Is your material copyrighted or may I use it?
Answer: Yes, our material is copyrighted. Nearly all the original material on the web is copyrighted thanks to the new laws that immediately copyright original work loaded to the web. That's why loading a webpage is called "published". If you copy other people's work and post it on your own or another site, their work is still copyrighted. You could be in a lot of trouble copying other peoples work, even if you're a kid. Copyright & Fair Use Laws.
But, of course you may use our lesson plans, units, and learning modules in your classrooms, with some restrictions. RESTRICTIONS: Direct links to our site are always appreciated. However, you may not make a copy of our material, put your name on it, and turn it in as your work. You may not copy our material and post it on your web page or anyone else's web page. You may not mirror our site. You may not frame our site. You may not pass our site through your proxy server in order to block ads. You may not distribute and/or sell our work without our written permission. To do so is copyright infringement, which is a crime.
Please take a few minutes and review these simple rules: Copyright & Fair Use Rules.
Check out this flash site for more information: Copyright Explained by the Cyberbees.
How do I credit a web page source?
Answer: If you need our permission to link to our site, you have it. Links to our site are welcomed and appreciated.
If you're wondering how to credit a web page source in a bibliography, this site is very helpful: Citing Electronic Sources (Library of Congress recommended guide).
Here's a suggestion (but check with your teacher first, to make sure this format is acceptable): Include the following information for each source: Author (if known,) Page Title, web address (URL) and the month and year you accessed that web page (not when the page was written.)
HERE IS AN EXAMPLE: Once upon a time, in the year 2007, during February, while cruising the web, you stumbled across our daily life sites. "How lucky," you said at the time. "My report on Ancient Greece is due tomorrow!" If you had listed our site in your bibliography, that listing might have read something like this:
Daily Life in Ancient Greece
https://greece.mrdonn.org
February 2007
Actually, we wrote a great deal of that site in 1997 and 1998, and updated it in 2002, and again in 2005, and again in 2008,
and again in 2010, and, well, you get the idea. The date you list
in your bibliography is the date you found it and used it, not the date
we wrote it.
Please tell me more about yourself and how you got your
information
Answer: We are both college graduates.
We have degrees in history, geography, language arts, and
education. Before Mr. Donn was a teacher, he was in the Navy, in
military intelligence, stationed at NSA, the National Security
Agency, the no-name agency as they like to say in the movies.
Mrs. Donn was an AFS student, living overseas in the Netherlands.
Today, we are both published authors. We love learning about
history and the daily lives of people who lived long ago. Over
the years, we've read thousands of articles and books about history. Does that mean our material is "right"? We try to be accurate,
but we are not experts in anything. If one of our web pages was checked for accuracy or enriched with information, that expert will be listed
on that page or on the index page of that section, along with any books we used.
You'll find several places in our site with experts listed. We are most grateful for the help we have
received! Here are some examples:
https://archaeology.mrdonn.org/howard-carter.html (Biography, bio.com)
https://earlyhumans.mrdonn.org/fire.html (Dr. John J. Shea, Anthropologist, Harvard University, USA)
https://nativeamericans.mrdonn.org/proverbs.html (Peter Bakker, Linguistics Dept, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
https://egypt.mrdonn.org/talltales.html (Egyptologist, Jacque Kinnaer, Belgium)
https://india.mrdonn.org (Author/Historian Sudheer Birodkar, India)
https://rome.mrdonn.org (Author/Historian Bill Thayer, USA)
https://smokeybear.mrdonn.org/Smokey.html (Helene Cleveland, USDA Forest Service, Fire Prevention Program Manager, Washington D.C.)
https://ancienthistory.mrdonn.org/Tombs.html (Busch Gardens; Chihuahua Pharaohs; International School of Amsterdam, Holland; Mark Mullman; Greg Reeder; and more!)
Do you answer your e-mail messages?
Answer: We receive a great many e-mail messages every day. We don't have time to read all the mail we receive, let alone respond to it, so our answer is regrettably no. If you spot something in our website that is inaccurate, please write us and note this in the topic line. In advance, thanks for your help!
We hope this FAQ section answers all your questions. If you would like to write us, our email address is donnanciv@aol.com
If you are curious about us,
you can find more about us
here (awards) and
here
(poetry slam)
and here
(civil rights.) Written by Lin's Mom,
Stories from the
Great Depression