Copyright (aka The Thread That Scares Me)

This week's course dealt with a variety of issues, one of which was copyright usage. To me, this is an issue that potentially scares me down the road, and I think that the reason is due to the negligence of copyright usage in the real world.

Take a look at a good number of profile images used for blogs, posting and discussion threads, and other forms of displaying one's personality. There are a large number of images pulled right from other sites or threads, and I doubt that the original artist gave consent. Is this copyright infringement? Or should it not count, because it's only an image? It's a question that I hope I have the right answer to, but that's not a big confidence booster...

Furthermore, as a teacher, I assign various projects throughout the year for my students using Publisher, Power Point, and other forms of media. Part of me gets concerned every time that my students pulled images onto their reports. I become more nervous because I publish their work online so that their families can see what their child creates. I have to really go through a child's work to make sure that it's legal. This week alone, I caught one kid who tried to turn in a project that was COMPLETELY copied from a website. I can only imagine what would happen with a teacher that isn't technologically savvy.

Overall, I worry because I dread getting that letter in the mail from an angry author or photographer demanding payment for usage of their likeliness or work, even if it wasn't me. I guess that I'm more worried that it could happen to one of my kids (you see those people who get nailed for downloading music, so never say never...)

Safety

This week's session dealt with safety issues. We spoke at length about all of the factors to take into consideration when dealing with safety. For me, the timing of the class was creepy, in the wake of all of the allegations going on at Eisenhower in New Berlin. I'd like to elaborate a bit on that today.

I spoke about this is class, but my biggest concern is educating the parents. Last year, for example, I had quite a few students who were the primary English-speaking people in the house. On student, in particular, had been posting on mySpace, and using language and attitudes that I doubt the parents would approve of. However, since they didn't speak English, they couldn't read or know what she was saying, and HAD NO CLUE what their child was posting.

For me, as a parent and as a teacher, that scares me. I would think that at the 6th grade level, you would want to know what your child was doing on a computer. I've found a very non-plussed attitude in a few cases. I have kids who are on mySpace and YouTube, and other than me bringing it up in a conference, I'm not sure that the parents are fully aware of what their kids are doing online. I can remember as a kid having to constantly check in with my family to tell my whereabouts--rarely were there times in which I could get away with something at home (trust me, I tried...) I'm afraid that some students nowadays are walking a very fine line between safety and tragedy.

Again, in the past, I can remember taking classes in "Stranger Danger" every year to prepare for situations that might occur. I think we need to do this on a more updated level. The idea of Internet Safety needs to be presented, and I think it's something that you should bring in the police for, to really show the seriousness of the topic.

My only other question is, when, as a society, did we become so trusting? It's scary how much people post about themselves and leave in full view of the public. That's something else that I think needs to be addressed.

The reality is, technology and computers are going nowhere anytime soon. We need to make sure that we keep that in mind as we prepare our students for the real world. The story of a stranger in a car trying to tempt you with candy has been updated; we need to update as well to combat that.

Social Networking...And ALL of the drama that comes along with it...

This week, a lot of our out-of-class activities included researching different social aspects of technology. More important, we were to look at their accessibility and importance in the school setting.

For me, it's mixed. I think there's a positive side to it--the fact that kids could be in a supervised setting I think has merits. Of course, justifying why a kid is on mySpace or Facebook, for example, is easier said than done. If I were to look for a positive purpose, I think it's being in a "safe" environment, where if a child makes a mistake, the adult in that setting can help the student troubleshoot how to get out of it. Because, to be honest, I have quite a few kids who are on these sites, and definitely without parent supervision or knowledge (I think my parents would notice if I was online at 3 or 4 in the morning...)

However, I can see the negative side as well. I like the idea of social networking, but I could see staff taking advantage of this, and necessarily in a good way. My wife is also an MPS teacher; imagine how happy she'd be to know that we could keep a running conversation for the whole day. That might be fantastic for our marriage in the long run, but at the expense of me neglecting my duties as a teacher? We have to face it; we're not that far removed from the students that we teach. For every student that's trailed off when I've taught, I've been guilty of the same for every staff meeting that I've been at. If I could see myself taking advantage of it, I could definitely see others doing the same.

I think it's going to be an eternal question with no right answer. For me, I know I can teach my kids to instant message with Moodle. I can keep contact with parents with the website I currently have. But I may have to wait a bit before my class Facebook page is up and running....