public domain.

3.  Not copyrightable - Ideas, slogans, government documents, etc.

FAIR USE

Legal use of copyrighted material.  When courts decide whether a copyrighted work qualifies for “fair use”, there is no clear definition.  However, here are the general guidelines:

1.  Purpose and Character 

• Is money being made from using the work?  Is it being used for personal or educational purposes?
• Has the work been transformed or used as is?

2.  Nature of Work 

• Factual work is more often considered fair when re-used, than creative work

3.  Relative Amount of Work Used 

• Was all, almost all, or the heart of the work used?
• How much is too much depends on the purpose of the seconds use (See #1)

1.  Effect on the Market

• Is the use of the material a substitute for the original?
• Uses for a different audience or purpose may be considered more fair.

The above Fair Use guidelines are not definite rules.  In general, courts are most interested in whether the use of copyrighted work was in good faith.

CONTENT USE GUIDELINES:

Checklist when using someone’s content:

• Check who owns it
• Get permission to use it, if necessary
• Give credit to the creator
• Buy it (if necessary)
• Use it responsibly
• What might be the consequence of using it?
• How would the owner or creator of the content react?

Rules of Thumb:  This document has actual “safe minimums” for use of multimedia content for educational purposes. It is posted on INFOhio.org, which is Ohio’s PreK-12 Digital Library.  I was not able to find any such information on our own MARVEL- Maine’s Virtual Library.

Sources & More Information:

Teaching Copyright:  http://www.teachingcopyright.org/handout/, See FAQs on Copyright, Fair Use, and Public Domain

Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

Common Sense Media: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/scope-and-sequence

How to Make a Long web Address (URL) Short

Do you have a website or a list of websites you want your students to visit?

Ideally, they might be posted on your website or printed as QR codes for students to simply click or scan for access.  Definitely BOOK ME if you are interested in these options.

In the event that students must type the URL into the browser, here is a VERY QUICK tip to get the URL as short as possible:

1. From the website you want to share with students, locate the web address (URL) and click on it once to highlight the whole thing.
   
   
   

2.  Hold down the Command key and press C to copy.

3.  Navigate to goo.gl

4.  Click in the "Enter Long URL Here:" window, hold down Control and press V to paste.

5.  Click the Shorten URL button.  That's it!

Extra Bonus:  Clicking on the "Details" Button just under your URL will also give you a QR Code that people can scan to get to your URL.

Viewing Websites That use Flash on the iPad

Viewing sites that use Flash on the iPad is a frequent frustration for some teachers, not just at RSU57, but all over Maine (at least).  Unfortunately, there are currently no awesome & free solutions.  

The only way to view Flash on the iPad is to use a "flash browser".  After much discussion and comparing notes with other Integrators, I have discovered that there are three, and ONLY three, viable flash browsers.  They are as follows:

Rover - Free, but limited to vendors who "partner" with them.  They pressure you (the user) to pressure the vendor (website owner) to "partner" with them.  So, many popular educational sites which use Flash, cannot be viewed via Rover.  Rover does filter content though.

Puffin - Free for 30 days and then $2.99.  It is eligible for the MLTI volume discount ($1.50).  Puffin does not filter content (but neither does Safari or Google).  Puffin can tend to get very slow when many students are using it at once.

Photon EDU - Currently on sale for $4.99 but not eligible for volume discount.  This one has no limitations that I have heard from anyone.  People using it say that they love it.  It has a back end that can black/white list certain sites.   

If it is not possible to budget for the needed apps, here are some possible workarounds:

1.  Check with the owner of the site you wish to use.  Many Companies are quickly realizing that they are going to lose huge numbers of users if they continue to use Flash, so they either create a html version of their site or develop an App.  It may be that the site owner will soon launch an App.

2.  Find financing from a donor.  some possible donors are donorschoose.org, Local Lions Clubs, or even Walmart may donate iTunes cards to a local school if asked.

3.  Research (or ask me to research) a similar site which does not use Flash.  

While I debated posting an article that does not provide a great solution, the question about Flash on the iPad regularly pops up.  Hopefully, it is helpful to at least have the facts.

Easy Peasy Parent Conference Scheduling

Use YouCanBook.Me to schedule your parent conferences.

All you have to do is log in with your RSU57 email, set your availability and other preferences, and provide parents with the link to your page.

Parents simply click your link, select an available time slot, fill out a little information that you specify, and...blam!  They are on your Google Calendar.  You will receive an email informing you that you have been booked.

Here's how...

1.  Go to https://youcanbook.me/

2.  Click "I already have a Google account."

3.  Choose your rsu57.org email account.

4.  Click "allow access' to allow YouCanBook.Me to access your Google Calendar.

5.  Once you are logged in, click on the "Manage Tab" and then "Launch Settings Editor".

Basics Tab:
Here you can set your customized URL, add a logo, and choose the text that parents will see when they click your link.

Times Tab:
Here is where you set what your available schedule is, what the smallest and largest time increment someone can book you for, if you want padding between appointments, and how far from right now you want to allow someone to book.

Booking Form Tab:
Here is where you specify what information you need to gather from the parent who is scheduling the appointment.  Possibly names of others attending, student name, concerns, or contact information.

You can click through other tabs and change settings as you like.  I didn't bother with much of the advanced stuff.

6.  Once you have made all desired changes, click on the Dashboard pull down and select Publish.

7.  Copy/Paste the displayed URL for your YouCanBook.Me to your parent communication.  You can put it in an email, on your website, or even make a QR code for people to simply scan with a mobile device.

I think you will LOVE how your calendar fills up in a way that is effortless to you.

My link is sarahglatzrsu57.youcanbook.me , so go ahead and book me!

iOS 7 Lock Screen Rotation, AirPlay, and Search

After upgrading to iOS 7, I promptly got stuck trying to figure out where to lock my screen rotation, use AirPlay to connect to a computer or Apple TV, and search my iPad.  These things are very simple, but not where they used to be.  Check it out!

In iOS 6, a double-click of the Home button would bring up the Control Center where I could lock the screen rotation or connect to another device.

Quick Classroom Data Collection

Here are three methods of quickly getting an opinion from your students.  These will all work in a 1:1 iPad classroom.  If you want to try one or all of these and you think it would be easier if I just showed it to you, give me a holler and I'll stop by.  It will only take a minute!

Note:  Socrative and PollEverywhere are anonymous response systems, which are great for quick student access and getting a pulse on how students REALLY feel about a topic.  However, if you have concerns about your students posting inappropriate comments, it may be wise to stick with multiple choice questions rather than open-ended.

Socrative

Website:  www.socrative.com
Student website:  m.socrative.com

 How it works:  Teacher creates an initial account (one time task).  Teacher simply chooses, from the menu, which type of question or quiz to use (multiple choice, true/false, short answer, etc.)  and GO!  Teacher screen will display a "room number".  Teacher asks a question verbally.

Students simply go to m.socrative.com.  No login is needed for students.  The screen says "room number" with a "Join Room" button.  Student joins the room, selects the answer and then results for all students are displayed on the teacher screen.

It is quick and easy to add more questions while students are already in the "room".

Features:

• Quick data collection.  
• Anonymous student response.
• Questions posed verbally.
• No student login.
• Easy to ask multiple consecutive questions.
• Students can respond from desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device.

PollEverywhere

Website:  http://www.polleverywhere.com/

How it works:  Teacher creates an initial account (one time task).   Teacher creates a poll, selecting either "Open Ended" or "Multiple Choice".  For Open-Ended there are four choices on how to display the results and for Multiple Choice, any number of answers greater than one can be added.  Teacher writes the answer choices (if Multiple Choice).


Students read the question on the teacher's display.  To respond, students follow on screen directions.  They will either go to PollEv.com and type in the number corresponding to their selected answer or they will text message to a number with the number corresponding to their selected answer.

Features:

• Quick data collection.  
• Anonymous student response.
• Ability to save and re-use previous polls.
• Questions printed on the screen.
• No student login.
• Students can respond from desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device.

Padlet

Website:  www.padlet.com

How it works:  Anyone can go to padlet.com and click "Create Wall".  A unique URL is generated for your "wall", which is like a bulletin board.  Simply share the URL and everyone can add sticky notes to the wall.  Walls can be named and the URL can be saved and shared, so the participants can add ideas to the wall at a later time.   Teacher may log in, if desired, so as to save, organize, and access all

of his or her previously created walls.

Features:

• Quick data collection.
• Participants can "vote" or add ideas more than once.
• Optional to add name or anonymous.
• No login necessary for anyone.
• Optional teacher login provides additional functionality.
• Ability to post links, upload files, or take photos.
• Can name board appropriately and save forever.
• Walls can be embedded on websites or linked from anywhere by URL
• Students can respond from desktop, laptop, iPad, iPhone, or other mobile device.

How to Sync Contacts and Calendars from Gmail to iPad

You have a new iPad and you want to compose an email, but your school contacts are not showing up when you start typing a name in the To: field?  

Let's sync those contacts!

1. Open the Settings application on your device.

2. Select Mail, Contacts, Calendars.

3. Select Add Account…

4. Select Microsoft Exchange

5. Enter your FULL gmail email address: email@spsdme.org

6. Enter your spsdme.org email password.  

7. Description is optional. I used "Google Sync"

8. Tap the Next button.  

9. Enter Server: m.google.com (see below)

10. Type your entire name@spsdme.org gmail address in the Username field. (see example right)

11. Tap the Next button.  

12. Turn all sliders to the ON position.

13. Tap the Save button.

Your email, contacts, and calendars will begin to sync right away.

Lock an iPad to a Single Page or Application Using Guided Access

Locking the iPad to a single application or web page can be useful if a student needs to stay focused on one thing without "wandering off" to search the web or check other things on the iPad.  Additionally, Guided Access will be used to lock iPads into the NWEA Testing on the iPad.

Turning on Guided Access must be done on each iPad.  As far as I know, it cannot be done remotely or for groups of iPads at one time.

Here is the Apple documentation for turning on and using Guided Access.

And below is a 3 minute video that I made demonstrating how to set and use Guided Access.

Easy Peasy Inbox Cleanup!

Is your inbox cluttered with months and months of messages?  No time to sort them all?  

No problem!

That is what Gmail's Archive function is for.  Archive will file all selected emails, removing them from your inbox.  Archived emails are stored with the label All Mail so they can still be accessed if needed.

Here's how...

For this example, I will archive everything older than 30 days.

1.  Type the following into your email search field:  in:inbox before:YYYY/MM/DD

2.  Click the check box at the top of the email list to select all as shown below.  

3.  Click on the link that says "Select all messages that match this search" so as to include ALL documents, even ones you can't see on later pages.

4.  Now simply click the Archive button as shown below.

You're done!

Remember, you can locate your archived email messages by using the search feature or by browsing the label All Mail.

Use Twitter to Apply Bloom's Taxonomy

I recently read an article on www.educatorstechnology.com touting Twitter as a means to apply Bloom's Taxonomy.  I thought it had some great ideas.  Twitter plays a huge role in our culture and I am a strong believer that it is our job, as educators, to help students navigate that culture, make responsible decisions, and valuable contributions.

Here is the graphic from the article.

Gmail - Multiple Email Addresses, One Email Account

Why would you want to have multiple email addresses going to one inbox?   At school, this can be very useful if you want your students to sign up for a site, such as a blog or Evernote, which require a unique email.

Here is the idea.   Students log in with a variation of your email.  Gmail will not see the variation, but your email filter will.  So all the varied email addresses come to your account, yet you can use a filter to route them to a folder or otherwise handle them.

It works like this:  Google does not recognize the following as different:

• The dot (.)
• Anything after a plus (+) sign
• @googlemail.com

Example:

Suppose your email address is firstlast@gmail.com.  The following unique addresses will also go to firstlast@gmail.com:

first.last@gmail.com
fi.rst.la.st@gmail.com
firstlast+1@gmail.com
firstlast+123@gmail.com
firstlast+middle@gmail.com
firstlast+m2@gmail.com
firstlast@googlemail.com
first.last@googlemail.com
firstlast+4@googlemail.com

and so on....

Some other reasons this could be useful:

Track spam - When you sign up for something on-line, use one of these aliases.  Later, when you start receiving promotional emails and you don't know why, check the To: field.  If the email is addressed to the alias you used to register for something, then you know where it is coming from.

Organize your mailbox - Use alias to register for sites that you use and then set email filters to sort the mail as it comes in.  Google search will recognize the unique address, but the gmail will ignore the variation.

Google Chrome Accessibility

Here are a few tools which can be used in Chrome to help with reading and writing.  Here are instructions to get them and my reviews of them.

To Obtain Chrome Extensions:
1.  Go to Google Chrome Store.
2.  Search for the desired extension (ie. "dictation"0.
3.  Click the Add to Chrome button.

4.  Done!  An icon for the extension will be in the upper right corner of the Chrome screen.

To Manage your extensions (turn off/on or delete):
1.  Click the three bars in the upper right corner of the Chrome Screen.

 
2.  Click the Settings option from the pull-down menu.
3.  Click the Extensions link from the selections on the left.
4.  A list of your extensions will show up on the screen with options to edit them.

Here are the extensions....

Simple Dictation:  Covert your speech to text.

This Extension puts a microphone button in the upper right corner of the Chrome Screen.  Clicking on the microphone will open a window for dictation.  The dictation works pretty well.  It interpreted my speech as accurately as Dragon Dictation or Apple's Speech to Text.  The application interpreted my spoken punctuation and "new line" commands as well.

There is no STOP button.  The application stops listening and types when there is a pause in speech.  Therefore, it is not designed for essays or longer dictations.  I was able to get three or four sentences in, but only with a little pre-planning.  I wouldn't have been able to do this by stream of consciousness.  When speaking is resumed, the new text replaces the existing.  On a positive note, the applications saves previous dictations and it is possible to cut and paste them.

Once the speech is interpreted and the text is showing on the screen, there is one option:  "compose email".  The text can be cut and pasted into another document.

This tool could be fun to play with, but I think it would take a lot of perseverance for a student to use it for a writing accommodation.

Read & Write for Chrome

Once Read and Write is Downloaded, the Read&Write tab will appear above any Google Doc. It looks like this:

Click on the Read&Write tab to see a sub-menu:

Hover over each icon to reveal its function.  They are as follows:

Dictionary - Highlight a word and click the dictionary icon to get the definition.  Not only does the definition pop up, but it is in a very simple, readable format; highlighting the definition and clicking on the play button will read the definition aloud.

Picture Dictionary - Highlight a word and click the picture dictionary icon to see images relating to the word.  (In my test, this worked for dog, money, and plowed, but could not find an image for trudge or snowblower. ).  The images can be cut and pasted directly into the google document.

Play - Highlight text and click on the play icon.  The sentence being read will be highlighted yellow, while each word is highlighted blue as it is read aloud.  

Pause - Pauses text being spoken aloud.

Stop - Stops text from being spoken.

Fact Finder - Select text and click fact finder icon to initiate a web search on the selected text.  This feature worked consistently well in my tests.   

Translate - Translates selected text.  I was unable to determine how this is supposed to work.   Highlighting text and clicking on translate icon did bring up a dialog box with several choices for the word in a few languages.  However, I could not locate settings to change the language and the dialog box did not indicate what language each word was in.  I also tried to highlight a french word (fatigue) and choose translate.  It had the same effect as if it were in English.  This was not particularly useful and I could not readily find on-line documentation to help.

Collect Highlights - Use this tool to highlight multiple words or phrases and extract them to another document.  First, select each word or phrase and use the regular google tool bar to change the background color (or highlight).  Use one or more colors depending on how the selections will be organized.  Then click the Collect Highlights button.  All highlighted text will appear in another window for cutting and pasting. It can also be sorted by location or color.  

Vocabulary - This tool is used the same way that Collect Highlights is used.  Select each word to add to the vocabulary list by changing its background color.  Click the Vocabulary button to reveal a table showing each word, its definition, images of the item, and an editable field for your own notes.  This was pretty neat.

Here is a detailed video tutorial demonstrating use of the Read&Write for Chrome Extension:

Do You Want Your Google Spreadsheet to Get Your Attention When Due Dates Are Near?

Here is an example of how to get a spreadsheet cell to turn RED when a due date is approaching.  For this example, my spreadsheet will have red cells when the date is 7 days prior to today or today.  All other dates will be white.

Today's date is : January 28, 2013.

1.  Open or create Google spreadsheet.  If you need help doing this, contact me and I will come help!

2.  Hover the mouse over the desired date column to expose the down-arrow, then click the arrow for the pull-down menu.  (see below)

3.  Click on the Conditional Formatting option as shown just above to bring up the dialog box below.

4.  Change Text contains to Date is.  The box will change to add another option.

5.  Leave the second box on today.

6.  Click the box after the Background: option and choose the RED square.

7.  Click the link for +Add another rule.

8.  Change Text contains to Date is after.  

9.  In the next box, change today to in the past week.

10.  Click the box after the Background: option and choose the RED square.

11.  Click on the Save Rules button.

Note:

• Date is BEFORE in the past week shows dates which happened more than 7 days ago.
• Date is in the past week shows dates which are 7 days prior to today

END

Royalty Free Multimedia

If you want to use pictures, video, and music from the Internet for your projects, you have to be careful.  Copyright laws prohibit the use of other people's material without permission and/or a fee.

First it is important to understand the following two terms:

COPYRIGHT = The exclusive right of the owner to copy the material until the date when the copyright expires.

FAIR USE = An exception to a Copyright whereby a person can use copyrighted materials for creative, non-commercial use.  There are no exact rules when it comes to Fair Use.  When cases are brought to court, they are decided on a case-by-case basis.  Here are the guidelines courts use to decide whether or not the material was used fairly:

1.  Transformative Quality - Has the work been transformed to be used in a new and different way?  This would be favorable to copying it exactly as is.  

2.  Commercial or noncommercial - Courts are more likely to find fair use where the use is for noncommercial purposes.

3.   Fact or Fiction - A particular use is more likely to be considered fair when the copied work is factual rather than creative.

4.  The amount and substantiality - How much of the original work was copied?  Copying large portions of copyrighted material is not favorable unless it can be shown that it was necessary to get the point across.  (example:  a parody)

5.  The effect of the use upon the potential market value.   Is the material copied replacing the market value?  In other words, is the availability of the copied material a substitute for your or anyone else having to buy it?

creativecommons.org has a search tool for content that can be copied, distributed, edited, remixed and built upon.  There are some restrictions, for example, you may have to credit the author or something like that.  See the Licenses section to clarify each type.

HERE IS THE CREATIVE COMMONS SEARCH TOOL

Here is a 6 minute video on how to use Creative Commons and check licenses:

Music and Sounds:

Open Source Music Project - You can search on-line or subscribe to the podcast to have music show up  in your iMovie music list.

Free Music Archive provides free, high-quality, music in a wide range of genres.

PodSafe Audio locate and download free music for multimedia presentations.

Sound Bible is a resource for finding and downloading free sound clips, sound effects, and sound bites.

Royalty Free Music hosts music tracks that can be reused in numerous ways. (some music free for students/teachers only)

Jamendo is a source of free and legal music downloads.FindSounds - search for a sound and find wav files!

Pictures

openclipart.org
pics.tech4learning.com
flikr.com
dreamtime.com

Video

You may use Vimeo.com or YouTube.com, but please see the MLTI Minute video for instructions on checking the copyright of a video before using it.