Not Who? But How?

I don't think the question is:
"Who is responsible for teaching students about online safety?"
I think the question is:
"How do we teach students to be safe online?"
We being teachers, administrators, activities supervisors, and parents.

I fall into three of the categories above - I am a parent of two children (12 & 16 years old), I am a teacher of young children (5-7 year olds), and I help with a Girl Guide Troop (12-14 year olds). So now what I need is help. How do you make online safety relevant, understandable, and meaningful to all kids at all developmental levels? Especially when we don't all have the same definitions and understandings of privacy, cyberbullying, and "friends".

As a teacher and volunteer - I've looked at the Acceptable Use Policies for all three schools. Online safety is mentioned in all of them, mostly - keeping passwords secure and not sharing personal information. I'm not sure that is enough guidance for students to really understand what it means to be safe online and more importantly why it is important to be safe online and what to do if you don't feel safe. I know that the AUP's aren't curriculum or benchmarks and standards, but maybe that's what is needed to help teachers know what to, when to, and how to teach students about online safety.

As a parent I was very apprehensive when my own children wanted to start participating in online social networks. My son's online social networking began with World of Warcraft in middle school and now he is part of the Facebook community. My daughter started with Club Penguin while she was in second grade, she has now moved on to Howrse. (A side note - when I asked her how to spell the website she of course wanted to know why I wanted to know. So I told her that I was going to use it in my blog. After reading what I had already written over my shoulder, she immediately assured me that even though she has friends on the website that she doesn't "know" she only communicates with one of her friends from school that her and I both "know". I assured her that I knew she was listening to me when we talked about "knowing" people and that we would have many more talks about it.) As a parent I have tried to stay aware of what type of social networks my children are using and I continually talk to them about being safe and not sharing too much. But I don't know if I'm going about it in the right way. Am I being effective or just enoying? Am I doing everything I should? Actually as I am writing this post I realize that the one thing that I haven't done is talk to my kids about what to do if they get themselves into a situation that is uncomfortable, inappropriate, and/or harassing. I guess I know what I need to do next as a parent - as for the when it will be soon - the how I need to think about.

So now as an educator I need to figure out the what, when, and how for my students.

Our Role in the Use of Fair Use

I think as educators we have the responsibility to model, teach, and encourage our students to adhere to copyright laws and the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education.

In a world of Integrated Media Literacy Education there are two things that need to occur to ensure educators are living up to their responsibility:

1. We ourselves, as educators, need to be good models and follow the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. Instead of "Do as I say, not as I do", it should be "Do as I do!"

But before that can happen:

2. Everyone involved in the creation, distribution, and presentation of curriculum in all subject areas needs to know what the copyright laws are and understand the Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy.

(Those of us involved in the second course of the ISB Certificate of Educational Technology and Information Literacy Program: 21st Century Literacy Ideas, Questions, and Issues, are getting the information and training that we want and need. But what about everyone else?)

So now the question is: "What is a school's role in making sure that their educators are prepared to use Fair Use and teach students to use it, too?"

Transformation, Intention, Distribution, Attribution, Limitation

Transformation, Intention, Distribution, Attribution, Limitation

These are the words that came to me as I sat down to do my blog post about Copyright and Fair Use. Each of these words are important in their own way but transformation is the one that leaves me with a couple of questions:

What actually constitutes "transformation"? Can you just change the color, font, size, and/or layout of an original piece of work and it has been transformed? Like I did with these Wordles that I created all using the same original words.

(A side note - I think this is one of the coolest websites ever. If you haven't tried it you should! Also you can create them and use them in blogs as long as you attribute the images to http://www.wordle.net/. So all of the images in this blog post are from Wordle and are licensed under Creative Commons.)

What if someone takes a piece that you created, be it text, graphics, or pictures, and uses it to create an amazing product for all to enjoy and benefit from? That would be great and extremely flattering.

BUT . . . . . .

What if someone takes a piece that you created and uses it to promote or represent something that is offensive to you? Much like the use of the picture of the teenager by Virgin Mobile in one of their ad campaigns. Or if someone used it to favorably promote an idea like racism? It might be o.k. under Fair Use - the purpose of the piece has changed - but now how to you feel about being a part of the transformed work?

So, is Fair Use fair to original creators and transformer?

Online Privacy or Responsiblity?

Facebook's attempt to claim ownership of all material posted on their website seems to have started some serious discussions about what the term "Online Privacy" really means and how important it is to people. Both of the articles "Beware: the Internet could own your future" and "Don't overestimate privacy of online information" discuss the fact that once you or one of your 'friends' post something on the internet it is there for all to see whether you like it or not.

After reading both of the articles and a few other "Online Privacy" articles, including Online privacy? For young people, that's old-school, I am finding myself viewing the term as an oxymoron, especial when using it in reference to social networks, such as Facebook, where many users pride themselves on how many 'friends' they are linked to - even though that means that they are sharing their private social lives with more and more people, some of which they might not want to share it with. Specifically that would be future employers or other people that may one day heavily influence their lives.

I know that the focus of this blog post is supposed to be if there is such a thing as online privacy but I feel the need to comment on a statement made by Samanta MacConnell, in her article "Don't overestimate privacy of online information":

"I have to disagree with hiring and firing based on profile photographs. Shouldn't your personal life be left at the door? A person working five days a week deserves a little down time on the weekends. What a person does on his or her own time on days off should not be used to judge work ethic because that person may be serious and hard-working when they enter the workplace. Employers know that Facebook is popular and that our generation is utilizing it, but business and personal lives should not coincide."

I found this comment troubling. I do agree that a person deserves a little down time but that doesn't mean that it has to be posted and shared online for others to see. To believe that you wont be judged by what you do in your personal life and choose to make public through an online social networks is naive, especial if you know that employers are now using the internet to "check-on" employees. I'm not saying that people should be hired or fired based on profile pictures. But, if a person is responsible enough to be a hard-working employee they should be responsible for what they choose to post online and be prepared to deal with the consequences. I do believe that there should be online privacy provided by online sites but I also think that there needs to be some online responsibility exhibited by online users.

This brings me to my final observation which is that it is absolutely essential that young, live in the moment, internet users are made aware that the words they write, the language they use, the ideas they share, and the images they present online will one day shape the perceptions that others will use to judge them by - be that positive or negative.

Seeing Footprints in a New Way

I always thought of digital footprints as being more harmful than helpful. Now - thanks to Silvia Tolisano - I think I'm changing my mind. After Silvia talked about students using their digital footprints as a way to showcase themselves and how powerful that could be - I started to see them in a new way. Now I'm thinking that they could be more of an asset than a liability. I feel that if schools and educators are going to encourage or require students to use social networks and blogs for educational purposes then they have an obligation to teach the students the right way to do so. As I have stated before I think schools are asked to do way too much already but in this case I think the schools need to take this on. I think we have a responsibility to make sure that students know what their digital footprint is and the impact that it can have on them in both the short and long term. Now "When?", "Where?", and "How?" I guess whenever, wherever, and however we can. I can't be more specific at this point because I really don't know what it means to teach students about their digital footprint. (I guess that's one reason why I'm taking part in the Educational Technology and Information Literacy courses.) But I do know that we need to make sure that students' digital footprints are taking them down the right road and not the wrong one.

Working on Big Ideas for Younger Students

I have been introduced to many new ideas, concepts, and tools to help me embed technology and information literacy into my teaching. At times I have felt a little overwhelmed but more often I was excited about what I was reading, hearing, learning, doing, discussing, sharing, etc. I have come a long way in the six weeks of this course but I know that I have a long way to go still. With each new idea, concept, and tool I am usually left with one question – “How can I use this or introduce this to my young students?” I have decided that I need to start looking for others who have the same question or have already answered the question. I am lucky because my first connection was an easy one. Vu and I have worked together for the last two years as part of ISB’s first grade team. We are constantly collaborating and working through new ideas to benefit our students. Now we can both help each other through the ups and downs of using technology to enhance our teaching while exposing our students to a variety of multimedia technology tools.

Since Vu and I are already part of a very collaborative team it was easy for us to work together to complete the final project. We were both new comers to the format used to plan the lesson but by working together (and some phrasing help from Kim) we were able to help each other through it. Our idea of using Skype to bring a far away Mystery Reader into our classrooms was an easy fit to our established curriculum and routines. Now all that is left is to execute it, learn from it, and celebrate our successes and failures together!


Thank you Kim & Jeff for starting me on this journey. You both made it easier for me to take some chances and try some new things.

Understanding Adopt & Adapt But Hating the Delivery

While reading Adopt and Adapt: Shaping Tech for the Classroom by Marc Prensky I found myself having some old feelings that absolutely enrage me. I was taken back to my teaching days in public schools in California, Louisiana, and Texas. It seems to me that teachers and schools are too easily blamed for whatever the issue or problem of the day is. I also deeply resent the fact that he identifies schools as a key barrier to technological adoption because of the unwillingness to except change by the teachers and administrators. He does acknowledge the “extremely delicate balance between many sets of pressures -- political, parental, social, organizational, supervisory, and financial -- that any technological change is bound to disrupt.” But, he provides no answers or ideas to help maintain a balance to make a movement more manageable for teachers and schools.

I do agree with Mr. Prensky’s thoughts on the importance of moving forward and making sure that we are changing with the changing needs of students. I understand the importance of making sure that our students have the skills and experiences that they need in this quickly changing technological world. I also like his explanation of "digital natives" those who are born into digital technology and "digital immigrants" those who have learned about digital technology later in life. I just object to the tone of this article.

I am wondering if Mr. Prensky is willing to be part of the "we" when he states, "So, let's not just adopt technology into our schools. Let's adapt it, push it, pull it, iterate with it, experiment with it, test it, and redo it, until we reach the point where we and our kids truly feel we've done our very best. Then, let's push it and pull it some more. And let's do it quickly, so the 22nd century doesn't catch us by surprise with too much of our work undone." I believe that when you identify a problem you should be willing to be part of the solutions and not just pass it along as someone else's problem. I feel that this article points out a lot of issues but doesn't provide any concrete ideas for solutions.