Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 November 2017
153. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Education and Skills if teachers can be held personally liable for copyright breaches in relation to a programme (details supplied) in which entire books are being copied at the behest of school management in violation of the copyright licence permitting the taking of one chapter or 5%, whichever is higher; and the instruction his Department has issued to schools in relation to these matters. [47726/17]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe overall operation of schools is the responsibility of the management authorities of each school. Accordingly, it is a matter for each individual school management to ensure that it has appropriate policies in place to ensure the responsible and ethical use of digital technologies. My Department does not provide legal advice to schools or teachers.
My Department’s support service, the Professional Development Service for Teachers -Technology in Education provides professional guidance and supports to schools on a range of matters including on the use of digital resources.
Guidance on copyright in relation to digital resources is covered in most PDST Technology in Education online and face to face courses. For example in summer 2017, all summer online courses for primary teachers included a separate module on copyright in relation to digital resources (approx 3000 teachers participated in these courses).
The approach to training teachers in the area of copyright is as follows:
- Making teachers aware of copyright in relation to digital resources, especially images, including awareness of creative commons licensing
- Education on how to cite and credit sources, using World Book inbuilt citation tools as an example
- Showing teachers how to use search engine filtering to find resources that are free for educational use.
- Encouraging teachers to use Scoilnet as a source of open educational digital resources.
Schools are also advised to put in place an Acceptable Usage Policy, to govern the use of the internet at school, covering a wide range of issues surrounding the rights, responsibilities and privileges – as well as sanctions – connected with computer use. Since 2005, a condition for inclusion in my Department's Schools Broadband Programme is that schools must have an AUP in place.
Webwise.ie contains extensive guidance for schools to assist in developing such policies, including specific references to copyright. Webwise also contains general information on Copyright, Plagiarism and other web safety issues.
