Best Practices for Educating Parents About Digital Media Issues

Perhaps the parent group at your school is struggling with the issue of how teachers, administrators, and parents can work together to head off digital issues and get more educated about digital literacy? If so, take a look at the best practices list presented in an article on the Common Sense Media site, citing what has been done in two parochial schools in San Francisco.

Share Files with DropBox

Instead of attaching files to email and saving on USB drives, try sharing files with Dropbox. Dropbox for Windows, Mac, and Linux is a place where you can store your files online and across computers. If you use different computers at home and school, it’s a great way to have your files available in both locations and also available through your mobile digital devices. When you edit and save a file, it saves the edits on all your computers. In fact, you can even go back and look at the history of your edits. If you want to share your files with others, put the files in your Dropbox and share the link to the files. When you put your files in the Dropbox, the files are automatically backed up on the Dropbox servers. You get 2GB of storage free, but can opt to pay for additional storage up to 100GB.

eBooks vs. Print Books

You’ve heard it and maybe you said it: “There’s nothing like sitting down with a good book”, “I like the feel of the pages in my hands”, and “It’s not the same trying to read a book on a little screen.” Those of us who love to read often have those sentiments. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use eBooks and audio books as well on our own and in our classrooms. The advantages of the new ways to read are many especially when we consider convenience, cost savings, and impact on the environment. Try reading a novel on a small screen; you’ll find that you get lost in the novel just like you do when you are reading paperback or hardback book. Try downloading a novel and listening to it read to you by a professional reader. It will bring back memories of those years when your favorite teachers read to you. Why not put ebooks and audiobooks to work in your classroom? A good book is a good book, no matter how it’s read.

Music, Movies, Software—Digital Citizenship

It's a must that we integrate digital citizenship into school curricula today, but finding appropriate materials that fit into our classrooms is difficult. Microsoft has just launched its Digital Citizenship and Creative Content curriculum, which is free of charge. Targeted to students in Grades 8-10, the curriculum addresses real-world issues related to use of creative content in music, software, and movies. Included are lesson plans, reproducible materials, and classroom-based assessments. Students explore the meaning of intellectual property through the backdrop "Battle of the Bands". They dive into research as they learn about their own rights, rights of their peers, and rights of others who develop creative products. Using the site MYBYTES, students are able to publish original creative material and learn more about what professional writers and musicians have to say about this topic.

Is the Concept of Copyright Changing?

Pat Moser, Sidwell Friends School, asked a group of educators, "What's a librarian to do?" and we could stretch that to add teachers and students as well. The confusion over copyright and Fair Use seems to be growing as more and more content is available digitally. Moser wants to know "if copyright laws are destined for oblivion", "if we should feel free to copy and adapt", how authors will be compensated for their work, and "what DO we tell our students about copyright?" She suggests we check out Joyce Valenza's Fair Use and Transformativeness: It May Shake Your World and Harvard's Opt Out Plan as we think about where we are heading. Renee Hobbs, Temple University says, "Copyright is designed not only to protect the rights of owners, but also to preserve the ability of users to promote creativity and innovation." What does that mean to those in the classroom and what does that mean to those producing writing, film, photographs, and other works that may be copyright protected?

Who's Supposed to Teach Kids about Property Rights?

According to a Microsoft survey, kids give parents, television programs, the Web, and newspapers more credit for informing them about property rights than teachers. Even so, only 11% of the students surveyed said they had a "clear" understanding of property rights.  The result of this survey is a new curriculum that's currently being testing by Microsoft. It's designed to target Grades 8-10 but can be modified for use by students in Grades 6-12. If you are interested in working with the testing of this curriculum or just getting copies of the free materials, you'll want to browse the Teacher's Guide to Intellectual Property Rights Education. Those who wish to be part of the testing can sign up for one of three levels of participation.