To copy or not to copy??

There are so many people in the world today that are 'sue happy' and will sue someone at the drop of a hat.  Keeping that in mind, it is very important to know about copyright laws and what you are and are not allowed to copy, especially being a teacher. 

There are several key guidelines to follow when it comes to copyrighted materials, but three of the most important (in order), in my opinion, are as follows:

1. As it states in the Lever and McDonald article, "it is generally accepted that any material placed on the internet is automatically copyrighted even if a copyright notice does not appear on the site."  The internet has almost everything you would need to conduct any type of research project.  It has music, written works, videos, pictures, and anything else you could possibly want to use.  Because there is so much information on-line, it is very important to know how to access different things and how much of stuff you can actually use.

2. Be careful when your basis for copying something is done with the fair-use policy in mind.  The fair-use policy can be very questionable and sometimes hard to understand if you are violating it or not.  Do as much research as you can before you start making copies and handing them out.  Find out what your school districts policy is.  There may be policies that your district has adopted that go beyond the fair-use policy.  As educators we want to ue the most updateed information out there and use interesting videos and pictures to keep their attention.  We can still do those things, but we need to be careful about what we choose to use and how we obtain it.

3. The third guideline that I believe is important to understand with regards to copyrighted materials is also common sense.  As stated in the Smaldino, S., Russell, J., Heinich, R., and Molenda, M. article, 'When in doubt, ask!'  If you are not sure about something the best thing to do is always ask. 

There are other important guidelines to follow about copyrighted materials, but I believe these first two often have gray areas that make them hard to understand.  That is why I put them first.  We need to look more closely into things so that we can be 100% confident that we havn't broken any laws while gathering information to teach to our students.

Open Source Education

I believe there are good and bad things about using Open Source as a means of teaching.  It is true that many jobs are becoming more technologically advanced and require much more knowledge about technology than before.  However, it is my opinion that a student cannot recieve the same value of education by using Open Source and computers for every subject they learn.  I believe that true human interaction is priceless in education and I feel that you cannot recieve this by being a "virtual student."  I believe that the more you learn/teach just using computers and Open Source programs, the more socially inept you will become.  Not everyone is going to have a job where they will be on a computer 40 hours a week.  I believe it kills the creative minds of students and will handicap them in the long run.  There are some very good things that can be brought about by using Open Source, but only as a resource for the students and teachers to use periodically. 

E-mail is not 'snail mail' for me

The article, "Email has become the new snail mail," was very interesting to read.  I believe that for the most part it is very true.  People are finding new and faster ways to communicate with each other; everyone has tex messaging, facebook, or something similar.  People are on facebook on their phones, constantly texting back and forth, and no longer using regular e-mail.  It's all about getting to the point as fast as possible.  We don't have time to wait on e-mail replys anymore, we want the answer as soon as we ask the question.  Granted, it is much easier to text or IM to find out what someones weekend plans are, but I can't stand people who are constantly texting back and forth.  I'll admit that I used to be one of those people when I first started college.  I checked my facebook every 5 minutes, I was talking with 10-15 people at a time on IM, I even sent IM's to my roommate across the room instead of talking to him.  It was fun.  It was a new way of life for me.  After a month or two I did those things less and less and by the end of the year I had pretty much quit using facebook and sending IM's.  I got my first cell phone the day I moved into my freshman dorm.  I was texting everyone I could possibly think of.  That too, however, got old very fast.  That was six years ago and I still can't stand sending texts and I haven't looked on my facebook page in over 6 months.  I check my e-mail constantly throughout the day.  Every time in go into my office at work I will check my work e-mail and my personal e-mail accounts.  E-mail is how I communicate iwth the rest of the world.  E-mail will never become 'snail mail' for me.