I briefly discussed when I first became concerned about my digital footprint in my last post. However, I didn’t really take charge of it until I taught digital citizenship (using Creative Commons resources) to my very first class five years ago. To demonstrate a digital footprint, I Googled myself in front of the class (not before doing it in the privacy of my office first.) I didn’t imagine anything would turn up–I had changed all of my social media accounts to private during university and I didn’t post much online. However, when we got to page three of the Google image search, there was my picture! We clicked on the link and found it was from my hometown newspaper–but it was a personal photo that my mother had taken of me when I carried the Olympic flame. It had been posted on Facebook at one point, but I had since untagged it. I was quite upset, but I used it as a learning moment for my class. We talked about how we could go about having it taken down and, as a class, we decided I should email the editor directly and ask for it to be removed immediately. As soon as class ended I rushed to my office and typed an email requesting that the photo be removed from the website immediately. Two weeks later–no response. So I emailed again, this time asking how they had gotten a personal picture of mine in the first place. Again, no response. About a month later, the photo was removed, but I never received a response. My best guess as to how they managed to get the photo is that they found it before I untagged it and changed my privacy settings. Additionally, if it had been shared, or my mom’s privacy settings weren’t as high, it would have been easy for it to have been found by anyone. This is what is so unsettling about digital footprints–you really don’t have much control at all.
This lack of control is why teaching digital citizenship is so important. My students snap pictures, make videos, and post an immense amount of content online with barely a second thought. They aren’t thinking about the future yet, so it’s my job to educate them on how to make responsible choices, how to be safe, and how to behave online. I say my job because I am their IT teacher, but any subject teacher could and should teach digital citizenship. We can’t and shouldn’t police their every move, but we can help them be aware of the consequences, both positive and negative, of posting online. It’s not only students who need to be careful. From administrators checking out potential candidates (like Kate mentioned in her post), to colleagues Googling each other, online postings are not considered off limits. However, I wonder if there is a line between “invasion of privacy” and “you posted publicly on the Internet so it’s fair game”?
Intellectual property in China–what a huge topic to delve into. I know there must be some sort of copyright law, but, if there is, it doesn’t seem to be followed and my school does not seem to have a Fair Dealings policy. Plagarism is common at our school and the students generally don’t see a problem with it. The students don’t seem to have a sense of intellectual property–even when it’s their own intellectual property. I often catch students copying a classmate’s work and when I return the work to the classmate, they often reply that they were just sharing. I also see a difference in how the Canadian teaching department and the Chinese teaching department handle plagarism and intellectual property. The Canadian teachers tend to come down hard and deem it unacceptable when students copy or fail to acknowledge sources. The Chinese department acknowledges it is wrong, but tend to be more forgiving. However, as I am not a member of the Chinese department, I’m not sure what they teach or suggest to their students. It’s possible that there is some instruction happening–I’m just not aware of it.
I can comment on a shortfall in how the Canadian teaching department approaches teaching students about intellecual property. As I mentioned above, the Canadian teaching department comes down hard on plagarism. However, students only learn the MLA citation guidelines in grade 12 during the research essay unit, so I think we’re being a little unfair. To help ease the tension, I’m introducing acknowledging image sources in my presentations unit this year. I put it off for a long time because I thought it would be too difficult to communicate to my classes. However, while I know this task is going to be difficult because it’s something new and challenging for the students, (although, thanks to Parm’s post I have some new resources to use) I know it’s important to do, even though it’s difficult. I know that the acknowledgements won’t be perfect, but if I can get the students in the habit of looking for the original source and documenting it, it could get them thinking about it in their other courses. It’s a small step, but it’s small and deliberate step in the right direction.
On a professional level, I am deeply concerned about my own intellectual property and how it’s being used. As my family of schools expands, I am repeatedly asked to share resources I have created with the IT teachers at the other schools. I do not like sharing resources I have created because I doubt that I’m acknowledged as the original creator and I can’t control how the resources are shared after they leave my hands. Additionally, I spend a lot of time revising the resources I have created, and I worry that the other IT teachers may not be revising what they have received from me to reflect changes in classroom demographics, technology, or even simple thngs like references to popular culture. So, if I am, by chance, acknowledged as the source, I may be acknowledged as a source of outdated material. However, I always share it when asked because I feel guilty if I do not. Does anyone else have these feelings?