Copyright Issues in K-12 Education

A couple weeks ago, Raeanne led a discussion about the information available to students and the limits placed by copyright laws. Included in the article were suggestions for how to provide students access while still addressing copyright issues. A lot of people seemed to be in favor of K-12 schools partnering with colleges and universities to get access to their databases and other information sources. We also had a discussion about Wikimedia and the push for online textbooks that would take out the middleman of publishing companies and provide textbooks for free. As a former journalism major, I understand the desire for companies like publishers to be concerned about providing books for free, but as a student and someone who is thinking about teaching, I believe in the accessibility of information. The debate is certainly interesting because of the economics involved on both sides of the issue. It's a constant weighing of values, and it leads to the question "What is the price of information?" I think we are getting to a point in technology and society's needs where we are going to have to need a better answer to that question.