Music Technology in Education

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has recently launched a new website dedicated to providing educators with a comprehensive approach to teaching students about copyright. The site, called simply Teaching Copyright, provides lesson plans, handouts, and online resources to help students (and teachers) understand how copyright law effects them and the media that they encounter on a daily basis. Here is a quote from their site about their mission:

The Teaching Copyright curriculum is a detailed, customizable learning plan to help educators raise interesting questions about copyright, technology, and law, such as:

* What is legal online?
* How is creativity being enabled by new technologies?
* What digital rights and responsibilities exist already, and what roles do we play as users of digital technology?

Through the Teaching Copyright curriculum, students and teachers will learn the answers to these questions and come to a greater understanding about the role of technology in our lives.

The site includes a Curriculum page complete with 5 units covering various aspects of copyright law geared toward high school students. The downloadable resources are wonderful, and I think that every teacher interested in copyright law should bookmark the site and send colleagues there as well. Because the EFF has created the site, users can be sure that there is definitely an agenda behind the curriculum that leans toward copyright reform as well as taking full advantage of Fair Use guidelines. It is a perfect site to counter similar sites set up by organizations such as the RIAA. I must admit that personally I appreciate the approach that Teaching Copyright takes over the RIAA approach.

I recommend checking out both resources and deciding for yourself which to use with your students. It could be a great project to have students compare and contrast the messaging on each site. Teaching copyright in the 21st Century is becoming more and more of an essential subject - especially when the students we teach are effected by it so deeply.

I welcome your comments and suggestions.