Can I copy material from the internet for research?
Yes you can copy material from the internet for research purposes however you should first check the website for copyright statements. This is also only possible as long as it is for research or study and is within the guidelines of what constitutes fair use.
What constitutes research and fair use?
‘Fair’ use of text material published in electronic form states that only 10% of the number of words or one chapter may be printed or downloaded.
‘ Research or study’ refers to the ‘acquistion of knowledge, as by reading, investigation or reflection” (Macquarie Dictionary). This method of investigation should require a degree of skill and analysis to acquire. Copying for research cannot be used for commercial purposes.
Can students ( university or school ) use music in videos that they make?
Primary and secondary students can make certain video and audio recordings of music through the joint licence agreement with AMCOS and ARIA (http://www.apra.com.au) . Students will be able to dub music however generally they will need permission to use music in videos.
1. Visual representations of vocabulary words where students can use word processing, drawing and music to produce a single document (Barone & Wright, 2008, p295)
2. Book Blogs for class book clubs. Students review the class texts and respond to other students’ ideas and suggestions. (Barone & Wright, 2008, p297)
3. Student blogs of shared science experiments and ideas about environmental science. Schools and communities around the world can share ideas, response and solutions.
Pericles, K. (2008). Happily blogging @ Belmore South. SCAN, 27(2), 4-6 http://www.curriculumsupport.educati on.nsw.gov.au/schoollibraries/
Wordle.net, a website listed in the Callow (2007) reading, is self-described as a “toy for creating word clouds’ (Wordle.net). I immediately entered a favourite poem to see what “cloud’ would appear, tweaked the fonts, layouts and colour schemes to be rewarded with an interesting poetic image which I imagine could be useful as a thematic stage 3 literacy backdrop. Words can be enlarged and emphasized through repeated typing. As a teacher Wordle can be safely used in the classroom as it is possible to configure an institution's "site-blocking" software to keep Wordle safe for classroom use. You can print your creations by taking a “screen shot’ and then use then on fabric, postcards, business cards, posters etc. It has multiple uses across all KLAs as students can create their own ‘word clouds’ based on subject vocabulary or texts.
The knowledge that we are preparing our students for jobs and sometimes whole occupations that do not currently exist has been around for some considerable time now. The educational philosophy that has emerged as a result is that we need to teach our students to be independent learners, to be fluid and flexible, and to work collaboratively and co-operatively. This is a high ideal but one that as teachers we can work towards incrementally by considering the ‘changing landscape of communication’ (McDougall 2007) particularly in regards to literacy for the ‘visual generation’.
The current Critical Literacy approach to teaching English emphasises skills in both appreciation and expression. Our students must be able to identify linguistic techniques and evaluate their effectiveness and then judiciously apply them to their original texts. Consequently, we need to provide our students with a variety of learning opportunities to analyse and create meaningful and effective texts. Inherent in this approach is an acknowledgement that as teachers we won’t have all the answers and that we won’t always agree; however our goal is to explore what being literate means for our students in recognition of the multimodal nature of communication and texts in today’s learning environment.
McDougall, J. (2007). Engaging the visual generation: some Queensland teachers come to terms with changing literacies. Screen Education(46), 130-137
