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Teaching material > What is your school´s policy? What is your personal opinion?
What is your school´s policy? What is your personal opinion?
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Jayho
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What is your school´s policy? What is your personal opinion?
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My school held an interesting workshop for teachers yesterday about using illegally obtained resources in the classroom and the legal responsibilities (and consequences) for the school and teachers. In the context illegally obtained means any resources, but primarily books, that have been obtained without rightful payment to the author. The main source is the internet but other methods include the photocopying of entire books and burning of CDs.
In Australia the rules are very clear and in my school it is disallowed with the penalties being harsh.
I�m interested to know your school�s policy as well as your personal opinion regarding this issue.
Cheers
Jayho |
11 May 2011
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PhilipR
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In Thailand teachers and school staff are often severely punished by their administrators for wanting to waste money on original resources... 
I think teachers should take responsibility for themselves if they want to use downloaded materials. I�m not particularly in favour of either the nanny or Big Brother state.  |
11 May 2011
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manonski (f)
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Rules are the same here too. Some schools are randomly picked every year and we have to report on the books we photocopy and use.
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11 May 2011
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Mar0919
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Hmmm... interesting topic. Well, in the schools where I work, or in other schools in the district, I �ve never heard of any kind of supervision to check up on illegally used materials, although I �m not saying it has never happened (maybe I just have not known about it). Nevertheless, since it �s my job along with my teachers, to choose the textbooks and/or materials (software) we will use for English classes, I do strongly oppose to photocopying anything. Sometimes the ss don �t want to buy the books, they �re always complaining it �s too expensive, but I try to reason with them on the advantages of the books. I also make it a personal promise to them that the books WILL BE used and finished. Sometimes parents and ss refuse to buy the books, because some teachers make them buy them, and then at the end of the year, the books are almost blank, they don �t use the books, or they just have them answer (just fill in) all the pages during whatever school break they have during the school year. To me, that �s totally nonsense. If we as teachers ask ss to buy any material it �s because it �s going to be used and really make it useful to them. So... I am strongly against illegally copying. I make it a point to explain to the students that it IS illegal to do so, and try to make them understand the importance of being honest. They huff and they puff, but I always have all students buy the books and since they do see a response from my teachers and I in really using the books, they �re finally convinced. My 2 cents!  |
11 May 2011
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pilarmham
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As far as I know, legallity regarding copyright is not strongly reinforced in Spain. I am not aware of any supervision in that sense. Of course we all know it could happen any time, because such is the law, but I guess it is cheaper to let us know and not do too much about it. Most of us make copies now and then, not too many, not too often, where the limit is is hard to tell.
Anyway, I �m always so doubtful about the so-called intellectual property.
I was just reading about Oscar Wilde and his first poetry book: all his critics pointed to previous poets as sources of his poetry. But don �t we all have roots? Of course, a copy is a copy, but... did I manage to make any sense? |
11 May 2011
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Mar0919
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Yes, Pilar, you do make sense. Very much. And I agree, we all at one point make copies. But I think (my very own humble opinion) that a worksheet we use in our classroom is not illegal (maybe I just WANT to think that! LOL) as illegal is photocopying a textbook for example. Yes, you �re right, a copy is a copy... but, a legally published book is made with the purpose of selling it to the public, a copy (worksheet) made to work in your classroom, is....�different? |
11 May 2011
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pilarmham
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I think it is, dear Mar. We all know anyone could make any use of the worksheets we share here. In fact that is the purpose: that everybody benefits from them. But we all expect an honest use. Copies from books have specific laws and limits, and the problem we teachers have is that we need the material but our employers don �t want to spend the money to pay for the legal rights. I was very surprised to read here that many members even have to pay for the copies they make. How can governments make laws that they don �t reinforce when it costs them money? |
11 May 2011
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Mar0919
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Yep! In one of the schools I work, I pay for my own copies, but, since I find it very useful to work with my students this way as it gives them more practice on a given topic. At the other school, it �s such a toothache (they say toothaches are the worst pains!) to have copies made, you have to request them with X days in advance, and justify WHY you need them, they have a log to record how many copies you �ve requested, etc, etc, sometimes I feel so irked by that that I simply pay for them. That only bad thing is that I have to print black & white, so I have to take out all the beautiful colors and most of the images the wonderful teachers put so much time in doing, because I can make a 3 page activity sometimes into 1 to cut the costs. Pilar...  |
11 May 2011
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GIOVANNI
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In our school we are not allowed to photocopy more than 10 per cent. We often get notices advising us of the rules and regulations. I hardly ever copy from a book. I find I have more than enough exercises from this site, and from my own material. In our English adult education classes the school supplies a book for each student. We have a book for each level of English. We have ten levels. The book was written especially for our school by one of our teachers. |
11 May 2011
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Jayho
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Wow - interesting responses.
Where I work we have to record everything we photocopy for CAL (Copyright Agency) purposes. We can �t exceed 10% and every photocopier has this plastered on the wall behind it. On commencement we even have to sign a form saying that we won �t breach copyright inlcuding burning CDs etc. I just buy my own CDs now and these are very cheap through Amazon and the like.
Previous institutions where I worked had photocopy limits (like a 1000 copies per term) but these days I use the whiteboard a lot plus lots of games from here. I don �t use ws �s as much as I used to.
Several institutions have been fined in the tens of thousands of dollars for copyright infringements and the offending staff member/s terminated.
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11 May 2011
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ueslteacher
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Hello, Jayho :)Well, where I live, books are expensive, so the school (i.e. parents as it is a public school - sounds strange, right? but that �s how it really is) doesn �t always provide teachers with books or CDs. That is why I have e-copies of the books in my computer to prepare for the lessons. We don �t get regular "check-ups" for copies or such. But there was one case that they put on TV, when a teacher was legally punished for installing an unlicensed copy of Windows in a school computer. I do agree less photocopying would mean more environmentally friendly. I �d rather use electronic resources, but I don �t have a computer in my room. We only have one multimedia classroom and one language resource center with 2 computers which we can use once in a while (taking turns) So I guess I �ll just have to stick to books for now. However, I personally don �t think it �s wrong to make photocopies as long as I don �t sell them or abuse photocopying as such. I also see nothing wrong in tailoring the existing tests from books to my ss � needs or our particular situation. Sophia |
11 May 2011
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