Many students and teachers around the world have shifted to online schooling in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, thus missing out on much of what makes the classroom such a special place. Thankfully, teachers are now able to conduct live readings of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series of books for their students.
Announced via Rowling’s website, she is temporarily relaxing copyright restrictions and granting teachers everywhere an open license to post videos of themselves reading Harry Potter books to their class. Teachers will be able to share these videos through the end of the 2019/2020 school year or July 31, 2020, whichever comes first.
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This is a great way to bring a sense of community to an online platform and help students remain connected with their classmates. Teachers are able to post these videos on a closed school network or a secure platform such as Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo, and Discovery Education.
Rowling has encouraged educators not to publish full videos on YouTube or any social platforms as it is intended for classroom use only. They can, however, post short clips to social media as an effort to increase awareness.
Delighted to help teachers reach kids at home by relaxing the usual licence required to post videos of themselves reading Harry Potter books. Go to https://t.co/77d90pkiYK to find the guidelines. Be well, everyone. More soon! #HarryPotterAtHome
— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) March 20, 2020
It is also mentioned that this is “the first of several initiatives being planned to help bring Harry Potter to children at home,” with more announcements to come at a future date.
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There have been a number of other positive stories to emerge during the COVID-19 pandemic, including Razer committing to manufacturing and donating up to 1M surgical masks to hospitals in need and a number of movies releasing on-demand early while everyone is encouraged to stay indoors.
IGN hopes that everyone remains safe and has put together a list of how to help others and stay healthy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Source: IGN.com Harry Potter at Home: J.K. Rowling Grants Teachers Open License for Limited Time