October 2005 — The Final Word
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Determining ‘Fair Use’ Practices
Achieving a Professional Balance
New professors may have to prepare for
several courses simultaneously, none of
which they’ve ever taught before. This is a
daunting task, and is even more difficult
without formal mentoring. Therefore,
sharing the pedagogical knowledge and
best practices garnered in teaching a
particular course over the years can facilitate
assistance in course design and the
production of instructional materials.
It is important to embody and transfer
that pedagogical experience; making
those instructional materials available
contributes to this institutional embodiment
of the pedagogy. This, too, can
present a dilemma for some.
As a member of a professional teaching union, there is the desire to protect the products of one’s own labor. On the other hand,as academics and scholars,there is an obligation to help disseminate knowledge. As a professional, a balance must be achieved between basic pedagogical quality and being additionally recognized and rewarded for the pedagogical artifacts.
The development of multimedia instructional modules should be part and parcel of standard pedagogical practice. Only when more comprehensive media development is involved, or additional revenues from an instructional product possible, should a supplementary agreement be sought. The instructional artifacts produced can be taken with educators wherever their teaching practice goes, and become part of an educator’s legacy.
Many educators still find much of this debate exaggerated since there is still more than enough free material available on the Web. For educators baffled and wondering what is acceptable and what is not, there is no overarching rule that can define every instance. And while it is true that counsel can’t always be given on what to do in each instance, advice can assuredly be given on what not to do. Doing nothing is the worst thing an educator can do; unfortunately, it happens all too often. It is simply a waste to be paralyzed by uncertainty, and not improve one’s pedagogical practice or learning process in the midst of the myriad of new opportunities made available as the result of new technologies.
Jeremiah Woolsey is an instructional technology analyst with the faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec.
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