O.P.P. Yeah, You Know Me! Reflections on Intellectual Freedom.

O.P.P. Explained- Part II of Intellectual Property

If you didn't quite notice my repeated use of O.P.P. or my allusion to "naughty", let me begin this post with a bit of an explanation. I was a teen of the 1990's. It was (another) decade of rebellion, pushing the boundaries and fighting against censorship of "touchy" subjects. From the teens on 90210 having sex, getting addicted to drugs, and getting pregnant to our first TV shows boasting a homosexual lead. The song, O.P.P. is about another taboo subject, O.P.P. or "other people's property" discusses the subject of spousal cheating. Taking what ISN'T yours and celebrating the fact that you took it. If you would like to view the video, here is the link: http://www.minilink.me/OPPNaughtyByNatureVideo/. I thought that it related particularly well with the subject of intellectual property and our right to protect what is ours and our obligation to respect others rights in return. It also provided a neat segway into intellectual freedom, as I'm sure that this song would not appear on any "educationally approved" resources.

Intellectual Freedom and the Elementary School Librarian

First of all, I'd like to wish you all a "HAPPY FREEDOM TO READ WEEK!!'
According to the British Columbia Library Association, "intellectual freedom is the right to read, view, hear, and discuss any idea on any subject". After reading the Intellectual Freedom Committee's, Kids Know Your Rights article I really began to question my own practice as a librarian. The brochure states, "if a book you like is removed from the school or public library because someone does not think a young person should read it, you have the right to argue against this decision".
This brochure really made me think about my own practice with book acquisition in my school. For example, I take requests from students for my fiction collection. If a student is eager to read a book that I can get my hands on, I will buy it, process it, and put it on the shelves. Recently, I have had MANY requests for the Twilight series, since I was eager to read the books, I made it a priority. I knew that they were written as a teen series so I read each book before putting out for circulation on my "mature fiction" shelf (thinking I was being responsible). Once I read Breaking Dawn, I was sad to see the series end but realized that I did not want to put the fourth book in the series in my library. I felt that the content was too mature for even my grade seven students. When asked about the book, I told the students my reasons for not offering it in our library and suggested that if they really wanted to read it they could take it out from the public library or put it on their "Christmas wish list".
Am I In The Wrong?

So, after reading Helen Adam's article, Intellectual Freedom 101 and Information Power: Guidelines for School Media Programs, I feel that in my own attempt to be a responsible elementary TL, I have stepped on the rights of my students. According to "Information Power", one of my duties is to "guard against barriers to intellectual freedom, such as grade-level or age restrictions........". In my eagerness to be "responsible" and to promote reading at the grade 7 level, I have inadvertently created restrictions in my library. The initial purpose of my "grade 7 shelf" was to bring in more mature novels that would interest my older students and keep some of the more "riskier" books out of the hands of younger students. I am guilty of censorship!


A Plea to My Readers

How do teacher-librarians balance the responsibility to provide developmentally-appropriate materials to either enhance curriculum or provide rich reading opportunities without stepping on our students rights but also have the trust of the parents and our administrators that students are accessing content that is welcome in schools? HELP!!!!
Photographer: Florian.B

Who's Down With O.P.P: Intellectual Property and the Educator.

Authors Note:
The topic of intellectual property is a broad and complex topic. To properly address a person's right to access AND use intellectual property, I will be creating a two-part blog this week.

What is Intellectual Property?

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization, "intellectual property refers to creations of the mind: inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce". As educators, the intellectual property that we deal with everyday would include: music, videos, images, articles, teaching resources, website content and lesson plans. Please refer to Rebecca Butler's, Intellectual Property Defined for a concise explanation of the categories of intellectual property.
To protect the rights of the creator, laws have been put in place to restrict the use of such works.

What Does It Mean for Educators?

As educators, we need to access resources for our students that lay beyond the realm of our own intellectual property. It may be images for a slide show on ancient civilizations or a video on extreme climates or an article from a weekly newspaper for current events. Not only are we accessing these resources for our own purposes, we are also the torch-bearers to pass along this information for our students use and show our students how to access these resources as well.
BUT, are educators obtaining and using these resources in a law-abiding manner?

In our district social responsibility has been a focus for a few years now. Our schools and classrooms have been a venue for conversations around helping others and becoming socially responsible citizens. Although the focus has mainly been on treating the emotional and physical well being of others, I see an area of further expansion into teaching our children how to protect and respect the rights of others and their own intellectual property. Educators already know and readily accept that they are looked upon as role models and must demonstrate socially responsible behaviour, but what about modeling responsible digital citizenship?

Mike Ribble's article, Passport to Digital Citizenship states that, "adults need to be positive role models of digital citizenship so students can follow their example." According to the National Educational Technology Standards, teachers need to "promote and model digital citizenship and responsibility".

OK, So I've Been a Naughty Teacher. How Can I Reform My Wayward Habits?

* Familiarize yourself with the types of intellectual property and how each category is protected. Start with Rebecca Butler's article, Intellectual Property Defined.

* Rather than giving the same old lecture on plagiarism, enable the students to cite their sources properly with a lesson on quick and easy bibliographies.

* Focus on what you CAN do rather than what you CAN'T do. There are many resources that can be found in Public Domain that can be used for FREE! Also, Creative Commons is a new alternative to copyrighting your work. It allows for more flexible sharing, copying, and remixing of other's work.


* Read Mike Ribble's article, Passport to Digital Citizenship and create lessons to teach the Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship.

* Promote conversation! In the staff room, in the classroom. Find out what your students and colleagues believe about intellectual property and how it affects their world.

* Provide authentic opportunities for students to learn about their rights to use O.P.P. (other people's property). Students can create their own works and apply a Creative Commons license to their work. Students could also create mash-ups or collages on Flickr by finding works protected under specific licensing. Why not contact an author or artist and ask permission to use their intellectual property on your school's website?

The Digital Divide

I began this week thinking that the term "Digital Divide" referred to the chasm between digital natives and digital immigrants. In my mind, I pictured a digital native standing on the edge of a cliff staring out over a seemingly bottomless pit filled with streaming numbers (much like the Matrix) to a digital city lit up by thousands of computers in every window of every house.

So, not surprisingly, I found myself completely remixing my definition of digital divide once I began reading more about this topic.

What is the Digital Divide?
According to the International Telecommunications Union, the "digital divide refers to the gap between those who benefit from digital technology and those who do not."
mmardis takes this definition a few steps further by defining the levels of the digital divide in her blog post, Web 2.0 Tools: Our Digital Divides Are Showing, she summarizes the levels in this chart.

Why Does the Digital Divide Exist?
There are many variables that cause the four levels of the digital divide, "including income, education, age, and geographical location" (Unveiling the Digital Divide) all of which contribute to the "diffusion of the Internet" (Unveiling the Digital Divide). "Understanding barriers to access and use of new technologies remains important"(The Digital Divide in Canada). To put it in simple terms, access is the first level. If you can't access the Internet, how can you learn how to use it? Next, the person accessing the technology must learn how to use it to derive quality benefits from it. Just because a school has the technology, the school may not have the qualified instructors to teach the skills. Even worse, the school may have the staff but is being constantly thwarted by policy and filtering. I think that the most frustrating barrier to bridging the divide is the fact that many schools DO have the technology (especially in urban Canada) but do not have the motivated staff to see that that the students are getting quality instruction.
In my own experience, I do not see that skill and motivation are all that different. In today's education system, if you have the means AND the motivation, skills are not that hard to come by. After all, for those of you that know me, know that my learning curve has been ever so steep these past two semesters and my skill level has followed suit!

Ahhh, I Can See Clearly Now!
Although access to technology helps bridge the divide, it does not ensure that the gap is completely filled. Think of it in these terms: drop a state of the art computer lab in the middle of a poor African village. Equip this lab with toys, tools, and all the bandwith and internet access anyone could ever dream of. Problem solved? Digital divide closed? Think again. "It took digital-divide researchers a whole decade to figure out that the real issue is not so much about access to digital technology but about the benefits derived from access" (digitaldivide.org). (If you are interested in learning more about global initiatives to bridge the digital divide check out this video on the Digital Equilizer Program).


What Is My Role In All Of This?
The next step in this exploration of the digital divide is to define which barriers I am facing in my district and school (because within my district, it varies widely) and decide what to do about it. Looking again at the levels of digital divide chart, I see that Access, Skill, and Motivation are problems within my school. There isn't a computer in our lab that is newer that 10 years, we have wireless (yeah!!), but it is not consistent through the school. Although there are skilled teachers in the school, they are being underutilized and I do feel that there is a lack of motivation for teachers to develop their skills. So, what can I do to increase access, skill, and motivation at the school level? Here are some of my thoughts:
Skills Level
* Offer short, informative, and engaging workshops on Web 2.0 tools to staff and students.
* Continue building relationships with peers so that I can become a mentor to those wanting to explore integrating technology into their teaching.
* Provide model lessons or co-teach with teachers in the computer lab.

Access
* Continue to be an advocate for the need for updated technology/bandwith in our school.
* Continue to foster working relationships with stakeholders that decide where money gets spent in our school.
* Provide open lunches for students in the computer lab.
Motivation
* Encourage teachers to integrate technology into their classroom practices.
* Continue to explore engaging and easy to use tools for classroom projects.
* Be creative in finding ways to get teachers online! (Free classroom books for the teacher that finds the typo in my library blog..........etc....)
* Partner with administration to work together to encourage teachers (provide release time to train teachers on Web. 2.o tools?)

Hmmmm..........why does it feel that with each passing week, I am adding to my workload?? To those of you tuning in, I'd like to share a quick quote that helps me stay focussed on my quest for bridging the Digital Divide:

"The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential." Steve Ballmer

Filter or Not to Filter: The Need for 21st Century Librarians Continues to Rise

This week's hot topic is filtering in school districts. If you are new to the filtering conversation, take a moment to visit the School Library Journal for a quick lesson on web filtering.While some schools are able to access valuable teaching resources, other schools are throwing up their hands in frustration as they find that they are being blocked from accessing Teacher Tube, Youtube, Flickr, and Second Life. In the US, Peacefinder.org reported that Bess and Cyberpatrol are blocking students accessing congressional candidate's websites to complete their assignment of a school-wide vote for congress. I can almost hear Social Studies teachers across the nation banging their heads against the wall.

So why, in this age of pro-technology, are districts installing and maintaining filters that are blocking access to educational sites? Here's a brief overview of the arguments for both sides:

Pro Filtering
* protect students from accessing inapropriate and harmful content
* protect school districts from litigation if a student accesses inapropriate content during school hours
* protects school computers from harmful viruses and spyware

Con Filtering
* prevents students and teachers alike from accessing educational resources
* prevents students and teachers alike from accessing Web 2.0 tools for classroom use
* prevents students and teachers alike from accessing social networking sites for classroom use
* sends strong message to students that they are not trusted to navigate the internet safely
* inadvertently encourages students to use proxies to bypass web filters to access useful sites

The fact is this issue of web filters is entrenched in reactionary consequences. Educators didn't touch this issue until their school districts began blocking. The multitude of articles and letters didn't start flowing until the blocks came down. On the flip-side, school districts didn't consult educators before engaging the web filters. Chances are, they consulted with their IT and perhaps lawyers to see what COULD happen and they reacted. Reaction vs reaction. Both sides now feel as if their backs are against the wall and that is not a strong start to coming to a mutual agreement.
What is my stand on this? Well, like any 21st century librarian, I see this as an opportunity to step up and shout out, "Hello? Can I suggest a middle ground here??". I am not alone in thinking this, there is an army of us! As Joyce Valenza points out, teacher-librarians are here to "teach students about their own digital footprints, about safety in new landscapes"(Valenza, 2007).
First of all, both sides need to realize that "abstinence from technology is a losing battle to not teach technology use responsibly is neglecting the charge of universal education" (Knezek,Villano, 2008). Filters do provide front line protection against the many malicious viruses, spyware, and pornographic websites out there. Educators do not want a classroom Google search to yeild innappropriate content while they are doing a classroom project. Web filters protect students from the most dangerous sites out there. Unfortunately, as Stephanie Vardavas(President, Friends of the Library) writes, "filters aren't good at assessing content, they're good at applying rules". This is where teacher-librarians fit in!! We are already working with students so that they can access quality resources for their projects whether it be online databases or print materials. Who better to extend that critical thinking exercise into something that protects them from the dangers of cyber space?

Education is a constantly evolving entity and all educators must strive to keep up to meet the needs their learners in this everchanging landscape. Filtering may seem like a reasonable preventitive for schools to protect their students but what are we protecting them from if we restrict the use of many powerful sites and tools that the internet affords us? Students are accessing these sites anyway and under minimal supervision (if any) Stephen Abram states it very well when he wrote, " This to me is like teaching traffic safety to kindergarteners by banning roads" (Abram, 2007).

In my school library I have a shelf dedicated to Heath and Career Planning. On this shelf I have curriculum guides for A.I.D.S. prevention, nicotine and other drug prevention, self-esteem, family planning, why wouldn't I have curriculum guides for safe online navigation and protecting yourself from online predators? It seems to fit.

One final plea before I end my rant, even if your district not currently blocking useful websites, please take a proactive approach and find out who makes these decisions in your school district and what policies are in place and how you can create open dialogue between the IT department and your fellow educators before someone or something happens to cause this knee-jerk reaction to tighten filters to the point of rendering all of your newly acquired technology useless!

Below you will find a few links to useful sites and articles that will help you make an informed choice about web filtering. In the meantime, I wish you safe internet travels!

Justifying Social Tools
Thejournal.com-Article: What Are We Protecting Them From?
Digital Kids: Kids Outsmart Web Filters