Legal and Ethical Use

When looking through the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers I came across indicator number 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

As a music Teacher I thought this was a very important indicator to focus on because it deals with the fact that teachers must understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices.

This has always been a hot-button topic for music teachers because most of the materials that we deal with on an everyday basis is copyrighted intellectual property. Any sheet-music that we choose to use in our class, any recordings we want our students to listen to, or anything that we want to record would fall into this category.

NETS*T4a says that teachers need to advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources. This is especially true as I begin to use technology more in my classroom. I must be aware that the materials that I place on my computer, or on an Internet site must be properly cited for their source to avoid any infringements on copyright laws. Photocopying music is against the copyright law, so I believe that scanning music and publishing it on the Internet would also be an obvious violation. Placing someone Else's recorded music on the Internet would also fall into this category.

As a teacher it is my responsibility to insure that everything I do for my students is safe and legal.