Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

I read MANY blogs. I have a folder called classroom blogs, and most of the blogs in this folder are blogs whose target audience is not necessarily the world wide web, but instead the students that attend that class daily. Mr. K’s 21st Century Learning Center is one like this. I’m glad he lets us peak at the assignments he makes. And I have to admit I have gotten some great ideas for activities or spin off projects from content posted for his students to read. So it was with mild interest that I read about an assignment for his kids to build web pages. They are asked to find picture of their favorite band, and make it a link to a web site about this band.

Without knowing what instruction the class has received about the use of pictures from the web, or where for that matter his students will be directed to get these pictures, it begs the question: Will the pictures be from legal sources? Since we are only allowed a sliver of information (namely the assignment) judgment cannot be passed here.

But it does make me wonder. Should these kids be told to use pictures w/o a warning about copyright, obtaining permissions, citing sources, and all that ethical stuff we are supposed to teach? Is there someone on the staff who collaborates with Mr. K., say, like a library media specialist, who can co-teach about the ethical uses of pictures from the web?

Great opportunity here for co-teaching and collaboration. I certainly hope he’s getting both. Thanks Mr. K! This is another example of how we as information and research specialists can impress upon students (and teachers) why those silly and complicated citations (that are pretty much required for most middle school and high school research projects) are necessary and required. But in a modern, fun, and up-t0-date project! Kudos to Mr. K. for another great idea for a project where I can seamlessly integrate some of my standards from the library into classroom standards, that of ethical use of information.

“Cornerstone Monitor.” Nic’s Events’ Photostream. 16 July 2007. 4 September 2007 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/nics_events/833388930/>.