During Week 4, we learned about the principles of designing instructional media, copyright laws and the ethical issues associated with technology. The four key principles for designing instructional media are contrast, repetition, alignment and proximity. It is important when putting together a presentation not to have too many contrasting colors or repeat the same things continuously. In addition, poor alignment can cause people to miss important information and if words are not close together it will cause the reader or student to lose focus and not concentrate on what they need to. The design of a media presentation is just as important as the content itself. We also learned about copyright in class this week; copyright refers to all creative works that are protected by the Title 17 of the US Code and allow the creator of a work to control how their work may be used. In contrast to copyright laws, there is the Fair Use Act and Creative Commons. The Fair Use Act allows limited use of copyrighted work with the consent from the author or creator; this limited use is mainly used by libraries or educators. Creative Commons allows a person to make his or her own rules and build a custom license with as many or as few restrictions as he or she wants on his or her work. Beyond the main ideas of design and copyright, week four also presented material about hypermedia and multimedia. Hypermedia refers to the combination of hyperlinks and hypertexts in which audio, video and text combine to create a means of information. Multimedia refers to media and content that uses a variety of different forms and combinations. We also learned how to determine the authenticity of a website.
The information and content from this week are directly relevant to my field as an educator. It is important for me to understand how to design instructional material so that I can grab the attention of my students and have them learn the material they are supposed to be learning. Knowing how to put together and design a technological presentation as an educator is vital. In addition to knowing how to design instructional media, being aware of copyright laws and The Fair Use Act is important for educators. More educators are using technology to supplement material in class, and as a result it is important for me to know as teacher what published or online information I can use in my classroom. For example, it would be okay for an educator to use a chapter from a published book, an article from a newspaper or a chart, graph or diagram from a book, periodical or newspaper because it is stated as legal in the Fair Use Guidelines for educators.
I chose this webpage because I thought that it provided relevant supplemental material to The Fair Use Act and copyright laws presented in class. This webpage presents a chart that helps inform teachers of their rights under the copyright laws of the United States. The chart uses specific examples of material and lists the rights that teachers have and do not have in regard to this material. I found this site to be informative and I learned more detailed information about the rights that teachers have using articles, web images, videos, etc. in their classroom. For example, I did not know that teachers can only make a single copy of a chapter from a book or an article from a periodical for research and lesson plans. I also did not realize that broadcasts can be used for instruction. This site provided specific and relevant material to what was learned in class this week and helped me to understand the rights and restrictions that I will have as an educator when using material in my classroom to supplement learning.
