How does copyright law affect your use of technology in the classroom?

        Today, most people have access to tons of information giving just a click. However, it is really important to know and understand that accessibility does not mean permission to make use of copyrighted information. Students, teachers, other professionals and any person should know what are the limitations when using others' works. First, we need to know what copyright means and then, how to prevent or avoid plagiarism which can result in high fines or even jail time. According to Wikipedia (2016), "Copyright is a legal right created by the law of a country that grants the creator of an original work exclusive rights for its use and distribution." Some of the exclusive rights authors have are "to made and sell copies of their works, the right to create derivative works, and the right to perform or display their works publicity." Copyright law in the United States protects creators' works 70 years after their death which is a long period of time. What is the objective of the Copyright? The objective is to protect others' original works and encourage them to continue creating science, art, literature, sculpture, drawings and music works.

Copyright law in the United States

        According to Nancy E. Willard, author of Schools, the Internet, and Copyright law,  there are some strategies that tend to fail in Copyright infringement, such as Downloading Copyright material from the Internet and using it in a way that violates the rights of the copyright owner,   Allowing students to use the district Internet system to download copyrighted material, such as MP3 files on popular music, among others.

       How can students and educators use others' works without violate the law? Fair use is part on the Copyright law of the United States that allow people to use creators' works without their permission. Those materials should be use exclusively for teaching, commentary, scholarship, criticism and research purpose. In other hand, if you are trying to make money $$$$$ or any other type of advantage from Copyrighted material, then, you are not protected by the fair use.

       Copyright law benefits creators, however, it puts limitations to teachers when using materials in their classrooms. They can still presenting a video, image or text, however they have to follow guidelines that prevent plagiarism. For this reason, it is extremely important always cite sources on any work you do because that is a form to give credit to the creations or works of somedody else.
Remember that the big picture is to interpret Copyrighted works using  your own words and ideas for educational or research purposes only, and always given credit to the original creators.

What is media literacy and why is it important?

       Every day, we are exposed to a greater number of influences from the different media, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, internet and other digital technologies. Through them, people can get access to different information from close and far places across the world. However, many information that people read, watch or listen to tend to be wrong, outdated or just their sources are not reliable.

       According to Center for Media Literacy (CML) "Media Literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evaluate and create media in a variety of forms. "In other words, learning to interpret the real meaning of influence of what we read, watch or hear, give us the knowledge to accept or reject what is better for us.

      Why is it important? Media literacy is important because nowadays, in the 21st century, the production and access to media has been increasing, and they constantly are bombarding to us, the consumers.  As I mentioned before, people who learn media literacy are able to understand what is the real message or influence of a picture, sound, or text. Media literacy is important because it helps people to develop their visual, auditory and written skills. For example, there are images without text, but they can say more than a hundred or written words. In addition, media's sounds can make messages interesting, boring, mysterious, or they can focus on a culture, custom, religion, lifestyle, etc. The development of written skills happen when consumers in a written form reply in a social web site , for example,  to express their positions related to a topic.  Also, individuals can create their own point of view of a topic and create new media. According to study.com, there are five questions that everyone should ask for any type of media:

1. Who created the message that is being sent?

2. What techniques were used to attract my attention?

3. How might other people understand or interpret this message differently from me?

4. Are there any lifestyles, values or points of view that are represented or are omitted from this      message?

5. Why was this message sent?

       In my opinion, learning media literacy is important and necessary in today's world. We need to be able to understand, analyze, critique the different media's information we receive to discover their real meaning and no what others want to us to believe.