School Managers

Schools are deeply involved in 'copyright' and need to manage how it is responded to and used by the school, the workforce, the learners and it's 'community' of guests, parents and partners.

You willl probably already have in place:

a clear statement about "not infringing copyright" in the Acceptable Usage Policy - has this been updated to take account of all the school's on-line activity and e-learning and to cover 're-use' and 'creation'?

procedures to comply with the requirements of licences such as CLA (photocopying and scanning), ERA (broadcasts), PPL (playing pre-recorded music) and know how to obtain licences for school musicals, etc. But there are other areas of activity that schools are increasingly becoming involved in - e.g vle, websites, podcats, etc. - do you know how to check if you need other licences?

measures in place to avoid and respond to abuses of software licences, school equipment, e-safety and the school network. Have the raminfications of network use and storage of copyright materials been explored?

VLE. Is there good guidance for staff about copyright, creating resources and using the school VLE?

procedures to request parental/guardian permissions to publish pupil's creative (and, therefore, copyright) work.

HOWEVER ...

The growth of digital technologies has vastly increased the complexity of the situation and the ease and speed with which things can happen. In many school ICT activities we are not just using copyright materials but also 're-using' and in effect 're-publishing' them.

'Copyright' isn't just about using other people's materials but is also about respecting and caring for the materials created by the school - pupils, teachers, workforce, visitors and partners. Do you know which materials the school owns the copyright of - and how would you wish to manage them?

Copyright needs to be embedded into exisiting policy and practice in, for instance, VLE use, teaching resource creation, workforce training, e-safety, digital literacy and the curriculum. Are pupil's getting the chance to understand 'copyright' beyond the 'don't infringe' level?