Tag Archives: creative commons

Why Blog?

Posted on by

This is a sample blog post written to illustrate the features of a blog post.

Blogging is a great way to develop your thinking about a topic because a blog post can continue to evolve through commenting. Don’t think of a blog post as a final published piece of work (although it can be sometimes). Think of your blog as a place for you to play around with and explore ideas and engage in discussion with others.

As a writer you can include multimedia in your blog post to help communicate your ideas. You could even do a video or audio blog post.

304341390_2510150714_m

Photo by Megan Myers

It’s important though to make sure you give credit to the creators of any content you use in your blog post and to make sure you have permission to use the content. You’ll see I’ve credited the photographer and if you click on the photo it takes you to the original source.

A good source for images that you have permission to use is Flickr’s Creative Commons images.

The snobbery of ethical use?

Posted on by
Photo by tim.la

Photo by tim.la

Some may accuse me of trolling when I suggest that the notion paying for media that I could easily though not ethically download is an artifact of middle class privilege. Still it’s a thought I’d like to explore.

As I become more educated about the world of web 2.0 and all its inherent issues, I try to make more of a conscious effort to model the types of digital citizenship I expect from my students. But try as I might I still get dirty looks from students when I explain to them that it’s unethical to reproduce another person’s work without their permission, that they should pay for an artist’s music rather than download from a bit torrent site, and that “finding it on Google” does not make it fair use.

It’s not that I don’t believe that these are important issues. I want my students to be good digital citizens.

But I’ve also been thinking that my own belief in value of these ideals didn’t evolve until I had enough disposable income to not think twice about spending money on something that I could privately download for free–oh let’s call it what it is–steal.

I am not advocating an end to teaching ethical use of digital media. All I’m saying is that it’s a lot easier to be ethical when you can afford it. So how do we make all our students care–not just the ones who can easily afford to care?