Lesson Four: Key Issues on K-12
Copyrights, Educational Fairuse Guidelines
Privacy and Child safety
Strategies for dealing with inappropriate Internet resources
Authorized Usage Policies
Offline readers and cache monitoring
Citing Internet Resources in ALA and MLA formats
Internet Spam, Scams, Hoaxes, and Viruses
Lesson Four Required Assignments:
1. Send an email (2 pages or so) to your instructor with your decisions on what you feel are the essential issues related to each of the following topics and how youd prefer to deal with each of these issues.
2. Use search engines to find one new resource URL on each topic below, that is not already listed in the handbook, and email them to your instructor.
3. Post a message to the class listserv regarding your feelings or suggestions regarding at least one of the following topics. Feel free to raise an issue or make points not already discussed.
1. Copyrights and educational
3. Privacy and Child Safety
4. Inappropriate Internet
5. Authorized Usage Policies
6. Citing Internet Resources.
To identify the most important legal and moral issues associated with K-12 Internet use and the most common solutions.
To identify when your students' privacy and safety might be at risk through improper posting of personal information, or other misuse of the Internet.
To practice your searching skills by finding additional resources on these key topics.
To decide how you'll deal with these key issues in your classroom!
A. Your Very Serious Homework!
Your handbook has a section on K12 Essential Resources, http://lone-eagles.com/k12.htm and a Parenting Webtour, http://lone-eagles.com/webtours.htm and activity handouts which all have related resources! You have four hours to invest in careful review of these sites to determine YOUR answers to the many issues raised below! Your knowledge of these issues is vitally important to the welfare of your students, and to legally protect yourself.
Study how others have resolved these dilemmas, knowing there are grey areas between right and wrong on many issues. It is recommended you document your sources in case you have to defend your decisions in the future. You're asked to find additional sites on these six key topics to practice your searching skills and to make sure you're able to find all the information on these issues you'll need to deal adequately with them. If you've not used multiple keywords in searches before, you'll find this presents the perfect opportunity. A popular search engine allowing natural language phrases is http://askjeeves.com . You can simply type in questions, and/or specific keyword phrases!
Have you seen the sign in the library that says its illegal to xerox copyrighted print materials? It is behind the line of students and teachers xeroxing copyrighted materials as part of their daily routine. Did you know its illegal to use your VCR to copy TV programs if you keep them beyond 45 days? There are grey areas between what the law says, and what common practice is, even for responsible citizens.
Where you draw the line between right and wrong for yourself and your students can help be defined by reading the suggestions of others at Stanford Universitys Educational Fairuse site. http://fairuse.stanford.edu
Here's a handy chart summarizing copyright issues for educators:
(You'll need Adobe Acrobat reader to view .pdf files. Available free at http://adobe.com )
When students create a web page with their own pictures, words and ideas, they need to understand what intellectual property rights they hold and how to similarly respect the intellectual property rights of others.
When your students save images off the web for use in their own web pages, are they stealing? Many copyright-free image, and animation archives exist on the web, as listed at http://lone-eagles.com/webdev.htm , which you visited in Lesson 3.
At http://plagiarism.org is a service where for .50 cents per paper a supercomputer will colorcode a student's paper with all the plagiarized material and document the sources. It will get your student's attention that you know this is possible! See also http://plagiarism.com.
Ann Lathrop and Kathleen Foss's Book:
"Student Cheating and Plagiarism in the Internet Era: a Wake-up
Call" Search for it at http://amazon.com or by the full title in quotes.
Students today tend to accept information from the Internet as valid, but need to become much more skeptical information consumers. Students need to learn to cite resources in ALA and MLA formats and to understand how to authenticate information by noting the sponsor of the web site from which they obtained information, validating the information by finding references to the same facts in three different places, and so on. Lesson one includes a form for authenticating Internet information in section F. of that lesson: "Critical Evaluation of Internet Information Handout."
D. Privacy and Child Safety
"Predators" seek to befriend minors via email and entice them to private meetings without their parents knowledge. Since free email accounts are available to anyone, easily, on the web, what can you do to protect your students?
Posting pictures of students with contact information such as home addresses, names, and phone numbers is considered an unwise practice.
You will find many concerned parents and teachers have posted extensive resources related to your options dealing with these issues. Explore the handbook resources in the Parenting webtour, http://lone-eagles.com/webtours.htm , K12 Essential Resources, http://lone-eagles.com/k12.htm and http://www.childrenspartnership.org
E. Inappropriate Internet Resources (pornography)
Our students represent the first generation to grow up with the Internet and digital technology. They are growing up in a world with unlimited information access. There is no way you can protect students from the information that's out there, particularly when their hormones are driving their curiosity. Ultimately, this will be a moral 'values' and 'character education' issue. You might review the character education curriculum links at http://lone-eagles.com/chared.htm Have your students decide what they believe and what's right and what's wrong.
As if incorrect information isnt bad enough, hate literature and resources on how to make drugs and bombs are readily available on the Internet. Because the first amendment to the constitution guarantees free speech, pornography also exists on the Internet. Pornography of every description and rating is readily available on the Internet.
F. AUPS (authorized usage policies)are legal waivers students and parents must sign to protect your school from law suits should the student intentionally or unintentionally view pornography via a school-owned computer. See the K12 Essential resources http://lone-eagles.com/k12.htm for AUP resources.
G. Blocking programsexist which can inhibit unintentional access to inappropriate web sites, but most people find them more trouble than they are worth because they also block access to information that is desirable and can be circumvented by determined students. Sites for blocking programs are listed in the K12 Essential resources section http://lone-eagles.com/k12.htm.
With students you can't trust, supervision is the only solution, or restricting them to captured, appropriate sections of the Internet using an offline browser.
H. Offline browsers, like WebWhacker http://bluesquirrel.com (a free course on use of offline browsers is listed among other online courses in the "Self-Directed Professional Development" section of your handbook") http://lone-eagles.com/self.htm can allow a teacher or parent to easily capture dozens, even hundreds of web pages on a daily basis for captive viewing by students who cant be trusted with unsupervised Internet access. Review what an offline browser is and the options it brings to your classroom. Easy to learn and costing under $50, an offline browser transforms an educator's ability to use any web pages from the Internet for presentations and use in the classroom WITHOUT the "World Wide Wait!"
I. Browser Caching of Web Pages
Did you know browsers can keep a record (called caching) of all web pages visited by a given computer for weeks on end. To view the cache listing in Netscape type about:global where you would normally enter a URL. This listing gives time and date and is searchable. Control-F will give you a search window, enter "edu" and see what happens. Use the help button of your browser to learn more about use of your cache.
J. Citing Internet Resources in ALA (American Library Association) and MLA style
Review the resources on citing resources in the Student Homework Hotlinks webtour http://lone-eagles.com/webtours.htm. Or search and find your own.
K. Help on Internet Spam, Scams, Hoaxes, and Viruses
Scams are email messages and web sites with insincere intents. Learn more at
Hoaxes are often emailed warnings based on rumors that are untrue. Learn more at
Hoaxbusters http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/A Listing of Common Hoaxes
See what else you can find at http://symantec.com.
Viruses are often sent hidden in unwanted email and can wipe out your hard drive, or worse!
Find out how computer viruses and worms work by logging
You should have a virus protection program running on your computer. You should know to never open an attachment from someone you don't know. Some viruses will automatically send messages to every email address on a persons computer without their knowledge, so even opening an attachment from someone you DO know might contain a virus. Free anti-virus programs exist and will be easy to find with a simple search. Ask those at your school what they prefer. Norton Anti-Virus is one of the best, but costs $40+ a year.
Don't you just HATE hate!
Hate sites on the Internet
More offensive than any of the above.
NOTE: If you can think of an important topic that should be raised in this lesson,
please post it to the class listserv!
Lesson Feedback: Optional, but much appreciated.
You're invited to privately email your instructor:
1. What areas, if any, did you have trouble with during this
2. What questions remain now that you've finished this lesson?
3. Approximately how much time did you devote to this lesson?
4. What improvements would you like to suggest?