I am choosing to use Canva for this activity of making an infographic because I already have an account and am familiar with the interface. I am choosing to focus on Copyright and Fair Use as this is a lesson I am teaching this week! This week I am teaching my fifth graders (again) about downloading and using images. They are working on a presentation and I am sending them to pre-curated sites that I know have free images. My favorite is Photos For Class because it shows the Creative Commons License on the image. This lesson is being conducted in the library and I want to display it so that more than just this class will stop and read it. For this lesson I am using the Common Sense Media video 'Copyright and Fair Use.' I will also model for them how to use our curated search engines including Google Safe Search to check the usage rights of photos. I have taught the lesson about not using other's photos more than once to this class and my students know this is important. I regularly bring up current lawsuits happening due to allegations of plagiarism. Including "Happy Birthday," Ed Sheeran (a quick search shows he has had multiple lawsuits on this topic!), this article has several, the Japanese Olympic Stadium and logo for the Olympics is interesting!

Creating the Infographic

My infographic was made using Canva. I have some limited experience with the program so was thinking this would make it easier. I found a bit of a learning curve though. I am pleased with how it turned out, but it is two pages long. It is based on the Common Sense Education lesson entitled Copyright & Wrong. The file is too large to upload so I am posting a link to the image. Given time I would make two completely separate infographics instead of having them bleed into each other.

Page one Copyright and page two Fair Use.

I will print these and I will hang them in the library.

I picked this topic because I feel students and teachers (ok the world at large) is careless and thoughtless when it comes to using the work of others. I want to be sure my students and teachers know right from wrong and I think the more they can be reminded the better. This falls under the 'more you know' category. For example, I use hyperdocs and one of the issues that have come up is people taking someone's hyperdoc, erasing the creator's name, placing their own and then selling it on Teacher's Pay Teachers. This is so unethical! I use hyperdocs and add my name on the bottom and that I have modified it. I think when my students see this it shows them how to be ethical. They see more than we give them credit for and I hope my example will rub off on them.

I take every opportunity I can to remind, show and model appropriate use of media. I directly teach lessons on key word search, I provide resources for free images and music. I directly teach lessons on these topics. Just this week I had the chance that was unplanned to directly remind and point students to free images. I have used resources from Commons Sense, Brainpop, Netsmart kids and I embed these in my class. The responsibility for teaching these digitial citizenship lessons was moved from my class to the library but I still teach and model. Next year, I will have the responsibility of implementation for all curriculum grades K-5. When I first left the classroom this was my role on my campus so I feel comfortable teaching this. I just don't want this to be all that I do. One of my goals (called BHAG 'bold hairy audacious goal) is to have a way to teach my faculty some of these lessons. I want them to know how to copyright their work and apply a Creative Commons License (which I will do to my infographic once I get the okay from Common Sense).

After writing this I came upon this blog post on Shake Up Learning on using Google tools to teach ISTE standards that I thought was interesting.

• Develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital age communication and collaboration tools

This is a large, global question that has answers for which I feel I can only scratch the surface. We have been doing anti-bias training at my school. I have always considered learning and respecting other cultures to be important. I embrace other cultures. Yet, how to we help others find comfort in expressing their own culture, and respecting others? I think the answer is education and communication; not promoting stereotypes and trying to break stereotypes. I once taught at a modern Orthodox Jewish school. Not being Jewish (but having many Jewish friends) I felt I understood the culture, yet I found that I was not respected, necessarily (that is another blog post). What I found though was stereotypical hatred of Muslims "They will all stab you in the back" statements from students. I launched a 'World Religions" unit in my history class. I showed films about beliefs and lives. Then I heard "Wow, they are just like us." So, bringing information to the forefront, having students create and share about their culture using ANY web 2.0 tool will broaden and strengthen the understanding of all of us. There needs to be a safe space for these conversations to happen to begin with and that is the first thing a teacher needs to establish.

Reflections on Standards:

• INACOL Standards:

Domain 4 Technical Skills

Competency 2: instructional strategies

Standard A: Provide resources for students to learn content and enable them to work independently and/or in cooperative groups.

Standard C: Create customized learning pathways with students, where learning goals and objectives are linked to explicit and diverse learning experiences, matched to the individual student’s learning performance level and preferences.

Standard D: Tailor content and instructional strategies to individual learning goals, needs, and interests.

Looking at these standards I don't believe they apply just to online teaching and learning. This is simply good teaching, period. I am a firm believer in helping my students learn in ways that work best for them. When I was a fourth grade teacher I was known to figure out what was going on with kids and find ways to help them. That is simply good teaching. I was reminded of this just this week. I had an ongoing issue with some teachers which rose out of the fact that they decided to break school policy about bringing devices from home to school. Ostensibly, it was because the tutor wanted to use a program (Inspiration) with this student to help him organize his thoughts when writing. In my mind, what this meant was that they expected the student to have the program downloaded on one device that he brought from home and then to use this device in the classroom rather than use the Chromebook the school provided. I was informing the teachers that there was a web version to the program that would allow the student to access the work from his Chromebook. I found our conversations going round and round as I had expectations about how they envisioned this working. I finally asked them a question I learned from a very experienced teacher "What will this look like in your classroom?." "Do you expect him to sit with two computers on his desk?" The were quick to confirm, that no, he wouldn't use the computer and he didn't need the online version because he would not use it in their class because "that is not the way we teach."

So, the way "they teach" doesn't work for the student and they are not prepared to allow him to use tools he is learning that can help him in their class. I was stunned!! I would NEVER let this happen, and I don't understand how any 'teacher' could let this happen. The entire point is to help our students. I feel I am strong in these skills, I wonder though, as a Online Teacher, how will I know what my student's need? Is it harder to find the clues/red flags that I see in the classroom? In a blended situation I expect I would know more as I would be seeing my students face to face. And, I wonder, how does this play out when teaching adults? Just because the learner is an older student doesn't mean they won't need support or accommodations or different learning paths. I expect helping these students may require much more finesse and personal contact to find ways to support their learning.

Final Reflection

Since writing this post I have had more conversations with my admin about the vision for next year. We are a Commons Sense Education school and our head of school sits on the board of Common Sense. As a result, teaching the curriculum should be a priority. The decision for next year is to take the curriculum and move it from the library and have it integrated into the classrooms. I am going to create a hyperlinked scope and sequence for the faculty. I know this may work for one year unless there is a constant push from administration. I have asked the question how will the teaching be documented? Who will follow up and be sure that the lessons have been taught. So far there is no answer to these questions. It is my strong belief that after one year the lessons will not be taught. All my teacher friends agree with me. I guess only time will tell.