Image via WikipediaI am certainly no copyright expert but I do have a knowledgeable friend that I consider the “Copyright Queen!” (Love you, Diana!) Regardless, I’m becoming more concerned with the copyright violations not of students, but of educators. The professionals who are to be modeling academic honesty are often prone to “let it slide” if the circumstances arise or because they feel it has “always been done that way.”
Now, to be clear, I am not guiltless. When I taught Math, I showed “Stand and Deliver” yearly to my Algebra students in El Paso. I shouldn’t have. It was a copyright violation. I want to say that was before we were so knowledgeable and there might be some truth to that but as they say “ignorance is not a defense.”
So, the truth is that we should not be showing movies in class without permission from the owners of the copyright. Period. When we do, we send a message to the students that it is acceptable to steal. There really is no other way around this harsh reality. It is what it is.
Now, sometimes, this is difficult when your school neighbor is catching up with grades while showing a captivating movie they’ve brought from home, I’ll grant you that. But, it still is wrong. And, the real crime is the message being sent to the students, which is that it is sometimes o.k. to break the law and to steal from another. Of course, we know it’s not o.k. but isn’t everyone doing it?
Unfortunately, yes, there are many educators that are continuing this practice. That just makes it more wrong in my humble opinion. It really is time for educators to come together and stop contributing to this mindset. If only for one voice, it really is time to stop and say “Not me, not this time.”
So many of us have the poster on our wall that reads something like “What is popular is not always right, what is right is not always popular.” Consider being the person who doesn’t give in to the “show a movie” temptation that usually follows TAKS. Don’t send the kids that message.
Carol Mortensen has nearly twenty-three years of educational experience. She began as a substitute teacher as she worked toward her degree. Upon graduation, Carol began teaching middle school Math and Algebra I and served as the technology liaison for her campus. She served as a teacher for 16 years and was lucky to have taught at Hillcrest Middle School, a 1:1 campus where every student was issued a laptop computer. She also worked as an Instructional Technology Trainer for her district providing training and technology integration support for campus and district staff, faculty and administrators. Currently, Carol enjoys her position as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist for Deer Park High School – South Campus. Before taking this position this year, she served for three years as the Campus Technology Integration Specialist at Fairmont Junior High in Deer Park Independent School District. In this position, Carol provides integration support and training to the students, staff, faculty, and administrators at the campus and district level. In addition, Carol is an online Math instructor for Aventa Learning and K12. The Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) named Carol the Classroom Teacher of the Year for her innovative and creative use of technology to create a 24/7 virtual classroom using her classroom website. Carol has presented at school districts throughout Texas as well as state and local conferences on a variety of technology integration topics. Her article on the use of websites as an instructional tool was recently published in the TechEdge Magazine. In February 2011, her article, Lessons Learning In a 1:1 Classroom, was published by TechEdge. The article was republished in ISTE’s Learning and Leading magazine in August 2011. She was named Fairmont Junior High’s Teacher of the Year for the 2011-2012 school year. Carol is passionate about the positive impact that technology has on student achievement. Her presentations are packed with real-life solutions, quality resources, and humor. She has an ability to connect with her audience and motivate them to take technology integration to a higher quality level.
