Candidates practice the ethical principles of their profession, advocate for intellectual freedom and privacy, and promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility. Candidates educate the school community on the ethical use of information and ideas.
There are many ethical and legal considerations that a librarian needs to be well versed in as it will certainly be a part of the profession and in an ongoing fashion. The library is the hub for information which in former days included ‘print’ media and now is vastly providing access to digital resources. With this opportunity comes the challenge of dealing with ‘Fair Use & Copyright,’ ‘ CIPA & Content Filtering’ and ‘Social Media.’
Fair Use
As someone who trains teachers on the use of technology the topic of ‘copyright’ will often come up by someone who seems to want to ‘hyper comply’ and my response including break down of ‘Fair Use’ usually redirects us back to the task at hand. I became well versed with the terms of ‘Fair Use’ when I worked as a technology integrator at a high school with a librarian who I deemed to be more like the ‘copyright police.’ We had an ongoing debate over the course of an entire year where he questioned almost every new project we created. I am going to 99% of the time err on the side of the student and teacher by going through the Fair Use considerations that Johnson outlines in his book ‘The Indispensable Librarian,’ which mainly refer to whether or not the student/teacher are going to personally profit, if the majority of the entire work is original and is it for educational or commercial use.’ If you are using media found on the Internet or copyrighted work to teach a concept or demonstrate understanding of something taught, you are covered, 99% of the time. There are exceptions such as using only a portion not the full video or audio file yet 99% of the time the use falls within that area of consideration. (Johnson, 2014, Kindle Location 4682).
Creative Commons is an excellent resource that may be used as part of securing media for use from the Internet but should not be meant to be an exclusive agent. We have to be careful about limiting students to only ‘CC’ work as so many have not understood or taking the time to ‘share’ their published media accordingly. I would caution teachers about what Bill Ferriter implies in ‘Teaching Students About Creative Commons. He writes, ‘ The Creative Commons will let your students innovate in and out of the classroom without having to worry about copyright violations’ (Ferriter, n.d). Creative Commons searching does not provide the variety and amount of results that a general search does. Simply put, there is still not enough material tagged by CC. In Bill’s article, ‘Creative Commons Resources for Classroom Teachers, he highlights the direct websites where can search for the shared materials which is another approach to finding the ‘open source’ materials (Ferriter, 2013). It’s ok to use it as a resource and if you are looking to use resources for a fundraising drive or PTA movie then yes, it makes sense to limit to what you KNOW you can use. A really great opportunity here, however, is to incorporate sharing TO creative commons as much as possible. If students create original graphics, teach them and show them how to apply the creative commons licensing to it. If a student creates a web page or writes a poem to publish online, tag it with a creative commons license!
Social Media
I have a Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ account. I mainly use ALL of my social networking for educational posts and sharing as well as some ‘healthy habits’ and a few family promotions. That’s it. For Twitter, a student can follow but I would not follow them back. On LinkedIn, I will allow a connection from a former but not current student. I would not accept a friend request on Facebook from any current or former students and I have no idea who I follow or who follows me on G+. The reason I block Facebook from students is because it is bad business to get involved with students at a personal level and my Facebook is the most personal to me.
There are varying perspectives on how it should be used if at all in education. As you can see above, I fall somewhat in the middle. I am a HUGE proponent for using Social Media in education. Teachers, principals, and students should set up social media accounts with their school email to use for educational purposes. By having school accounts you can set up learning ‘communities’ on G+, create Twitter lists and #tags for conversation topics, host Twitter chats, language clubs on Facebook or G+, utilize blogs, comment, share and reflect on each other’s work. After reading the recommendations from Indispensable Librarian, I think my personal guidelines are close to syncing with what might be considered best practice. (Johnson, 2014, Kindle Ed. Section 4620)
There are numerous benefits for using social media to promote engaging learning environments but also to teach digital citizenship and netiquette. In a Guidebook for Social Media, (I highly recommend a good read of this), Vicki Davis writes, ‘If you're going to ignore social media in the classroom, then throw out the ISTE Standards for Students and stop pretending that you're 21st century.’ (Davis, 2014) If we use social media at a very young age with students, we can better teacher netiquette, digital citizenship and prevent more cyber~bullying. We can make more powerful consumers of social media who will be able to build stronger, more positive learning networks which would be a driving force against the trolls that creep up to hurt people. By making social media a taboo and something to sneak to use, we are setting our children up for years on improper use and unfortunate events.
CIPA & Content Filtering
To complement my outlook on Copyright & Fair Use, my general attitude about filtering is the same. Do not over-comply (Johnson, 2014) and err on the side of what is best for the teacher & students to achieve their academic goals with happiness while staying safe and not causing harm to others. My experience with filtering has led to to be a proponent for every teacher having access to unfiltered internet as needed but not just unfiltered or they won’t be aware of when a site is not going to load for a student. Librarians and technology integrators should have the ability to override and allow sites. There should be a FAST way for any teacher to get an override and if there is a disagreement it goes straight to the principal to make a call. If the librarian and technology integrators are too restrictive and constantly holding up the process then a third party or training may need to be set into place.
Reconsideration committee is not a bad idea which would allow for a historical documentation of any site that has been banned or removed such as YouTube. It would be good to know where the request came from, the analysis, recommendations and decision. This way if it comes up again or review you have all of that at your disposal.
We also need to remember that the Internet provides us with ‘teachable’ moments and if we can mentor and guide students when either intentionally or unintentionally accessing material, isn’t it better than if they only access these when no one can help?
In Chapter 10 of The Indispensable Librarian, Johnson, mentions the ‘Tech Nazi’ of many which I have worked. Some were better than others. It was the most flexible and least restrictive tech directors who were the most educated and supportive. He goes on to list a few other nicknames he learned about throughout the years. (Johnson, 2014). My alltime favorite from my travels is from a tech integrator I worked with in Arkansas who very subtly referred to her tech director as ‘Captain Jackass.’
Davis, Vicki. (2014, February 27). A Guidebook for Social Media in the Classroom. Retrieved July 06, 2017, from https://www.edutopia.org/blog/guidebook-social-media-in-classroom-vicki-davis
Ferriter, Bill. (n.d). Teaching Student About Creative Commons. Retrieved July 07, 2017 from http://www.learnnc.org/lp/pages/6443
Ferriter, Bill. (2013). "CTQ." Creative Commons Resources for Classroom Teachers | CTQ Web. 06 July 2017.
Johnson, D. (2013). The Indispensable librarian: Surviving and thriving in school libraries in the information age (2nd ed.). Kindle Edition. Retrieved from www.amazon.com
Re: Ethical and Legal Considerations for Librarians
by Amy - Sunday, 16 July 2017, 3:38 PM
Allison,
It seems like you have tons of experience helping folks navigate the world of Fair Use. Is it OK if I add you to my PLN as a resource? :) I have little experience with it, and therefore, find myself over complying and being hyper concerned. Reading Johnson's (2013) text made me realize that I need to relax a bit and trust my gut.
How do you manage to not get bogged down with all of your accounts on social media, etc? After attending the Christa McAuliffe Technology Conference last fall, I was inspired to start a Twitter account. Quickly, though, I found myself getting overwhelmed with the amount of information flying at me. I loved some of the resources that I found there, but it was difficult to a) remember them, b) keep them organized, and c) shut off my brain at night so I could get some sleep. Ultimately, I stopped checking my account after a few weeks. I know I should go back, because it will help me do my job so much better. I know I am missing out on lots of amazing resources. I feel like all of this connectivity, while great in many ways, can stretch us out so thin sometimes. Do you have some strategies to keep yourself organized and sane?
Also, I really liked your point about the internet providing us "teachable" moments with students. In a way, it could be a positive thing for them to unintentionally access something not appropriate, if we were right there to guide them through that experience. I like your suggestion of having teachers / librarians allowed unfiltered access. Do you believe that some measure of filtering is appropriate for students? And would that change, say, if you worked in a high school?
Thanks for bringing up these great points.
Amy
Re: Ethical and Legal Considerations for Librarians
by Susan - Monday, 17 July 2017, 1:57 PM
Hello Allison,
I really enjoyed reading your post and look forward to checking out some of the resources you included.
I can not agree with you more when you discuss making certain topics or technology "taboo". I can think of fewer things that would make a student more interested in a topic then deeming that topic "taboo".
Knowledge is power. As a society we prove this everyday by having students take drivers education before letting them lose on the roadways or holding our child's hand to cross the street until we have made sure the rules of safely crossing have been learned. We teach our children how to be safe and successful in the world around them, we are also responsible for teaching them how to be successful and safe in cyberspace.
I laughed out-loud at your reference to "Captain Jackass". I would like to say, like you, that I have worked with a few great tech directors, but that is not the case. Most fall under your "Captain Jackass" category. I wonder if lack of knowledge and comfort in their position, like you suggest, caused them to be more like Johnson's (2014) "Tech Nazi"? So afraid to appear uneducated, that they err on the side of caution.
Thank you for your insight. Truly inspiring.
Johnson, D. (2013). The Indispensable librarian: Surviving and thriving in school libraries in the information age (2nd ed.). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Re: Ethical and Legal Considerations for Librarians
by Bethanye - Monday, 17 July 2017, 10:42 PM
Allison,
I found your ideas fascinating and clearly you have a lot of knowledge and experience working as technology integrator with students. I have added your recommendation A Guidebook for Social Media to my ever growing list of material to check out!
I agree with you that social media should be used in education, I read an article a little while back saying that teens spend an average of nine hours a day using media (Wallace, 2015) so it only makes sense that we are using it in education. I’ve only taught in elementary school settings, are you aware of any type of media programs that are geared towards younger students that would be applicable in the classroom?
Wallace, K. (2015, November 03). Teens spend 9 hours a day using media, report says. Retrieved from http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/03/health/teens-tweens-media-screen-use-report/index.html