Week 3: Making Copyright Fun!

This week, we learned the beginning foundations of copyright law, so this inspired me to check out the educational resource Copyright & Creativity! After browsing the site, I would highly recommend it for all educators. 

About

Copyright & Creativity is dedicated to creating ethical digital citizens of all ages. The site has resources for students k-12, and has lessons tailored for their age level and skill level. It is a nonprofit project that has created this site so educators, students, and everybody in between can learn about copyright laws. Copyright & Creativity also won the American Association of School Librarian’s Best Digital Tool for Teaching and Learning award multiple times.

Accessibility

Copyright & Creativity is a free to use site. All educators have to do is create a free profile, and they get access to all videos, lesson plans, and activities. 

Copyright & Creativity also respects many different learning styles. There are worksheets, videos, and even more hands-on activities like escape rooms.

My Experience

I was very impressed by how user friendly the site was! It was very colorful and invited users in, and it was easy to navigate. Everything was clearly labeled, and all the resources were helpfully gathered in the same place. 

For every grade level, Copyright & Creativity provides a copyright lesson chock full of videos and activities. Educators can download the full lesson plan as a PDF or as lesson slides, and can also download an escape room activity that pairs with the lesson. 

Another thing that’s great is that Copyright & Creativity is a digital tool that will enhance education but is not the only thing educators will rely on. Unlike the tool I reviewed last week, CommonLit, Copyright & Creativity’s lessons are less advanced and are meant to accompany an already existing lesson. It is not a full course, instead it’s additional resources that an educator can incorporate into their existing lesson on copyright laws. 

I think it’s important that educational tools function in this way: instead of doing all the work for a teacher, they are an enhancement or improvement the teacher can add on to make their lesson more exciting and accessible. 

Rather than just giving a lecture, educators can incorporate C&C’s fun, engaging, and energetic videos to capture their students’ attention. As someone who completed C&C’s copyright course for this class, I can definitely vouch that the videos enhanced my understanding and simplified this new concept for me!

Application

I’d incorporate C&C into my lessons as a school librarian. I think its essential to create the next generation of ethical digital citizens, so I would create a lesson on copyright for my students. I’d pair it with a makerspace project that would involve copyrighted work, so the students could practically apply the skills they learned. For example, I’d ask them to film a book talk. In the book talk, they’d be talking about a copyrighted work and would flip through the book to show its illustrations so it would be imperative for them to learn copyright law. This way, the students would apply what they learned from C&C’s lessons into the assignment. I’d use C&C’s lessons in the classroom while the students worked on their projects. 

Review

C&C makes learning about seemingly complex concepts like copyright accessible and fun for students of all ages and abilities! The lessons, videos, and activities provided by this free site can comfortably be incorporated into any educator’s syllabus. Overall, I’d give this resource 5 stars and would love to use it in my library someday :)

Interested in what C&C has to offer? Check out the video they provide in the lesson for 2nd graders. This is just a taste of what this wonderful resource has to offer: