Are We Responsible Users of Technology?

When first looking at our question for our blog for the week, I immediately began to think about workbook pages and textbook pages that I have copied for use in my classroom. In any type of educational program or institution, the funds for buying materials for the entire classroom is not usually a feasible plan. When looking at the Copyright Act of 1976 (Chapter 4: Basics of Copyright Law), it is interesting to see that once an original work is created, it immediately becomes protected by copyright laws. This got me thinking about how professors allow us to look at other WebQuests for ideas on our own WebQuest or even our ePortfolios. How legal is that? I thought that by getting ideas, as long as I am not fully taking their ideas as my own, would not amount to copyright infringment. But in reality, it would be taking their ideas since I would possibly use some parts of their ideas as my own unintentionally. It might be a color scheme that looks interesting or how the page was set up. All of this would be tied to the page's creator.

I feel it is really important that clear guidelines be set up by the school and the district to help make these concepts something that all teachers must have an understanding of. I know that many teachers at my school would have no knowledge of copyright laws and "fair use" policies. I know that this is not a valid reason but how many teachers really look into copyright laws even on a yearly basis. I know many teachers at my school who see nothing wrong with printing off entire workbooks for their classes. Does the teacher not know what he or she is doing is wrong, or do they not really care? In reality, if the teacher sees nothing wrong with what he or she is doing, what is going to stop them from teaching their students that this is acceptable? I think that this is one of the best reasons for increasing all teacher's knowledge of copyright laws and the consequences of breaking these laws.