My first thought is that you and your faculty should
review recent studies showing that readers of all ages
have better comprehension when reading from paper than
from on screen - even if the format is identical, ie
scanned. I would think this would be of more concern
to an educator. (I can provide a cite to one such
article if upon request, if I can dig it out.)
I trust others on the list to address your copyright
problems more completely than I, but I would also
recommend looking to your alumni for some advice. I'm
sure there is one out there who practices IP law or is
at a firm with an IP section that would be willing to
assist.
Best regards,
Keith
- Dera Weaver <DWeaver[_at_]athensacademy.org> wrote:
> This is my first question to this list.
>
> I am the librarian at a private high school. We run
> a laptop program within
> a wireless network: each student (grade 7-12) has
> his or her own laptop
> computer, as do all teachers. Integration of
> technology into curriculum is
> highly supported.
>
> Concerned about issues of weight (bookbags, sports
> equipment, a laptop
> computer) that students must handle during the
> school day, some of our
> faculty came up with the idea of scanning textbook
> pages on a routine basis,
> then posting them to our network so that students
> would not have to carry
> their books home. The conditions they propose to
> place on this activity are
> as follows: 1) All students will still purchase the
> required textbook 2)
> Scanning will be done in small segments, say, a
> chapter at a time, and each
> segment will be "destroyed" after a short period. 3)
> The scanned pages will
> be available online behind password protection.
>
> In this way, a teacher could post homework to his or
> her Web page, students
> could read the pages online and complete
> assignments, either through e-mail
> or print. (Online assignments are already becoming
> a fixture at our school,
> and students like this way of doing business.)
>
> I have suggested that permission from the publishers
> might be a good idea if
> they insist on pursuing this project (which seems to
> tackle the problem in
> several wrongheaded ways, but that's just the
> opinion of the media
> specialist), but frankly the whole thing makes me
> nervous. Do you have any
> comments/advice for me? Thank you.
>
> Dera Weaver
> Coordinator of Information Services
> Athens Academy
> Athens, GA
>
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Received on Wed Sep 25 2002 - 12:55:16 GMT