Week 10: Sexting

I have heard many stories involving sexting. These stories and the readings we read this week further prove to me that sending nude or provocative images of one's self over the internet is never good. Parents must take the initiative and responsibility to educate their children of the dangers of sexting just as they would teach their kids to not talk to strangers. Sometimes, however, immaturity gets the better of today's youth and they do things anyway.  When the parents find out that this has happened, their child committing suicide is probably the last thing on their mind. Anger and embarrassment probably come to mind first.  Suicide must be considered, especially since bullying can weigh heavily on one's self esteem and self worth. The parent needs to be a leader. They must not only teach, but in a way, motivate their children to be the best they can be. Even when something of this magnitude has occurred. Lastly, parents put this technology in their children's hands.  If you insist on your child having a phone, then get one without a camera. Don't give them access to digital cameras or webcams. These are easy preventative measures. Sometimes parents can be too nice and too giving.  Set boundaries. You are their parent, not their friend!

As far as schools go, I don't believe schools should be required to educate students on the proper use of social media and personal images. They aren't the ones giving the students camera phones, webcams, digital cameras, and/or facebook/myspace use. This, however, gets into the grey area if schools should just do what's required or should they go above and beyond.  How long would it take to have a school assembly talking about these dangers? They could discuss the readings we read and the potential dangers of sending provocative images, bullying, and suicide.  Unfortunately, life skills are secondary when it comes to academics. It's all about doing well in the main subject areas so one can score well on college placement exams and then go to college. The 21st Century Skills could cover areas such as sexting, but will that be covered on a state standardized test or SAT? No. Standardized tests don't test life skills. Will it help them get into college? Debatable. This is why not many schools would take the time and effort to educate about this.

There's too much of a discrepancy between how the 21st Century Skills want students to transform their learning into real world skills and the SATs and ACTs. If I had my way, schools would teach about the dangers of sexting and bullying, regardless if it takes time away from algebra.

Week 9: Ethics and Legal Uses of Technology

This week's readings focused on copyright law and how it relates to fair use. Fair use is a term that talks about legal usage of an item that has been previously copyrighted. There are three rules that demonstrate fair use: 1. The nature of the work borrowed. 2. The amount you borrow. 3. It doesn't change the original work's market value. Copyrighted material can sometimes be used for educational purposes, but this and many other aspects of copyright law, is what falls into the gray area. 

In relation to education, I believe that many of these laws are being broken everyday in the schools and society. I remember watching movies in class as rewards. This, as I just found out, can be illegal if the rented movie was donated by the local video store. There are many ins and outs to copyright law, which is probably why it is a whole separate branch in the practice of law. I, however, have yet to understand why downloading songs is illegal. (Here comes my rant) If it is for my own personal use, I don't see what I'm doing wrong. I do understand that it is ethically wrong because the musicians lose money, but what I'm doing is downloading it from someone else, which is why I don't see it as wrong. If I bought the copy at a lower price from this person, then yes, I could see that as being illegal. It comes down to ethics vs. the law. Is it ethically wrong to not feed someone who is hungery? I think so, but how many of us, including myself, pass the homeless on the street asking for money without even looking at them? This is not illegal, but are we being ethically wrong? The same with downloading music. Is it ethically wrong? Yes. Is it illegal? Well yes, but I don't understand why. I do understand that as teachers, we must promote that plagerism and the illegal use of copyrighted matierial is a serious offense.

This is such a diverse and complicated topic, it seems that there should be an entire class dedicated to learning copyright law. I hope teachers learn about this information in their teacher workshops, because it is not taught in continuing education.