Digital Citizenship Reflection

Kristine Nesbit
Digital Citizenship Reflection

After reading the article, “The Educators' Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use”, by Hall Davidson and viewing his resources available on the Internet, I would exhibit digital citizenship in the classroom by being a role model to students and use technology for learning, by using a laptop, a projector, and Internet access in my classroom. This will allow me to reference and research topics as needed throughout our curriculum. I would encourage my students to do the same. This type of learning will encourage questions and help students find their own answers. For early elementary learners this will be very instrumental when they ask why, how come, etc. By using various search engines, we can find many answers to our own inquiries and also share appropriately with others.

Although Hall Davidson’s Copyright Resources are informative, I find them to be overwhelming and confusing. I would like to simplify the information for students and educators so they are less intimidated and embrace technology verses avoid it. For the sake of adding value to my students or other educators, I would use the following link to explain Fair Use Rights via a song:
www.halldavidson.com/7-FairUseSongUserRights_Web.mov

I also found cartoons to be helpful in explaining this complex issue of copyright laws. I would like to share these websites with an appropriate age student audience to increase their understanding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QiO_H0-ok8&feature=channel_page
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo&NR=1

As educators, we need to establish rules for digital citizenship that should be upheld in and outside the classroom. Expectations can also be stated on school-wide websites as to appropriate and inappropriate use of technology ie. cell phones, email and internet use. These expectations as well as the issue of safety must be made known to parents and students. In situations when caution has not been used, an expert such as a law enforcement officer can speak to students to help enlighten them as to what can occur when not abiding by appropriate rules of behavior.

The best way to avoid plagiarism is to error on the side of caution. Be sure to provide yourself with enough time to write your works in order to allow for improvements and editing. It is always best to cite your source if you are unsure regardless of whether your source is an Internet expressed idea or otherwise. Additionally, it is important that you are conveying a new idea or thought and not just repeating someone else’s.

References:

The Educators' Lean and Mean No FAT Guide to Fair Use by Hall Davidson
www.techlearning.com/Blogs/22558

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/p/peachj/edte230/copyright/

http://www.halldavidson.com/downloads.html#anchor923173

Copyright for Educators, http://jfriesen.net/copyright/copyrightforedmain.htm

"Digital Citizenship: Addressing Appropriate Technology Behavior" by Mike S. Ribble, Gerald D. Bailey, and Tweed W.Ross. ISTE website, Learning & Leading with Technology (Volume 32 Number 1).

CSUSM Student Tutorial: http://library.csusm.edu/plagiarism/index.html