Copyright Why Not!

Many people believe that if you find it online and you can download it or copy it, why not!  As an educator, I also found myself not so concerned about teaching about copyright as I felt we were working within the Fair Use guidelines anyway. Why not!

But did I need to rethink this?  Outside of school, our students are using a wide variety of technologies and at times downloading images, music and videos and uploading them to   social media platforms, weblogs, and blogs, to mention just a few.

Teaching media literacy, such as copyright rules, will prepare our students to live in the real world as well as teaching them important critical thinking skills.  But how are we going to add this to an already packed curriculum?  One way is by embedding the lesson into an existing project or activity, or collaborating with others is another.  In the 6^th grade our students were introduced to copyright, fair use and the rights they have as creators through a collaborative project between the computer teacher, school library media specialist, and the music teacher.  Each teacher had a key component of the lesson which ending with them creating their own music and copyrighting it.  By collaborating with three teachers, it decreased the time each of us spent on the lesson, and made it very exciting for the students to learn.

But the lesson does not end here.  Copyright training is a process and needs to be taught or reinforced by all teachers in every subject to some degree. If the social studies teacher requires images in their report, students need to cite that source properly.  I clearly understand that under the realm of the school it isn’t usually necessary to acknowledge the creator of the media; however, it is necessary for our students to know outside of school it does matter.  This by no way means that our students will start citing their images on Facebook tomorrow.  Instead it will perhaps prompt them to think about the possible repercussions of copyright infringement.

In conclusion, today’s tech-savvy middle school students download images, and music not only for school but also for their own personal use.  It is vital to ensure that they understand their legal rights and responsibilities under copyright.  As teachers we can incorporate the teachings of copyright and, in turn, critical thinking skills in almost every subject.  It also opens up some thoughts to collaborative projects between the classroom teacher, technology teacher, and/or the school library media specialist.  Why not!

Kolk, Melinda. earthdrawn.jpg. Oct-00. Pics4Learning. 11 Sep 2015 <http://pics.tech4learning.com>

Blogging in the Elementary School

Fagnan, Deborah. img_00391.jpg. November 19, 2015. Pics4Learning. 27 Nov 2015 <http://pics.tech4learning.com>

As a teacher there is nothing more rewarding than to see a student completely engaged in a project or activity.  It is even more rewarding when class is over and no one wants to leave. This is what actually took place when blogging was introduced into my school.  It did take some time to set up, and like any learning curve, I still consider it a work in progress. 

Once you decide you want to blog, the work begins.  First you need to determine which blog platform to use.  Edublogs and Kidsblogs are examples of two educational blogging platforms.  These platforms target educator and student audiences.  My first blog I created was through Edublog. I was a newbie and needed all the help I could get.  Edublog provided me with that assistance.  They provide free professional development workshops online.  I found Blogging with Students to be an excellent workshop and it helped me to create a blog I use today for our school newspaper, The Eagle Press.  The workshop was set up in eleven steps over eleven weeks.  However you can work at your own pace.  Once you completed a unit, the next section opened up.  Each unit required specifics tasks to be completed.  At the conclusion you find yourself with a blog created with all the bells and whistles.  I learned about pages, posts, widgets and plugins, and so much more.  If you don’t think this is enough, I also received professional development hours for the work I did.

Once you have decided on a platform and you have a clear understanding of the purpose of your blog, you will need to make sure your students have a clear interpretation of the following concepts:

1.     Students must demonstrate an understanding of safe, acceptable and sensible behavior online.

2.     Students must follow the school’s guidelines and acceptable use policies from their school.

3.     Students must demonstrate an understanding on how to post and comment on a blog. I also had an online worksheet and quiz students had to take before joining the staff or posting comments.

4.     If working with younger children, students must have enough keyboarding skills to be able to successfully write and post entries on a blog.

Although I used the blog for a school wide program, our school newspaper, blogs would be a great tool for the classroom teacher or a collaboration between two or more teachers.  There are endless possibilities of projects and activities that can be utilized with blogs in any subject and almost every grade level.

Linda Yollis discusses this topic in her interview clip, The Power of Blogging and Quality Comments.  Ms. Yollis touches upon some of advantages to blogging in the classroom such as:

1.     Developing reading and writing skills;

2.     Building literacy skills;

3.     Developing digital literacy on topics such as online safety;

4.     Building a positive digital footprint;

Privacy settings are an important feature to evaluate with the different blog platforms.  Does the platform provide the necessary privacy settings your school or district requires?  On edublogs, the teacher can restrict its audience or open it up to the World Wide Web. The blog readers could be anyone such as only people you choose, or only the blog authors. 

Linda Yollis in her interview clip, The Power of Blogging and Quality Comments shares with us one of her projects called the 365 Project. Students and families from her class share photos, poems and stories with other students and their families around the world.  This amazing project provides students with a unique way to interact and work collaboratively with a large interactive community.

 

Bentley, Penny.  Digital Footprint World Cloud.  28 Nov. 2013.  Flickr.com Nov 2015  <https://www.flickr.com/photos/penbentley/>

As teachers we feel the pressure of developing a curriculum that enhances student learning for the 21^st century learner.  Blogging provides a tool that allows the educator to teach content subjects such as reading, writing, science, social studies, and information skills in a technological environment.  Students have an opportunity to build a positive digital footprint while learning Digital Literacy and Citizenship.  What do you think?  Is this a win-win situation for your school?