So, “How could SOPA affect my efforts as an Educator?”
Yesterday, January 18, 2012, 700 websites worldwide blacked out for the day in protest over possible SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) legislation in the United States.
SOPA is being debated in the United States as possible legislation to restrict the use of intellectual property on the Internet. Restricing my access as a Canadian citizen to web tools that I need and use in my classroom. I feel that it would sabotage the way I teach -and limit my professional growth as a teacher if passed.
I was writing about SOPA in teh ETEC565A class discussion, but thought I would add it to this week’s blog as well.
This is a video about why people everywhere could be affected by SOPA legislation:
SOPA concerns me – as a Canadian, because I use the Internet, of my because of my limited educational budget and because of a possible stagnation in educational progress. I need to use “free” web 2.0 tools from the Internet as resources in my online classes. We have discussed how long it would take for a teacher to create a moodle course in our weekly discussion. If teacher was expected to pay for resources, their course would lose that “interactive and engaging edge”. Their course would not progress if he was restricted in the tools they could use.
The time that a teacher would have to take to create his course would also be affected as well. Lawyers would have to be used to consult on intellectual property questions to ensure that a teacher was not including anything illegal in their online content. It is time consuming enough to create a new course – imagine having to create a course, then check everything with a lawyer before offering your class.
SOPA would also affect the students. If a teacher created project based activities….then many of the links and resources that the students use as examples and turn to for content would also have to be screened by a lawyer
. Yesterday the tech community spoke to try and suggest that alternatives forms of “legislation” to be created for intellectual property. As a teacher, I am not looking for legislation that could possible push educational change backwards. Instead, intellectual property piracy needs to be addressed in a different matter – How? I don’t know….
.. Verena:)