Online Images and Copyright
As a society, we are becoming increasingly aware of the impact our
online presence can have in regards to how we are perceived in the public eye.
When I was at University for my teacher training it was continually reiterated
that our digital footprint would be looked at and judged by future employers
(principals and board of trustee members), parents, students and colleagues. As
a mature student I felt grateful that my online presence was minimal, and that
uploading images was non existent in my youth and therefore would not be coming
up to haunt me in future employment opportunities.
It is with this awareness that I inform and educate my students
about the ramifications of their online activities. All the while I am aware in
the back of my mind that they are emerging adolescents beginning the process of
the shutdown of their frontal cortex and common sense during their vulnerable
and upcoming teenage years and antics. All of which I am in no doubt will be
uploaded onto social media to be cringed over the next day. It is all
instantaneous in the virtual world, and escalates out of control as we know
with cyber bullying.
This
brings me to my point that recently came into my awareness around the use of
online images. I teach about plagiarism and copyrighting information, and we
have a strict code of conduct involving digital contracts within our school
that all students and parents sign before using digital devices. Students are
not to take images of classmates and upload onto social media and I explain ethically why
this is.
However, I am yet to address the use of images as copyright, or
even to teach about creative common sites for images that can be downloaded
legally to student documents. Is there even an awareness in students that there
are limitations around taking and sharing images, or downloading whatever they
like from the internet with no consequences as it is all too easily available?
Students have become habituated to easy access and few boundaries.
Moral dilemnas based around student actions (Ehrich, 2011), inform
me that as an educator I am ethically responsible to educate and inform
students of the legalities surrounding the use of digital images, including
facebook images, as apparently once it is posted onto facebook or twitter you
grant access to the right to use these images as these organisations see fit!
(nyccounsel, 2012).
REFERENCES:
Ehrich, L. C. , Kimber M., Millwater, J. & Cranston,
N. (2011). Ethical dilemmas: a model to understand teacher practice, Teachers
and Teaching: theory and practice, 17:2, 173-185, DOI:
10.1080/13540602.2011.539794
Who Owns
Photos and Videos Posted on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter? (2012, December
19). [Blogpost]. Retrieved from Law Offices of Craig Delsak
http://www.nyccounsel.com/business-blogs-websites/who-owns-photos-and-videos-posted-on-facebook-or-twitter/
Great thoughts! I too am happy that I was a teenager and young adult living in a world that didn't even have to think about the long-term consequences of social media. It must be difficult for young people to really get their heads around the fact that 'digital footprints' really exist and that they must be mindful as to what they post. I also am aware of the fact that people often post photos/images/comments about others without permission, which could potentially put that person in a predicament of some sort. That's why I like your thinking: 'is there even an awareness in students that there are limitations around taking and sharing images, or downloading whatever they like from the internet with no consequences as it is all too easily available?' I guess our job is to do our best to help educate these students about the right and wrong ways to address this in the hope that they make good life choices - hard, but if we can do our best to inform, then at least we have helped them along the way.
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