Are We Media & Tech Literate or Not? It Depends

Of course, if you are reading this you are media and tech literate, and probably a great deal more knowledgeable in these areas than most of the population. When you think about it, we are all experts when it comes to certain topics of media and technologies. One area of media and tech literacy that's confusing to just about everyone is fair use and copyright law and how it pertains to our classrooms. We can use some media items, but maybe we can only use part of them, or maybe we can use them for a certain amount of time, or our students can use them in essays and reports, but not for outside-of-school competitions, etc. It gets so complicated that people don't want to think about it. -But the reality is that we need to know about fair use and copyright so that we can transfer this knowledge to our students. Two of Power to Learn's Internet Smarts case studies tackle media literacy, copyright, and fair use. Check out Fair Use: Beg, Borrow or Steal and Music Downloading: Paying the Piper.  You'll find materials that will help you and your students.