I have always been more of a private person so did not really spend much time trying to share things publically on the internet. I have periodically done a Google search of myself to see what shows up and as Colleen mentioned in her posts I am more mindful of the digital footprint left for the purpose of employment.
Physiotherapy students under my mentorship are an easier audience to address the issue of digital footprint. Patients who are under my guidance are receptive to information pertaining to their own rehabilitation but in terms of their activity on the internet it becomes more of a challenging. The education revolves more around health literacy when reading information on the internet. I encourage patients to consider the source of the information they are reading and if the author may have secondary motives to gain from the information they have presented.
Our program has recently encountered a case where an injured worker who was suppose to be off work posted pictures of herself attending baseball games and other social events on Facebook. This led the workers compensation board to initiate an investigation into her claim and its legitimacy. In this case, I am not certain what our team’s position would be in terms of educating this patient on what digital footprint she is leaving. It is interesting how in this case, it is not young students who need to learn about their digital footprint but adults.
I do not believe intellectual property is viewed the same with every culture. Certain cultures do not see copying a product to be an issue because they are dealing with much greater socio-economical issues such as low wages and poverty. It really depends on what your life situation is at the moment and your own personal challenges to some degree. At other times, it comes down to money. If someone is benefiting off of something that you have created then the stakes become much higher. An example of this is the lawsuit against Pharrell Williams and Allan Thicke for copyright infringements on their song Blurred Lines. This ties in nicely to last weeks topic on social media 🙂
In terms of teaching, I would need to be more conscious to not make any assumptions when dealing with a multicultural class. I need to ask direct questions about how perspectives may differ in their own cultures so that they can make sense of the concept of copyright in a North American educational system.