Introduction

Ribble and Bailey sum up digital citizenship as the norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to technology use (2011). They identified nine elements of digital citizenship; being an ethical digital citizen focuses attention on three of these - rights and responsibilities, law, and etiquette. In Lindsay and Davis’ Enlightened Digital Citizenship model (2012) this translates into the rays of understanding of safety, privacy, Copyright and legal, and etiquette and respect. As educators we should influence our students' habits of learning not just by direct teaching but by explicitly modelling effective, responsible habits ourselves, so that using information and media ethically becomes second nature.

The online world provides seemingly limitless access to information and media but many people assume that this ease of access equates to free to use. Something as simple as blogging about lunch can invoke the full force of the law (Burt, 2012). Plagiarism and Copyright infringement are serious issues in the digital learning environment. Lindsay and Davis implore teachers to “model legal wisdom”.

But it’s not just a legal issue, equally important is etiquette and respect. We should respect the rights of creators, not just because the Copyright police might get us, but because it is the right thing to do. As educators we should not just teach our students about these issues, we should at all times be modelling ethical use of information. As Ohler (2011) says “we must help our digital kids balance the individual empowerment of digital technology use with a sense of personal, community, and global responsibility.”

Promoting and modelling digital citizenship is an ISTE standard for teachers, and includes:

“Advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for Copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources”.

The Mozilla Foundation’s new Web Literacy Map describes 21st century competencies implicit in ethical participation including:

Karbach’s 20 digital skills every 21st-century teacher should have include being able to detect plagiarism in student assignments, and understanding Copyright and fair use issues for online material (2015).

All this is easy to say but not so easy to do. Copyright law alone is a hugely complex area and is different in different countries. Even within Australia there are licences and agreements in place that differ between states and education systems. The Center for Media and Social Impact notes that confusion and fear around Copyright negatively impacts teaching quality as some teachers “hyper-comply” while others hide behind closed doors (n.d.).

This learning module will support you to learn about Copyright, Creative Commons, plagiarism, and remix so that you become empowered to be an ethical participant and role model in the digital environment.

Still not convinced that this is important for you? Watch this:

Now read on...

References

Bailie, H. (2016, April 19). Ethical participation in the digital environment [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/H_YvdFr2jqY

Burt, R. (2012, September 18). PSA: Don’t Let Salami and Google Images Get You In Hot Water. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from https://edublogs.org/2012/09/18/salami-and-google-images/

CableImpacts. (2016, February 9). InCtrl: What’s mine Isn't (necessarily) yours - teacher video [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/104313408

Center for Media and Social Impact. (n.d.). Code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education. Retrieved from http://www.cmsimpact.org/fair-use/related-materials/codes/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education.

Chung, A. (2016, April 8 Introducing Mozilla's Web Literacy Map, Our New Blueprint for Teaching People About the Web. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from https://blog.mozilla.org/blog/2016/04/08/introducing-mozillas-web-literacy-map-our-new-blueprint-for-teaching-people-about-the-web/

InCtrl: What’s mine Isn't (necessarily) yours - teacher video [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/104313408

International Society for Technology in Education. Standards for teachers (2008). Retrieved April 20, 2016, from https://www.iste.org/standards

Karbach, Med. (2015). 20 digital skills every 21st-century teacher should have. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning. Retrieved April 18, 2016 from http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/06/33-digital-skills-every-21st-century.html

Lindsay, J. (2015). Leadership for digital citizenship action acec 2014. Retrieved April 20, 2016, from http://www.slideshare.net/julielindsay/leadership-for-digital-citizenship-action-acec-2014/

Lindsay, J., and Davis, V. (2012). Flattening classrooms, engaging minds: Move to global collaboration one step at a time. New York: Allyn and Bacon. Chapter 5: Citizenship.

Ohler, J. (2011). Character education for the digital age. ASCD Educational Leadership. 68(5). Retrieved April 18, 2016 from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb11/vol68/num05/Character-Education-for-the-Digital-Age.aspx.

Ribble, M. and Bailey, G. (2011). Digital citizenship in schools. International Society for Technology in Education. CableImpacts.

Stripling, B. (2010). Teaching students to think in the digital environment: Digital literacy and digital inquiry. School Library Monthly, 26(8), 16-19.