Week 5 Copyright

     I believe that it is important that we follow and respect copy rights and fair use rules to protect the owners of these writings and to protect ourselves. By having rules to protect the ownership rights of writings, the owners are protected against misuse of the works they have spent so much time and effort creating. Without copy rights and fair use rules, anyone could use a work and claim ownership to it. These works are often created to earn money and even earn a living as a career. If there was no protection from misuse or misrepresentation, these types of careers would not be worth pursuing. We are protected ourselves by these rules because there can be no blame placed on you due to something that someone else has written.

     Online safety refers to the use and/or misuse of identifying information on the Internet. Online safety refers also to the steps that we take to prevent this misuse. These steps are what we use ourselves, and what we teach our students about the ways predators can misuse our information to obtain some type of gain for themselves. This is different from cyberbullying in that online safety is a preventative measure taken to keep yourself safe. Cyberbullying is something that takes place while you are online that is an attempt to bully you or make you do something or say something that you would not ordinarily do or say. I feel that the simplest and most effective way to protect our students from either of these types of predator activities is education. We as educators must do just that and educate our students what and how these things are and what steps can be taken to prevent them.

     This weeks activities were quite interesting to me. I also believe that they are extremely important because there is no avoiding our fast movement toward a completely digital world. We as educators (or prospects) must learn everything that we can about these topics so that we will have the knowledge and ability to inform our students. Basically, everything I read in this week's assignments was new to me. Of course I had heard of these topics but I did not have a true understanding or grasp of the concepts prior to this week. My score of 60 on the copyright quiz proves this but I do feel that I have gained a great deal of knowledge.

Netsmartz Workshop. (2001). Retrieved September 29, 2010, from Netsmartz Workshop Web site: http://www.netsmartz.org/