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//Middle School Science Wikis//
You have several seventh grade science classes collaborating on wikis. Students are divided into groups and are collecting information on each of the kingdoms of living organisms. The wikis are used to present the information, including some slide presentations and graphics your students have created. Your Monera kingdom group has been doing extremely creative work and has created an impressive presentation on bacteria. The group has received a request by a teacher to use some of their graphics on bacteria cell structure for a project at a school in a nearby state. The students who created the work would get credit for their contribution, and the request is for two graphics out of over a dozen in the presentation. How do you advise your students?
 * Scenario:**

Most teachers and all students are relatively unaware of their digital responsibilities regarding the use of pictures, video, and music from the web. This scenario provides a teachable moment about the Fair Use provisions of Copyright law as it applies to the use of multimedia elements derived from the web. Kids and most adults for that matter generally think they can use whatever they find on the web for their own use. Even if they've heard about Copyright Law they tend to think that the FAIR USE provisions of the law give them unrestricted access to anything on the Internet as long as they are using it for educational purposes/projects.
 * Student and Teacher Copyright Information:**


 * The Fair Use provisions of the Copyright Law do relax the permissions required of students and educators with regard [[image:http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/2090542246_fac559675c_m.jpg align="right" caption="Image From; http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/2090542246_fac559675c_m.jpg" link="@http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2218/2090542246_fac559675c_m.jpg"]]to the use of digital media in an educational setting; however, limits still exist on the number of pictures (no more than 25 per project, 5 per source); the length of a song (30 seconds or 10% whichever is less); and the length of a video (3 minutes or 10%) allowed to be used without asking permission from the owner. Even if Fair Use does not require written permission from the author of the content it does suggest that you cite the source.


 * Creative Commons licensing is a way to avoid the confusion about copyright. Creative Commons provides users with multimedia content that can be copied, distributed, edited, and remixed all within the boundaries of copyright law. Depending on the CC rating, you generally don’t need to ask permission to use the digital content; however, you should cite the content to give credit to the creator.

The request that the Monera Kingdom group received from another teacher to use two of their graphics on bacteria cell structure would be a good time to discuss their options depending on whether or not they own the copyright on their images.
 * Advice for Students:**

If the images requested are originals from the students, then a good option would be to create a Flickr Photostream with the Creative Commons Usage Rights of their choosing. The teacher could create their own Flickr account or one for the students, upload the graphics, and then select the usage rights that the students agreed upon. The teacher who requested the graphics could then be directed to the Photostream to access the images. More information about Creative Commons Licensing can be found at the Creative Commons website About The Licenses.

If the students do not own the rights to the graphics, it would be advisable to ensure that the students understood that they are covered by the Fair Use provisions of copyright and/or Creative commons as long as they attribute the source. The Monera group should check that they did cite the source of the two pictures in question. In this case, it would be important to explore how the "other" teacher intends to use the pictures of the Monera group. Fair Use only covers use of Internet multimedia content for class projects in a closed educational setting. Once the project goes beyond that, Fair Use provisions no longer apply. For example, if the project is going to be shown to a larger audience like a school assembly, or be used for competitive purposes like a science fair then permission to use it needs to be acquired. Creative Commons licensing is more liberal than Fair Use. Again depending on the CC rating, once you attribute the picture permission to use is not required no matter what the venue is. If the pics are not licensed under CC the teacher of the Monera group needs to email the other teacher to get the specifics of how she intends to use the pictures.

For additional resources on Fair Use and Copyright law, a downloadable PowerPoint is available. Slides 39 to 48 address Internet and Multimedia use: Students can view the BrainPop video on Copyright [|here]. (If your school does not have a subscription, a free trial is offered.) Here is a great wiki on Creative Commons. It lists many additional CC sites for video, pics, and music besides Flickr. Students can also use [|Creative Commons] A multimedia CC search that searches across [|Google], [|Flickr], [|Yahoo!], [|BlipTV], [|SpinXpress], and [|OWL Music Search].
 * Resources:**