On Monday evening, Millersville’s Student-Pennsylvania State Education Association hosted a program on copyrights that took aim at informing education students on laws pertaining to copyrights.
The program, held at Stayer Hall, included a presentation by education Professor Jon Landis. Mr. Landis, accompanied by a PowerPoint presentation, was extremely knowledgeable of copyright laws and gave very helpful tips on how to avoid violating these laws.
Copyright laws are infringed upon daily in classrooms across the country and can end up costing districts thousands of dollars and can even cost some educators their teaching licenses. “Teachers have a right to make decisions for their students and only their students,” said prof. Landis.
Many of us can recall being rewarded in grade school with a movie the day before winter break; this in fact is very illegal unless the school owns a performance license.
On the other hand, teachers are allowed to bend some rules, such as; if a teacher records a TV special that is applicable to their curriculum, they can show it up until 10 days after the air-date. Following the 10 days, the tape must be destroyed.
Channels such as PBS and Discovery Channel allow educators a whole year to show one of their shows in a classroom, and some shows, such as Reading Rainbow, allow unlimited use.
Most schools try to stay away from showing movies in class, but if need be, they stress face-to-face teaching be integrated with the movie.
Mr. Landis could not have been more charismatic during his presentation, and proved to have an answer for every question.
Professor Landis has been doing presentations about copyright laws for a few years, and when asked why he does it, he simply replied, “To keep teachers safe.”
Students who attended the event will now be sure to play it safe when they graduate and become teachers themselves.
Loading ...
`