Peer Leaders and Fair Use

As you may know, this blog is a collaboration of my work over three Technology AQ courses.  When I look back at the start of my Part 1 journey to now (Specialist), I see significant growth in my own thoughts and opinions as a tech-loving teacher.  Consequently, I am greatly looking forward to becoming a peer leader in my school.  Here are a few thoughts regarding both peer leadership and fair use.

What is the role of peer leaders?

1. Provide encouragement - Sometimes all it takes is a kind word, part of a prep period, or a few minutes after school to sit down with a teacher to get them started on the "techie track."  Don't forget to follow up the next day, week, month ...
2. Offer guidance/support - Be available to answer questions, give advice, and applaud progress once others give technology a try.
3. "Walk the Walk" - Don't forget to keep going on your own journey.  Don't stop tweeting, neglect your class website, ignore your notifications, attending PD workshops etc.
4. Create new leaders - I can only imagine the satisfaction of having others who I have invested in become future leaders...
5. Keep learning - Your journey is never over!  Technology is always evolving and changing and we need to model what life-long learning looks like.

2.  How can peer leaders model Fair Use?

By now, I think most people have heard about the experiments where teachers post a picture of themselves holding a sign saying "I'm talking to my ___ grade class about internet safety and how quickly a information can get shared around the world. Please "like" and "share." The picture then gets posted around on various social media networks and ends up with thousands of views. However, I think that it is important for peer leaders to continue to remind colleagues of the importance of privacy laws and fair use of content. Last month, I had a teacher provide me with pictures that had copyright symbols all over them and I chose not to use them and instead make my own. I also followed up and let her know that the images belonged to someone else and that she needed prior permission to use them. She was shocked and apologetic and thanked me for letting her know. Sometimes we all just need a reminder about what we can and cannot use :)

3. How many people are familiar with Creative Commons Tools?

There are 2 answers to this. None, and six. When I asked the question "how familiar are you with creative commons," each person responded with a version of "I have no clue what you are talking about." However, when I asked "what do you know about protecting your online photos/videos/information etc," six of the fifteen people I asked had an idea about online privacy and being able to use and share their own material and access that of others. What surprised me was the opinion of "well I posted it online so I guess everyone gets to have/see/use it." I then asked them if they thought that anyone should be allowed to use my soccer ball if I brought it to a public park. The overwhelming response was along the lines of "no, it's your ball." My response? Same goes for technology. It's still my picture, even though it's in a public space.