"Create 3.1.2 Fair Use and the TEACH Act" Quest

"Create 3.1.2 Fair Use and the TEACH Act" Quest

• How does an understanding of Fair Use affect one’s role as an online instructor?
• How do Fair Use and the TEACH Act correlate to the delivery of reliable content?

Fair Use regulates use of copy right materials and is in place for the general population, not just educators. An understanding of Fair Use allows teachers to discern what and how materials created by others can be used for educational purposes. Fair Use allows teachers to use portions of works for instruction and assessment as long as it doesn't interfere with the ability of the work to earn money for its creator. This can save teachers enormous amounts of time in preparation, allowing them to focus more on student needs.

The TEACH Act applies directly to teachers at nonprofit educational institutions and it allows some use of copy right materials for instructional purposes with guidelines specifically for the on-line classroom. The material can be used during a specified amount of time with a specified group of students during live or asynchronous sessions.

Both Fair use and the TEACH Act work to provide teachers with the opportunity to use materials created by experts for non-educational purposes in an educational setting. This brings the world into our classroom and affords students the opportunity to learn from real documents or media created for real situations, allowing teachers to put textbooks to the side. Students benefit from this because they learn how to interpret these materials for themselves as they will have to do outside of the classroom in their daily lives. 

Here is a website from Foothill College that contains many wonderful links to enhance our understanding of Copyright, Fair Use, and TEACH Act. 

http://www.foothill.edu/fga/copyright.php