Technology and Responsibility

The question I am going to try to answer this week is: "do schools have a responsibility to teach students how to use technology responsibly?" The answer is yes, schools do have certain responsibilities when it comes to teaching young students about the dangers that can be associated with technology use. As was pointed out in the videos young people just don't understand how their actions can effect them down the line. They do not understand that something that is being sent to one person can end up being seen by everyone in the school. The reality is, at least when it comes to things like sexting, that we can teach students about responsible technology use all that we want but there are still going to be young people doing this. Everyone can relate to being in middle school or high school and being "in love" with that "perfect" guy or girl. When it is looked back on as adults we realize that our hormones were just raging at that time and that we didn't actually "love" that person at all. These children are blinded by what they believe to be love or what they believe to be acceptance or whatever it may be and can still end up making mistakes like this even though they know it is the wrong thing to do. This whole situation is made ever more difficult when we think about how easy it is for children of a very young age to access the internet and to access everybody around them. Every single child has a cell phone and a computer very young and therefore it is hard to police what goes on when these children are using them.
If anything is going to stop this culture of sexting being the "cool" thing than it is going to have to be done by using teamwork. Schools and parents need to band together and tell the stories of students that have made this same mistake. Their stories may make students realize that this momentary lapse in judgement can follow them around for years and eventually ruin their lives. Having talked about this subject with many girls my age over the years I feel that my generation has gotten wise to what can happen when it comes to the abuse of technology. Most of these girls find it offensive and disgusting to share themselves in an obscene way. This leads me to believe that it is becoming a problem in younger and younger children. As I said before I attribute that to children having cell phones and computers at increasingly young ages. The only way to combat this dangerous trend is to educate students from a VERY young age of the consequences of using technology in an inappropriate way. I feel that young people don't realize how connected everything is on the internet and how easy it is for people to see everything that you do. The second part of my solution can only come from parents. Parents should hold off on giving smartphones and computers to their children until they are older and able to responsibly use these tools. Even if a child is given computer access, perhaps the access could be restricted so that nothing in the form of sexting could happen. It is becoming very clear that this is a huge problem in this country but with a little cooperation between schools and parents, children can be taught to be responsible and safe users of technology.

Fair Use and Education.

Fair use is a fairly simple concept that becomes a bit confusing when you begin thinking about the gray areas that exist when it comes to copyright laws and regulations. When somebody puts a copyright on something that they have created, such as an invention, it gives that person exclusive rights to the idea, design, and distribution of that invention. If I were to run home and build the same thing and try to sell it, I would be breaking copyright law.
Fair use comes into play when copyrighted material is being used for educational purposes in the classroom and therefore it is very important for teachers to understand the policy. As I learned from the articles that I read fair use is determined based on four factors: purpose of use, nature of work, amount used, and effect on the market. The first factor is pretty simple. Are you using this work for profit or are you using it to enrich a lesson in your classroom? If you are using a work as an educational tool then much of the time it is fair use. The only way that this could be deemed copyright infringement is if teachers were photocopying entire books and handing them out to the classroom. This is copyright infringement because it effects the market for that book. Since the teacher has copied the entire book for free, none of those students ever have to purchase the book to use it for their educational needs. This loses the publisher and author money for the work that they have created and therefore is against the law. If small excerpts from works or movies are being used to enhance the classroom experience than it is generally fair use. If a teacher is not making a profit, uses only the parts that they need, and does not effect the marketability of a work than it is fair use and can be used in the classroom to help educate students.