Adobe Connect Community

On November 8, 2006, there was a Faculty Focus seminar on classroom copyright issues. The meeting was held in an Adobe Connect meeting room, and Dr. John Harwood was the guest speaker.

Recording
The recording of the meeting can be viewed at https://breeze.psu.edu/p46502671/

Files from the Meeting

• Meeting Overview: FFoBCopyrightLessonPlan.doc. The goals, objectives, and content of the meeting.
• FFoB Seminar Planning: FFoB_Seminar_Details.doc. Documentation for planning the FFoB seminar.
• Welcome PowerPoint: GuestSetupSlides.ppt. Announcements, information about the seminar and information for participants on using Adobe Connect.
• Dr. Harwood's PowerPoint: FFoBTeachAct.ppt
• Tips for Using Copyright Material in Adobe Connect: Shown as a reply to this forum topic

Summary
Dr. Harwood's summary:

• Take advantage of what Adobe Connect can do very well; that is to build a collaborative environment.
• Leverage the other resources we have at Penn State, including Streaming Video Server, Podcasting, ANGEL to enrich the educational environment for you students.
• The rules of the road in terms of the TEACH Act pertain equally to Adobe Connect and ANGEL. It is very good news for Higher Education that we have been trusted to make wise use of copyrighted materials.

Questions and Answers
These are questions that were asked during the seminar and the answers given by Dr. Harwood, as well as some resources contributed by participants.

Q: GNU, Wikipedia and many other forms of expression due to nonmarket information production (Benkler explores this) are included in the practice of copy left. How many people here use copy left materials?
A: Copy left is a different kind of licensing rather than copy right -- It’s a kind of creative commons license that ETS is very supportive of. But again, it is still copyrighted and we certainly encourage the use of copyrighted materials. If we had to invent independently everything that is used for instruction, we’d be crushed by that expectation.

Copyleft resource given by one of the participants: http://theassayer.org/
Copyleft from wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyleft

Q: What about images obtained from sites like Google Image? Are they considered public domain?
A: Google images, and how about Flickr images – there are lots of images available. Every image there is copyrighted. And if you’re using it for credited instruction you can use it in Adobe Connect and in ANGEL just as you would in a face-to-face setting. However, you would not redistribute it to your students, for example as an attachment, and you would make every effort to acknowledge where you got it.

Q: Any comments on Creative Commons materials?
A: I think Creative Commons licenses are very very good. I think that this kind of sharing of course materials is very important to higher education. I’m enthusiastic about it.

If you go to the ETS Web site where we have our MTO, Multimedia Teaching Objects, you’ll find a sample of creative commons language that has been approved by University lawyers for us to use. (http://tlt.its.psu.edu/mto)

Creative Commons resource: Wikipedia on creative commons: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_commons

Q: If I use ANGEL, how many minutes of video can I show?
A: There is no fixed rule on that. We have some faculty who have licensed the use of entire PBS productions and they show this. I think there are some fair use questions that would arise but I don’t think I can give you a certain number of minutes. If you are under 25% of the total length certainly no one is going to raise a problem.

Q: I teach an art class and use images I have purchased in every class to illustrate the points I am making. From what I have learned, I think it’s still OK to do that when using Adobe Connect for class. But what if the students use some sort of screen capturing application to make copies of the images as I display them?
A: We talked about that when I emphasized the word “reasonably.” I think it’s fine for a teacher to use these copyrighted images that he or she has purchased. There’s nothing we can do to prevent students from using some sort of screen capturing software, but what do they really have at the end of the day? Something that’s very low resolution and something that’s not very functional.

Q: I am an instructor using Adobe Connect for class. I have created a closed Adobe Connect meeting room – only students registered in the course may enter. Anyone who wants to enter from outside of the class has to have my permission to do so. I used Adobe Connect to bring a guest speaker into my class and I recorded the class session. The guest speaker used some copyrighted images and sound files in his presentation. What do I need to be careful about when using this recording? May I use it for my class next semester?
A: First, the guest speaker needs to give permission to reuse the presentation without that I don’t think you can reuse the presentation. Secondly, the guest speaker used copyrighted material as part of his or her performance and this is an intergruel part of their performance, it would be perfectly fine to show the entire performance in future semesters as long as you have that person’s permission. Again, no one outside the classes can see this. It’s not going to be sold. It’s not going to be distributed commercially. It’s part of the formal instruction at Penn State.

Participant comment: This free online course at the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet and Society is exploring some issues around copyright: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone/

Resources

• Penn State TEACH Act Web site: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/dmd/teachact/
• Penn State Cyberplagiarism Web site: http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/cyberplag/
• Penn State Turnitin Web site: http://its.psu.edu/turnitin
• Penn State iStudy Academic Integrity, Copyright, and Plagiarism module: http://istudy.psu.edu/modules.html
• Questions about the use of copyrighted materials in instructional situations: teachact@psu.edu