Ownership, academic integrity and digital artefacts (Online activity 7)
Academic integrity is an area I became familiar with while studying for my Bachelor of Education 12 years ago. My understanding of it (very basic I now realise) was to always make sure the ideas or information you get (particularly when completing assignments) are recognised using a referencing format such as APA. With the introduction of 1:1 device use in my primary school classroom, and the use of these devices to create digital artefacts and share learning online, it has only recently become apparent to me that my students need to be skilled up on the legalities of ownership and using content from the internet in their creations.
Last year was my first year teaching Year 4/5 students (with 1:1 Chromebooks). This older and more digitally capable class opened up a whole new world in terms of the content they could create to demonstrate their learning. It also opened my eyes to their lack of understanding of the legalities and permissions involved with using content from the internet in the work they were producing from sites like google images - this being a prime example of what Lamlert referred to as "people just copying anything from the internet" without a thought for the legalities and permissions around it (2014, p. 277). To help inform students' understanding and make them more aware, we had a very basic class discussion about copyright and making sure we say where our information and images are from. To put our discussion into practice, I set students the task of completing a DLO reading response (link to slide deck here) on our research topic tornados. I added a small text box to the corner of each slide reminding students to add their sources of information. This worked really well and was a first step in building student awareness in this area, however after completing online activity 7, I have now realised I need to teach copyright far more in depth, for example a focus on creative commons and their licence chart. There is also far more work to be done in our school in terms of educating teachers about copyright and plagiarism.
Many of my colleagues are embracing the use digital technologies in their classrooms, but there is a major need for them to be aware of and up skilled in copyright literacy (Morrison, 2018). Morrison (2018) discusses the expectations we now have of our students to create online content such as blog posts, visually appealing presentations and videos; but there is a true lack of copyright literacy being taught in preparation for this, which it could be assumed a lack of clarity and understanding in this area can be to blame. According to the Creative Commons Teacher's Handbook (n.d), a huge amount of copyright resources are used and repurposed by educators without permission and it is often difficult to work out what is and isn't allowed. Therefore there is a major need to educate the teachers in our schools, so they can role model the appropriate digital citizenship skills we expect of our students. This is something I will keep in mind when planning staff training sessions for staff meetings next year.
Activity 7 has helped me to meet learning outcome one by deepening my understanding of the principle digital artefact ownership and use, and my role as both a contemporary classroom educator and digital team leader in the school environment to educate both staff and students to be informed about the importance of these legalities in an online environment.
Lamlert, W. (2014). Copyright and creative commons license: Can educators gain benefits in the digital age? In M. B. Nunes & M. McPherson (Eds.), International Conference e-Learning 2014. Multi Conference on Computer Science and Information Systems (pp. 277-282). Lisbon, Portugal: International Association for Development of the Information Society.
Morrison, C. (2018). Copyright and digital literacy: Rules, risk and creativity. In J. Parker & K. Reedy (Eds.), Digital Literacy Unpacked (pp. 97-108). Facet.
Last year was my first year teaching Year 4/5 students (with 1:1 Chromebooks). This older and more digitally capable class opened up a whole new world in terms of the content they could create to demonstrate their learning. It also opened my eyes to their lack of understanding of the legalities and permissions involved with using content from the internet in the work they were producing from sites like google images - this being a prime example of what Lamlert referred to as "people just copying anything from the internet" without a thought for the legalities and permissions around it (2014, p. 277). To help inform students' understanding and make them more aware, we had a very basic class discussion about copyright and making sure we say where our information and images are from. To put our discussion into practice, I set students the task of completing a DLO reading response (link to slide deck here) on our research topic tornados. I added a small text box to the corner of each slide reminding students to add their sources of information. This worked really well and was a first step in building student awareness in this area, however after completing online activity 7, I have now realised I need to teach copyright far more in depth, for example a focus on creative commons and their licence chart. There is also far more work to be done in our school in terms of educating teachers about copyright and plagiarism.
Many of my colleagues are embracing the use digital technologies in their classrooms, but there is a major need for them to be aware of and up skilled in copyright literacy (Morrison, 2018). Morrison (2018) discusses the expectations we now have of our students to create online content such as blog posts, visually appealing presentations and videos; but there is a true lack of copyright literacy being taught in preparation for this, which it could be assumed a lack of clarity and understanding in this area can be to blame. According to the Creative Commons Teacher's Handbook (n.d), a huge amount of copyright resources are used and repurposed by educators without permission and it is often difficult to work out what is and isn't allowed. Therefore there is a major need to educate the teachers in our schools, so they can role model the appropriate digital citizenship skills we expect of our students. This is something I will keep in mind when planning staff training sessions for staff meetings next year.
Activity 7 has helped me to meet learning outcome one by deepening my understanding of the principle digital artefact ownership and use, and my role as both a contemporary classroom educator and digital team leader in the school environment to educate both staff and students to be informed about the importance of these legalities in an online environment.
References:
Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand. (n.d.). Creative Commons: Handbook for Teachers. https://creativecommons.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CC-Teachers-Handbook.pdfMorrison, C. (2018). Copyright and digital literacy: Rules, risk and creativity. In J. Parker & K. Reedy (Eds.), Digital Literacy Unpacked (pp. 97-108). Facet.
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