The Blurred Lines of Copyright and Fair Use in the Modern FYC Classroom Rationale

The purpose of this training presentation is threefold: 1) introduce the copyright law and
its constituent parts 2) encourage teachers to hold fair use discussions in their classrooms and 3)
persuade teachers that copyright law is relevant to them and their students. These ideas combined
are, in essence, the message of the presentation: Teachers should discuss copyright and fair use
with their students. In this short presentation rationale, I describe the reasons for choosing Prezi
and design elements, then move onto a description of the context of use and audience. Finally, I
attribute the topic of the presentation to the gaps addressed in the annotated bibliography
research.
The presentation aid Prezi helps to build an ethos because it is engaging, easy to use,
modern, and clean; it looks very professional. Choosing a Prezi was a natural choice for me,
since I felt comfortable with the software, and Prezi is more engaging than PowerPoint. Because
it is dynamic, I can map out some concepts, like the relationship between intellectual property,
copyright, and fair use; this couldnt have been achieved using another presentation software. I
thought this was a valuable asset of the presentation because it shows the audience what the
relationship is as well as tells them. As for the (visual) theme, I chose a color scheme that is easy
on the eyesa dark background with brighter colors to stand out as text and organizing shapes.
Additionally, I thought that a non-white background would look better against my websites
grayish-white background; it stands out more. Within the presentation, I limit the use of brackets
to sectioning off larger ideas. In the brackets, circles represent different ideas that all pertain to
the larger bracketed idea, similar to subsections in a paper. This is intended to help the audience
understand how the information fits together. Further, I carefully considered the usability of the
presentation; for example, under the examples section, I positioned the frame-of-view to show

both the questions and the four factor fair use test. I did this because teachers needed the four
fact test in order to complete the discussion questions, and I didnt want to assume that teachers
would write it down or have personal access to the presentation.
I also added a playful and recognizable shape within the first bracket: Mickey Mouses
head. I did this as a not-so-subtle dig to Disney, but Disney is incorporated into the presentation
later under Examples. Disney is incredibly protective of their intellectual property, and Disney
is one of the sources of such a strict copyright policy in the U.S. Although the copyright period
has passed, Mickey Mouse avoids public domain. I wanted to fairly use the outline of Mickeys
head and ears to enact a principle made very clear throughout the annotated bibliography
researchuse it or lose it. Since this presentation currently has an educational intent, nonprofit use, no substantial amount of work is taken, and doesnt affect potential markets, my use
of the ears is fair. In other words, my use passes the four factor fair use test. Incorporating the
ears is simply a product of whimsy; if I were to present this Prezi to a real audience, I would
reorganize the circles to avoid confusion.
The intended context of use is Dr. Deborah Coxwell-Teague's summer training program,
Bootcamp. Teachers-in-training will be ready and willing to learn about the teaching
landscape, and introducing copyright as an concept early on will stress the importance of
navigating the very real laws that can affect the work that they and their students do. Naturally,
new, incoming TAs are the targeted audience for this presentation. It is possible, however, to use
this presentation in other scenarios or purposes. A secondary audience might be TAs moving into
WEPO courses; they would greatly benefit from the presentation because students will be
responsible for navigating the composing situations that this presentation addresses. Additionally,
any TA already teaching an FYC course1101, 1102, 1145, or perhaps 1142would benefit for

the same reasons; the student production I provided is a remediation assigned in ENC 1102, for
example.
Finally, the presentation includes research from my annotated bibliography and provides
two additional resources for teachers. Without the research I completed in my annotated
bibliography, I wouldnt have known a direction to take this presentation; this is especially
apparent on Slide 28 where I break down two common arguments in rhetoric and composition
scholars on intellectual property: activism and teaching students to think critically about fair use.
In this presentation, I aim to both convince instructors that the work is valuable, give them ideas
about it applies and how to do have fair use discussions with students.