TOPIC ONE: Copyright
TASK ONE: Discuss your understanding of your role as a language teacher in the correct use of copyrighted material and the internet. Use 250 words in your discussion.
Selecting the textbook for a (Romance) language course in a postsecondary institution is not the easiest thing to do. Beyond the pedagogical possibilities of a title, adopting a textbook implies multiple considerations about the financial implications of its use for a number of persons and entities. Mainly what it entails is a lot of limits that challenges the freedom of teaching. Dealing with instructional material is also dealing with a network of businesses tied to the education system.
In Canada, some institutions have agreements that compel them to use exclusively textbooks published in the US (as if there were no better options or not options at all) (*). The word ‘textbook’ here includes other materials linked to a title: CDs, DVDs, companion sites. Also some institutions’ libraries have subscriptions only to American databases and offer reference services solely from the US. Under these circumstances it is evident that ruling about copyrights is mainly determining how a society is to perform as a consumer within an established limited market.
Nowadays in Canada some of the teachers’ duties include to be informed about the copyright guidelines of the institution they belong, and to inform their students about their rights and obligations under the law. At postsecondary institutions this is primary done through the syllabus.
In order to be informed about copyright issues, instructors can attend workshops prepared by the library or some education unit in the institution. In workshops about copyrights information is provided, questions about specific cases are answered, and alternative materials (public domain, creative commons) are shown. Institutions also have several pages in the website explaining the responsibilities of faculty members and students on the matter.
It is important to be updated about this because companies that have interests in copyrights hire students to check if institutions are compliant with the law. I have known about professors been fined for using pictures in their websites without acknowledging copyrights, or students asking librarians information too specific about allowed uses of materials for an undergraduate student to ask.
