Reading Review - Part B - Literature Research and Data Collection

Reading Review - Part B -
Literature Research and Data Collection

Perhaps I was a bit excited starting this assignment, and posted a few possible resources in Part A of my blog post. What I will do this week, is spend time focusing on 3-5 key resources. I used my keywords generated in Part A as a guide. In an attempt to narrow down these topics, I thought of my big idea of Digital Information Literacy in two subheadings: copyright & ownership of content, and storing/privacy of what you create at school. Here are the resources that helped me better understand my topic.

Copyright & Ownership of Content

I read the following resources concerning copyright in greater detail. As a TOC it is something we are never fully trained in understanding our legal obligations. TOCs should know this, because we have to recognize if we are being asked to do something that is in breach of our legal responsibilities. Also, I am starting to wonder -- if schools are increasingly sharing student work in an online format, should teachers be applying Creative Commons license codes to our student’s work?

Here are the resources I am looking at in more detail:

Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). Copyright law impacts teachers and 
     what they can use in the classroom. Retrieved from http://www.cmec.ca/docs/copyright/

     CopyrightLawImpactsTeachers%20_EN.pdf

This document highlights changes in copyright in the context of education after the 2012 passing of the Copyright Modernization Act. Specifically, it provides information regarding the use of internet materials. It states:

“The copyright law provides a clear legal framework that supports the use of the Internet in classrooms. The Internet provision establishes that teachers and students can legally perform routine classroom activities such as downloading, saving, and sharing publicly available Internet text or images, incorporating Internet materials into assignments, and exchanging works electronically with one another.  

The Internet provision applies only to material that is publicly available on the Internet and has been posted on-line with the authorization of the copyright owner. For instance, the provision does not apply to pirated textbooks or films. Also, teachers and students must respect any digital lock (such as encryption or password-protection) that restricts access or use of the Internet content” (CMEC).  

According to this, teachers should be aware that if students use a resource in their own work that is originally pirated, then the teacher must inform the student that they cannot use that resource. This can become an issue when using music in the background of videos that students create. Or for example, I take this to mean a student could not use a YouTube clip of Finding Nemo that is clearly someone filming their own television, because this is a pirated source. If this was observed, the teacher is legally obligated to inform the student that this is outside of copyright law.

Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC). (2016, October). Dealing Fairly With      
     Copyright-Protected Works of Others [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com
     /72374059

This resource is a video that outlines what teachers can and cannot do when it comes to using copyright-protected works of others. A similar PowerPoint presentation document can also be read online. This video clearly outlines the legal obligations, explains the Fair Dealing Guidelines, and explains that a “short excerpt” is no more than 10% of a work. This video also explains the history of how the Fair Dealing Guidelines came to be, and what to do when the use of a work falls outside of the guidelines. 

It is interesting that one of the principal’s responsibilities is to ensure the Fair Dealing Guidelines and the poster is displayed by all photocopiers, printers, and scanners. However, with the increase of portable digital devices that allow freedom of movement, I wonder where this poster should be placed to act as a reminder to staff and students about proper protocol.

After watching this video, I wonder how often the teacher librarian is the designated staff person who is to fully understand copyright laws along with the principal. The TL seems like the natural person in the building to be the “go to” when colleagues have questions. Also, for TOCs when do we learn about this? Are we supposed to learn it on our own? I can see how it would be easy to make a mistake in a long-term TOC call because you simply just didn’t know.

Vancouver School Board i3 Learning Technologies. (2016). Copyright Resources. Retrieved
     from http://go.vsb.bc.ca/schools/ltm/curricular-resources/copyrights/Pages/default.aspx

This resource provides a basic overview of copyright. On the right-hand side further links for many documents and posters regarding copyright, compliance, and resources are provided. Something I found particularly interesting is: “Students’ intellectual property rights are protected.  That is, any original work – for example, an essay, video, sound recording, website, art piece – requires authorization for further use. Authorization in VSB schools requires both the student’s and the parent’s signed permission to re-use in a publication, workshop, or web posting, or as an exemplar.  Email is considered a legal document for this purpose” (VSB i3, 2016). So if I understand this correctly, the first consent form at the beginning of the school year only covers one copy, or one posting/use of digital sharing. For further use, a second authorization is required. This is also mentioned in item #23 of Copyright Matters!

An interesting tool I stumbled upon from this site is the Copyright Decision Tool (“Compliance Checklists for Principals and Teachers” > “copyrightdecisiontool.ca” > “English”), which helps teachers decide if their learning activity follows the Fair Dealing Guidelines for classroom use of materials. This is a helpful tool for anyone who is new to thinking more deeply about this important legal responsibility. The tool is easy to navigate, you simply click on what it is you plan to use, and it helps to narrow down results, until finally letting you know what is permitted. For example, it points out that technically, music should not be played in the background at school events until the SOCAN fee has been paid to obtain proper licenses – it feels like this rule is broken often… accidentally? However, as these documents point out, it is the responsibility of the principal and teachers to ensure there is copyright compliance within a school. I find that the “3 Things for Teachers to Know about Copyright” poster clearly alerts teachers to be aware that reproducing and sharing material is something they have to consider constantly.

Storing/privacy of what you create at school

Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPCC). (2016). Technology and privacy.
     Retrieved from https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/privacy-topics/technology-and-privacy/

This Government resource provides a lot of information regarding privacy and online safety. A few of the links I found to be the most useful when thinking from the point-of-view of a teacher librarian are:

Privacy Education for Kids

12 Quick Online Privacy Tips for Parents

Social Smarts: Privacy, the Internet and You

Discussing Online Identity and Reputation

Cloud Computing and Privacy

In reading a lot of the content provided by the OPCC, it seems like teachers and teacher librarians really need to pay attention to teaching students about using password protected areas & keeping the passwords safe, creating usernames that are not obviously identifiable by “outsiders,” and paying attention to privacy settings. If these steps are followed, and the student’s parent/guardian has signed the school consent on using online learning tools, then it should be okay to use web tools in the classroom. In regards to Cloud Computing, it seems like the district I work in is using a version of Office 365 that is mostly based in Canada, except for a few features that staff are warned about on this page Office365 for Education.

I can see the role of the teacher-librarian being “the monitor” of all of the above topics within a school setting – what do you think?