beccablog, teacher-librarian

Last week, I was instructing a class for the book trailer project. Students read a book of their choice and then create a book trailer noting the characters, tone, mood, theme, and other literary elements that would fit the assignment.

For multimedia/digital assignments, we discuss the ethical use of information and how to correctly create a project using public domain images and music. Not only do we discuss the “how”, but also “why”. The “why can’t we use a song from my iPod” or “why can’t I grab any image off of a Google image search” seem to stump many students. Even after I show the students the many sites and Creative Commons searching, they seem to still think these laws are crazy.

So, I was flipping through Entertainment Weekly at lunch that day and saw that the Ellen DeGeneres Show is being sued for playing songs in their show’s intro without permission (September 25, 2009 issue). I began telling the students about this and light bulb! They began to understand that these rules have implications and it is not just “them” that has to follow such rules.

Image from Will Lion, Creative Commons