Your Digital Rights and Responsibilities as the Adult in the Room
Whether you grew up in the digital age, or adapted to changes as they came about, there is no denying the fact that we are living in an era that is run by technology. It is our job as educators to keep ourselves informed on our rights and responsibilities in the digital classroom.
Your Digital Rights
Free Speech:
You have the right to speak freely without fear of legal ramifications.
Privacy and Security:
You have a right to your own privacy and security, even in a digital space.
Information:
You have the right to access information about any subject matter.
Safety:
You have the right to a safe and secure environment within a digital space.
Remember that these rights are not the same everywhere around the world, so make sure that your staff is educated about the rights in your state or country. In many cases, “free-speech” online follows the same rules as in person.
According to the United States Courts, freedom of speech does not include the right to incite imminent lawless action, to make or distribute obscene materials, burn draft cards as an anti-war protest, to permit students to print articles in a school newspaper over the objections of the school administration, of students to make an obscene speech at a school sponsored event, and of students to advocate illegal drug use at a school-sponsored event, (US Courts).
Your Digital Responsibilities
Keep yourself and others safe
Ensure that you are using website that are secure and that do not compromise your information.
Data Protection
It is your responsibility to monitor your own information.
The Digital Classroom
Digital classrooms can include a variety of options to give you exactly what you need. These types of classrooms are becoming increasingly more popular.
Open Educational Resources
These resources are a great tool to utilize in the classroom, however there is a gray area as many people do not know what exactly is an OER.
The 3 main components to knowing if an resource is an OER:
Public Domain
Released under an open license
No cost
According to US Copyright Law, “copyright material may, under certain circumstances, be quoted verbatim for purposes such as criticism, news reporting, teaching, and research, without the need for permission from or payment to the copyright holder.”
Open educational resources may or may not be quality checked, so it is important to research the manufacturer of the resource.
Student Safety
Before we can keep our students safe, we must understand how to keep ourselves safe, so we can lead by example. It is important to work with administrators to obtain teaching materials to help educate students on cyber safety. Remember, students don’t automatically know how to stay safe, we have to teach them.
Promoting positive partnerships with families about cyber safety is a great way to see our classroom lessons followed through.
Students accidentally get into trouble in the physical space often, and the digital space is not an exception. Cyberbullying and cybercrimes are things that a student can accidentally find themselves doing without understanding how or why it is an unsafe practice. Cybercrimes are any type of illegal activities that are conducted via digital means. This includes, but is not limited to, phishing, data and identity theft, infection of systems by malware, cyber sexual predation, exposure to inappropriate content, and cyber bullying (Richardson et al. 2020). Cyberbullying is defines as mainly involving unethical and aggressive behavior where groups or individuals harass and hurt other students or staff in a deliberate and repeated manner, (Siyam & Hussain 2021 p.536).
At the end of the day, it is just as important to know how to keep yourself safe and informed online as it is our students. As the adult in the room, many of us evolved with technology, our students were born into it. Therefore, we need to help them learn from our mistakes, as there is now a much bigger risk involved as technology keeps advancing.