In our increasingly digital lives, there is a line that many of us cross more often than not. I'm probably guilty of inserting an image into a blog post (and, my lesson plans) without giving it the proper citation. I watch videos on YouTube that are most likely not the legalest of legal (yes, I just made up that word!). When I started working with digital storytelling waaaaayyyy back in 2008, I seriously didn't even think to tell my students to check their sources. And, I've gotten a couple of videos taken from YouTube because they went against some rule I didn't understand. I know...I'm a horrible person! :-)
I'm not so sure that our digital citizenship woes are too different from earlier days -- they are just every where now. I mean, back in the day, I remember using a cassette tape to record my favorite songs from the radio. And, who in my generation hasn't recorded a mixtape for our BFFs or boyfriend/girlfriend?? Plus, there must have been people who were videotaping movies at the theater, or where did grumpy copyright ad that comes before every single showing come from?
However, I do believe it's vastly more important now for all of us to learn more about digital citizenship's ins and outs. I made the following animation with tips to be a better digital citizen:
The frame for Tip #4 didn't work the way I wanted it to, so here is a screenshot of what it was supposed to look like:
One of the most important parts of this week's work for me has been the Creative Commons information. While I try to keep my students in line somewhat with the images they want to post, I never really understand myself how to find the free or usable images. When I found this image, though, I believe it is something I can share with my students in Google Classroom so they can start learning this for themselves as well:
My real test of this week's work will be next month when we start working on book trailers. My students always want to take images from movies or the first Google image that pops up. So, this semester, I need to work on a better way to introduce the book trailers and walk them through finding and citing their images. Their projects will be so much better, though; the work will really belong to them, rather than merely regurgitating someone else's work. I can't wait for this unit!
Lastly, here is my infographic from earlier:
easel.ly
References
Animaker, Make Animated Videos on Cloud for free. (n.d.). Retrieved from
https://www.animaker.com/
easel.ly | create and share visual ideas using infographics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.easel.ly/
Karhbach, M. (2014, July 2). Comic poster: What students should know about creative
easel.ly | create and share visual ideas using infographics. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.easel.ly/
Karhbach, M. (2014, July 2). Comic poster: What students should know about creative
commons license [Graph]. Retrieved from http://selectedreads.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/07/creative-commons-1.png?w=1600&h=5220
