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| I often go to Flickr to look for creative commons photos related to the concepts I’m writing about. I rarely come up with such an appropriate picture. |
Cable in the Classroom has asked me to pose a question for your consideration. They would like to include, in the May issue of their magazine, a reporting of the challenges that teachers and students face as they learn to use digital content as educators and learners. This is not just an important question. It is an essential question, critical to the shape that education taking in a time when the very nature of information is changing.
I encourage you to answer this question from the perspective of your education goals and experience. You can comment here, or blog your answer, including the following tag in your blog:
ethicschallenge
So here is the question:
“What is your greatest challenge in teaching appropriate, ethical use of web-based media to your students?â€
Thanks!
Image Citation:
Wu, Stephen. “Ethics and Morals: Timeless and Universal?.” Stephenccwu’s Photostream. 7 Dec 2006. 24 Jan 2007 <http://flickr.com/photos/stephenccwu/316669375/>.
Technorati Tags: warlick ethics information educcation ethicschallenge
Time! Time to sort through the different information mediums to find the most relevant, authentic, and meaningful content from what is available. Time to collect these various pieces of media into a meaningful framework or sequence for reviewing for the purpose of learning. Time to make sure all of the sources of the media are going to work with the final software package best suited for the type of instruction occurring. And finally, the time it takes to learn and keep current with the resources it takes to do all of the above.
A true lack of understanding on the part of teachers (media literacy, what’s that, doesn’t our filter do that?) as well as the assumption/belief that it is someone else’s job (for example, “I teach Biology, I’m not responsible for teaching media literacy.”) to do that, typically the librarian.
the challenges that teachers and students face as they learn to use digital content as educators and learners….
#1 — CONTROL — Who controls the filter and decides what the students can and cannot do. No matter what the teachers dreams, if a site is blocked, and the you cannot get authorization to unlock it — it puts the power in the wrong hands. (right now, in my new job, I am on the Network side of it and am seeing first hand how the IT dept can squash many dreams — I am being an advocate for change, but taking baby steps.)
#2 — REALIZATION — Understanding that you don’t have to be perfect to use the tools. I believe many teachers balk because of the unknown and won’t even take a chance that it is do-able.
#3 — TEACHER TIME and ADMIN SUPPORT — There is time involved and flexibility in your daily schedule to bring in some new tools. To have ADMIN on your side and admit that they might see a slight change in your lesson plans but they are supporting you is CRUCIAL. Also, to have admin go fight for you about #1 on my list is also VERY HELPFUL!!!.
#4 — GETTING TO THE “the AHA MOMENT” — when teachers realize that this isn’t going away and that almost every student in their class (even Kindergarten sometimes) has more technology power at their fingertips and in their backpockets (or backpackets) than we could ever have imagined — teaching in the classroom with the tools of tech will change.
And for students
#1 — UNDERSTANDING & ETHICS — To understand just because they have the power, does NOT give them the ability to misuse the power but to use the power and ability in mighty and powerful ways. Which, grins, brings us back to the teacher and guidance and example.
Since I design learning materials almost exclusively for web publication, the assumption is often that there is no problem with the use of web-based resources. However, this might be the perception of the client – it is not always the perception of the user! Bearing in mind that my user audience consists entirely of adults, the main problem is one of attitude. There is an almost kneejerk cynicism to anything that is web-based. Kelly (he of personal construct psycholgy) would have a field day: for some people, no amount of evidence will persuade them that they can find the information they need via an online resource. They would far rather pick up the phone and call the help desk (who will often use the online resource to find the answer!)
On the flip side, in respect of my teenage sons, I think the challenge is to teach them not to assume that a piece of material is valid, ethical or reliable, simply because it came from the ‘net. They also need to learn that public forums are exactly that: public.
By the way – if this upload works, it will be the third time of trying. I have recently tried and given up on the attempt of commenting of several of your posts due to trouble at this juncture. I was interested to note that someone else has had similar problems recently.
I too have had problems with posting. I type in the letter and numbers I see and “submit” and I get an error message. The worst part is, everything I’ve typed is lost. While I know I should highlight and copy before I submit, I often forget to do so and just end up not posting at all when my original post is lost.
“What is your greatest challenge in teaching appropriate, ethical use of web-based media to your students?â€
The internet makes plagarism temptingly easy. Young people want to socialize and have fun. Any shortcuts that decrease work and free up social time are very, very attractive and the internet makes plagarism so much easier than it was in the past. Just a Google search, highlight, paste and your research project is behind you.
Faculty who don’t want to take steps to counter plagarism exacerbate the problem. When Jimmy cuts and pastes his paper and gets a “B” and Sally puts in the time and gets a “C,” she’ll soon get the message. The school says plagarism isn’t allowed but their actions say otherwise.
Of course the faculty is taking its cues from the administration who chastices those who hold their students to high standards with the resulting increase in failures from students who refuse to do the work. Accolades are given to “instructors” who take the easy route and do not put in the effort it takes to confront plagarism by their classes.
Five years ago I would have said the greatest challenge in teaching appropriate, ethical use of web-based media to your students was plagiarism… but I can spot it quickly, and find the source on Google just as fast with a well chosen phrase put into quotes.
What is rampant now, and quite unethical, is the use of creative/non-literary works (images/symbols/art/photography/logos of all kinds). I now sport a Creative Commons – Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 button on my blog. I do so because I have images in my posts that I have taken from other sites with the same ‘restrictions’… so it only seems right that I should let others know that images taken from my site deserve being credited by the creator/artist.
Just last week I went to one of my blog commenter’s sites and saw an image taken from my blog, which is credited to someone else by me… but it is not rightfully credited by the commenter on her blog… and who can blame someone who ‘borrows’ the image from her site without giving its’ creator their rightful credit?
This is the new plagiarism. It is much harder to track, and in this day and age, very easy to do. In fact, if I were to scrutinize my own blog, I am sure that I am guilty too!
David I was intrigued by your question and have blogged my reponse at this URL:
http://digitalmavericks.blogspot.com/2007/01/highest-apple.html .
Drew
Learning to accept that it’s less about finding information and more about letting the information find the user of digital content is the big challenge for me as a teacher. I’m so used to giving “assignments” that prescribe what to look for and how and where to find it. But, especially with digital content, one thing leads to another. Most of my own best learning in the digital environment has happened by following one link or another to a place on the web that was previously unknown to me. Clearly, there are problems to overcome when students are encouraged to use that kind of freedom responsibly. We’ll have to work them out.
“What is your greatest challenge in teaching appropriate, ethical use of web-based media to your students?â€
District level personnel that are not educated in the web 2.0 applications that we have as valuable tools to help teach our students. The people making the decisions need to be in more direct communication with the teachers to see how important this media is to teaching. Stop being reactionary entities and be more proactive!
Greatest challenge thus far for me has been that high school students associate communicating on computers with something that is not serious, or not as highly regarded as an English Assignment. I had students create blogs, gave a clear outline and demonstration about what a response should look like, and highlighted spelling and grammar as key components. However, the results were littered with “lol”, “rofl”, “wtf?!?!”, “i”, “u”, etc. Students have a hard time taking electronic assignments seriously.
Also, along the lines of ethics, students freely take pictures and text from wherever they want with no regard for who it belongs to. As a new teacher, I tried to make them understand, and even gave marks for proper referencing of pictures. Is this what it comes down to? Giving marks so that students don’t break copyright laws? Similarly, they will cut and paste sentences from various sources, writing essentially nothing themselves, and call it their own work because they compiled it all. Really, all we’re asking for is that you print it out, make notes of YOUR OWN, and then write from there.
What is your greatest challenge in teaching appropriate, ethical use of web-based media to your students?â€
To inspire students to read real books about the topics they explore on the web. Internet print-outs cannot replace actual books, they are more often than not quick fixes in stead of inviting the student to journey critically and reflectively through published books, respected sources. Reading books allow students to take information for a walk through mind and imagination.
So: If web sources introduce students to and then inspire them to find and read the best available published books on particualr topics, they have met one of their greatest challenges.
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