What do students know about intellectual property?

It can be argued that the concept of intellectual property is perceived differently by young people today.  

In her book Blogs and Tweets, Texting and Friending: Social Media and Online Professionalism, Sandra M. DeJong suggests that digital natives have a fundamentally different idea about what intellectual property is.  (You can see her book here)

An interesting example is when a student was confronted about plagiarizing from Wikipedia, he argued that things on the site are considered "common knowledge" in this day and age since the information is so easily accessed by all. 

I think that there is also an overall sense from digital natives that what is available online is free for all.  If it is posted online, they believe, the author is ok with you using it.  Many professionals have said that they are hesitant to put their work online for fear of plagiarism.  

Also, I think that students don't see "stealing" online information is the same as stealing "hard copies" of work.  For example, a student wouldn't think about stealing a book from the library or a store, but they are ok with downloading music or a book from a pirate website such as Pirate Bay.


Take the poll:

POLL!
What is Intellectual Property?

Web 2.0 Solutions to Texting Students

The following link has options for online tools and apps that allow teachers and students communicate via text with out having to exchange information:

http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/04/9-awsome-group-text-messaging-tools-for.html

Some of these tools only work in one directions.  For example, teachers can send messages out to students, but students cannot send messages to the teacher or other classmates.

Also, these are group texts only.  As we have learned, many school systems discourage communication between teachers and individual students. These programs also only allow teachers to communicate with groups.

Example:

ClassPager

POLL!
Would you be willing to use texting app with your students?
Take the Poll!

To Text or Not To Text...

Is texting with students:

Legal?
Appropriate?
Discouraged?

There are some school systems who strongly discourage teachers from texting students.  There are a few that support it.  There are many schools that fall in the middle.  For example, the Oregon school board discourages teachers from sending any individual text messages and says that teachers should only send group texts to students.  This came after a teacher was arrested for sending inappropriate texts to a student in his class.  On the other side of the coin, former Harvard professor Mica Pollock who collaborated with students and teachers at Massachusetts alternative school Full Circle/Next Wave, believes that texting can provide students with extra support.
For understandable legal reasons, schools are cautious when it comes to coming out to say that texting is supported and encouraged.  I think that an important part of making schools more comfortable supporting text messaging would be if there were set guidelines that are made clear to teachers and students.  A rule where teachers are not able to text one student but must send group messages would add a security measure, but may not always be useful or appropriate if a teacher only needs to contact one student.  
Perhaps one of the best alternative is a program such as Remind 101.  This allows teachers to send group texts with student in a class without exchanging private information (telephone numbers). However, this is a program that will only allow teachers to send group messages.  iMessage would be another program that would work for our school once all students have their own iPads.  This will not be possible for another 4 years.

POLL!

What do you think? Please take the poll: "Do you text your students".

Texting with students- creepy, yet convenient.

I'd be willing to bet that all high school teachers have experienced students texting in class.  I'd also be willing to bet that most teachers have thought to themselves, "I wish I could just text them this information".  I know when I want to remind students or update them on new information that is important for them to receive before I see them again, I wish I could just send a group text.  In our school, teachers are discouraged from texting students. The exception being coaches since they often do not see their athletes during the day.  The fact is, we are never really sure if our students are checking their online learning system (we happen to use PortalsPlus for posting homework and grades).  While students are told to "check Portals" every night, we never know if they do.  Texting would be a way to ensure that students get information. When our Freshman get iPads next year, we will have the ability to send iMessages to our students, something very similar to texting among Apple products.  Would teachers continue to be discouraged from sending these messages directly to the students' devices, or will it be looked at as a "learning tool".

I am also interesting in exploring how we can use messaging systems in other ways, other than simple communication from teacher to student.  I would like to explore lessons that may include messaging systems as a way for students to collaborate