Reinforcing Ethics: The Risk of Digital Theft

 With so much information on the Internet it is almost no trouble for a student to look up a previously typed and graded paper to turn in under their name. Plagiarism, the act of calling someone elses' work one's own without accreditation or citation, is rampant. According the a study done by the Josephson Institute center for Youth Ethics in 2008, "36 percent of high school students used the Internet to plagiarize an assignment" (Maloy 133). Some plagiarism is accidental;(e.g. a student may find a source on the Internet and not realize that the information belongs to someone else or use a quote, fact, or statistic without knowing they need to cite it). This is not willful disobedience but a lack of education. If adults have a hard time understanding copyright laws then certainly students do as well. Educator James McKenzie lists seven ways for teachers to steer their students away from plagiarism by urging the students to think critically about subject matter instead of asking them to report established facts. His steps include discouraging trivial pursuits, requiring and enabling students to construct answers, assessing student progress throughout the entire research process, and of course, stressing citation ethics (Maloy 134).

ARRR Teachers pirates?

When teachers use digital media in the classroom they may unintentionally set the stage for piracy. Yes, PIRACY! Feathered hats and pegged-legs aside, the using and sharing of digital material without permission has gotten a lot of attention. As digital material becomes easier to share it is not only people with two VCR's hooked up to one television who are illegally sharing these materials. Technically, a person who receives a legitimate digital copy of a book and then gives a copy to a friend while retaining their original copy has committed digital piracy. Is a teacher, then, pirating when they print out a webpage to distribute as a handout to the class?

First, assuming the teacher is not using material from an educational website designed to provide educators with lesson plans, handouts, or discovery information (such as Berkley's "Hands On Universe") and always assume the material to be copyrighted even if it does not explicitly state so. A teacher may use copyrighted material from the Internet without seeking permission from the author as long as the purpose is "fair use". How does a teacher determine if the use of the digital material is "fair use"? Unfortunately a few legal definitions are required:

"Section 107 in Title 17 of the United States Code states that the following uses are not infringement of copyright: the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section [106], for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research." ("Limitations on Copyright").

"Section 110(1) of the United States Copyright Law makes special provision for displaying images, playing motion pictures or sound recordings, or performing works in classes. You may display or perform a work in your class without obtaining permission when your use is for instructional purposes; in face-to-face teaching; and at a nonprofit educational institution" (Hoon4).

 To make these easier to understand Peggy Hoon, J.D. at University of North Carolina, Charlotte, created a useful "Frequently Asked Questions" about copyright law as a way for teachers to avoid the vast tangle of digital copyright laws and use a few steps to determine if the digital material can be used in the classroom. (Link opens to PDF).

Humor can break the H2O(s).

If the digital content the teacher wants to share with the class is not for educational purposes within the scope of the lesson, but for entertainment value (such as a chemistry joke related to the lesson) it is recommended that the teacher share the link or location of the object and have the students access it themselves. It may be of value to do this in order to reinforce the ethics of digital content.

Active education about plagiarism and what is acceptable citation is necessary to prevent purposeful or accidental misuse of content by students. This may require the teacher reminding students either in writing or verbally each time an assignment is given that requires the use of digital material. Another alternative is to construct assignments that require the students to do the same information gathering and research as they would for a regular research assignment but then present their findings and conclusions in a manner that precludes the ability to recite plagiarized facts altogether! One such method posed by Maloy is to have the students condense the material and conclusions into a political cartoon that summarizes a political candidate's stance on a particular issue (Maloy 134).

By being mindful of the digital material presented in the classroom, and actively guiding students to citation and creative presentation methods, a teacher can incorporate interesting and relevant digital media into the classroom to expand the efficacy and interest of the lesson while subtly reinforcing ethical behaviour.


Citations: 

Hoon, Peggy. "Using Copyrighted Works in Your Teaching—FAQ: Questions Faculty and Teaching Assistants Need to Ask Themselves Frequently" J.D. Washington DC: Association of Research Libraries. KnowYourCopyrights.org. 2007. Web. 20 Sep. 2012. <http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/bm~doc/kycrfaq.pdf>

Maloy, Robert W., et al. Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print.

Marble Public Library, "Arggghhhh--Pirates". Web. 31 Oct. 2012. <http://marblelibrary.blogspot.com/2012/01/arggghhhh-pirates.html> (
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Pacific University of Oregon, "Limitation on Copyright". Web. 20 Sep. 2012. <http://www.pacificu.edu/policies/copyright/limitations/Section110.cfm>

Digital Content in the Classroom

 The Library of Congress contains 130 million items to include books, recordings, photographs, music items, and manuscripts. These items require approximately 530 miles of bookshelves! According to the University of California Berkley, as of 2002 the Internet was estimated to contain enough information to fill 37,000 Libraries of Congress! (Maloy 114). Having so much information at one's fingertips seems like a double-edged sword. The answers to all life's questions are open to everyone with a keyboard, but who makes sure it's the right answer? Does someone fact check the Internet? Who owns the information on the Internet? Can teachers effectively integrate the multitude of digitally based content into their classroom safely and legally?

Bill Nye's Climate Lab

The Internet is unfiltered, largely unregulated, and therefore has inadequacies, misinformation, and various bias. However, for the information literate teacher the Internet is a wealth of digital content that can enhance the learning environment by bringing a subject to life. Certain websites (repositories of like information on the "World Wide Web") can act as a sort of digital field trip (Maloy 159). An art class can explore works of art that are currently scattered throughout various galleries throughout the world on Artcyclopedia.com. Students in a geography class can have digital maps of varying scale and detail available for instant recall from sites like the University of Texas at Austin Perry-Castanada's Library Map Collection or Google's satellite driven GoogleEarth. Science classes can use videos from YouTube (a user-based video hosting site) to watch a chemical reaction, experiment, or dissection. Many learning sites, like Bill Nye's Climate Lab, have educational mini-games that teach the players about conservation, ecology, and citizen science. Using this digitally based content allows teachers to really make a subject come alive, and involve the students in a way that watching a video or lecturing can't do.

As digital material continues to become more widely available and include more and more educationally based material, teaching students (and other teachers) to access it safely and utilize it effectively becomes important. School-based computers may limit what sites a student can access through customized web-browsers. Teachers may discourage students from using information from certain sites by refusing to accept those sites as citations for research papers (Maloy 133). According to Maloy's Transforming Learning with New Technologies (2010) information literacy is defined by the American Library Association as "the ability to recognize when information is needed and  to then have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the  needed information" (p114). Previously the need for information literacy may have seemed to be negligible: educational material came from textbooks that were approved by the school board and a teacher taught primarily from the textbook.

As the Internet becomes prolific enough to threaten the livelihood of textbooks teachers end up needing to evaluate their digitally based additions as they would a student. Is the information relevant? Is the information accurate? Does the medium (video, audio, mini-game, tweet, blog, etc) detract from the overall lesson? Is the teacher permitted to use the material in class as-is, or do they need written permission? Some sites list on their website what form of copyright they hold over their information. All digital media is automatically copyrighted to the author the moment it's fixed in medium (the Internet) but certain laws and provisions govern when they can be reproduced. Streaming videos, playing music, looking at images "live" from the Internet (through an overhead connected to an Internet-connected computer) are all allowed (Hoon p5-6) and are considered being used "as intended". In fact, digital copyright is a hot-button topic as of 2012 and will be addressed in part two of this blog: Reinforcing Ethics: The Risk of Digital Theft.


Citations: 

Maloy, Robert W., et al. Transforming Learning with New Technologies. Boston: Pearson, 2011. Print.

Hoon, Peggy. "Using Copyrighted Works in Your Teaching—FAQ: Questions Faculty and Teaching Assistants Need to Ask Themselves Frequently" J.D. Washington DC: Association of Research Libraries. KnowYourCopyrights.org. 2007. Web.20 Sep. 2011. <http://www.knowyourcopyrights.org/bm~doc/kycrfaq.pdf>

How Different Communications Options can Support the Classroom

Technology: It's SCIENCE!

Technology has reshaped the way teachers communicate with parents and teachers, and the way they monitor professional development information. For decades parent-teacher conferences dominated the interaction opportunities between parents and teachers. With the telephone teachers are able to engage in long distance synchronous communication with the parents to offer up time-sensitive information that may pertain to disciplinary problems or an issue the child has in learning the current material. Electronic mail, e-mail, allows for asynchronous communication with a single parents for less time-sensitive discussions or to contact multiple parents at once. Teacher websites and blogs become repositories of information where students and parents alike can access the class syllabus, educational outline, or find suggestions for extra study material (Maloy 123).

According to Maloy's Transforming Learning with New Technologies (2011) some 96 percent of students aged 9 to 17 use social networking technologies like blogging, texting, blogging, and accessing online communities (p 210). Though students are discouraged from accessing social networking while in school such tools may be useful in the form of online discussion groups or forums like Blackboard.com or Moodle.com as a kind of online study group. Teachers may choose to contact students by e-mail to send out time-sensitive information pertaining to an upcoming lesson or to allow students to ask questions privately or class hours.

Technology allows teachers to monitor their professional development information. Teacher blogs and professional networking allow them to communicate with colleagues and stay current professionally (p 219). Professional development information can also be monitored as a kind of living entity with digital portfolios. Not only containing the information of a regular paper portfolio (information about themselves, their educational goals and training) an e-portfolio or webfolio "is a goal-driven, organized collection of artifacts that demonstrates a person's expansion of knowledge and skills over time" (p 309). These e-folios allow the educator to combine their resume with audio or video recordings, examples of PowerPoint lectures, or spreadsheet databases. Examples of web-based portfolios can be found at http://portfolio.iweb.bsu.edu (as of 2012 September 18). 

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