Copyright

There were a lot of things that surprised me about copyright.  The first noticeable thing I saw was how confusing the laws are and how many different types of exceptions there are depending on what these things are being used for.  I was also surprised to see how many different court cases there are out there that have been brought to the supreme court for final ruling.  This is a very sensative topic and teachers need to be very aware of what they are allowd and not allowd to bring into the classroom for teaching.  They also need to be aware of what the right and wrong ways are of using someone elses materials in the classroom.

I have seen several movies used in the classroom that have had nothing to do with the curriculum that was being taught at the time.  I have also seen teachers take workbooks and materials that they have purchased on their own to reproduce and teach off of in their own classrooms.  Some violations outside of the classroom are when my friends and I make copies and barrow music from each other to save money rather than purchasing the music.  I believe it is an educators job to teach our students about copyright and it's laws, however there is a lot to know about it, so I think it should be taught incrimentally to young students.  Beginning with not pawning off someone elses work as their own.  Then teaching them how to come up with their own ideas, but if they need to use some of someone elses work that they need to give credit to them and gradually increase this as students get older.