Am I a Thief of People's Time?!

Net Smart by Howard Rheingold was the perfect book to follow The Information Diet and Copyright Clarity. Net Smart tied everything together nicely. Rheingold does a great job of breaking down digital literacy into five topics: attention, crap detection, participation, collaboration, and network smarts. With The Information Diet, I learned about how much digital information I was consuming and how to make changes to reduce the amount. Copyright Clarity taught me about how to determine if the information I found on the Internet was being used fairly and lawfully. Net Smart taught me how to be more mindful of the tools I use online, how to become aware of where I focus my attention, how to determine if information I find is "crap" or valid, how to thoughtfully participate rather than consume information, how to collaborate with intention to share common interests and resources, and the importance of networks and how they influence behavior.

Of the five digital literacy topics, Participation really resonated with me. It was also the topic I worked on with my group to create a Glogster. What Net Smart made me consider in terms of participation was whether I participate when I am online, or am I just "passively consuming culture" or "stealing people's time." I like to think that I participate and add meaningful contribution to things I post, but I will definitely be more conscience and think before I hit the "post" button from now on. The biggest notion from the Participation section that I will bring into my classroom is making sure my students understand that what they post online is there forever. It can be searched, reproduced, and distributed. Sixth graders may not think what they post now is a big deal. However, when they are applying to colleges or for their first job, they will be glad they knew enough to think twice about posting something questionable.

It's OK, I'm a Teacher

OK, I admit it. I am one of those teachers that believed that it's fine to use a source as long as it's cited. I was also under the assumption that as an educator, I had free reign on what ever I found on the Internet and could use in it my classroom. My justification was, "I'm educating my students, where else am I going to find information?" Until I read Copyright Clarity, I had no idea that there are actual laws that I have been breaking (shhhhhh!). Though I found the laws of copyright, transformativeness, and fair use as clear as mud, I now understand the importance of following these laws by modeling good, legal use of information that I use in my classroom. I can't expect my students to automatically know what's right and wrong with using information and graphics found on the Internet, but I can teach them how to use what they find ethically and within the ream of the laws.

The fair use law is the most confusing to me. According to the fair use law for education uses, I can make copies of copyrighted work, embed copyrighted material into new work that I create, and share, sell, and distribute said copies of my new work. How is that different that what I was already doing with my free-for-all attitude? That's where the law becomes muddled to me. Of course I wouldn't intentionally use copyrighted information illegally. My intentions are always to inform my students using engaging materials.

I now understand that even though I cited my sources, that act alone doesn't make information I used fall within the copyright and fair use laws. I realize that I have to use critical thinking skills to determine if fair use applies to what I want to use. However, I don't want to make a 180 and be scared to use information because I'm afraid to make a determination of the legality of it's use. I believe there is a fine line that needs to followed and respected. Understanding copyright, tranformativeness, and fair use are not something I am going to completely understand after reading one book. This is a skill that I am going to have to work with on a daily basis when using the Internet to find information.