Thing 10, More on Plagiarism/Copyright

When I asked the Harding English Department chair if we had a policy on plagiarism I was told that would be the next thing the department would work on. It seems they have been so busy unpacking the standards and working on common assessments that a plagiarism policy has been put on hold. So out of curiosity I went to all of the St. Paul Junior and Senior High School websites in search of Library Media Center sites and plagiarism policies. It's embarrasing. There are 11 junior high schools in St. Paul, not a single one even mentions plagiarism, but also consider, only 5 of those Junior Highs even have a LMS. There are 7 senior high schools and 4 of those schools have what I would consider an extensive copyright and plagiarism section on the Library Media Center page of their school web site. Those same four librarians are in their second year of the Information Literacy Project. This is an important issue and we need to continue our quest not only to educate our students but also our colleagues. Enough said.
Cartoon source: http://www.cartoonstock.com/lowres/aba0039l.jpg

Thing 10, More on copyright

I think this cartoon summarizes the apathy surrounding copyright law. No one seems to think it pertains to them. Teachers are indignant when I mention the violation as they stand at the xerox machine and duplicate an entire paperback novel. At lunch colleagues feel they are entitled to burn DVD's of every movie they rent from Blockbuster. Students cut and paste into their reports and think it's o.k. as long as they have a bibliography. As technology develops the problem is only going to get worse. At what point do we come to the realization that just because we don't agree with copyright, we still have to follow the law?
Cartoon taken from http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/copyright.jpg&imgrefurl=http://xkcd.com/14/&h=499&w=640&sz=95&hl=en&start=15&tbnid=kc-VqIhpeVv0VM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=137&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcopyright%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

Thing 10. Copyright/Plagiarism

I've always considered myself fairly knowledgeable on copyright. Afterall, I've been preaching to teachers for years on the use of video tapes in the districts video retrieval systems. But with the development of new technology comes new rules governing responsible use. Imagine my chagrin when I discovered that I too have been violating copyright law by using images from Google without citing my source! But I did discover"The #1 Cartoon Studion on the Web!" and you can use their cartoons FREE on non-commercial websites when you give them a link. Try it out at http://www.artie.com
(Copyright image taken from www.abortmag.com)

Thing 8. Dribbling Lessons for Information Literacy

I believe most Library Media Specialists and teachers would agree that the key to a "good" research project is being able to assign a topic that each student is personally excited and/or interested in. I find the Step 1: Question section of "Lessons for teaching the steps of the Research Calculator" to be very helpful. I love the ready made graphic organizers for brainstorming topics, creating questions, narrowing the topic and exploring a topic. Here again good organization is the key to success.
(Cartoon taken from http://www.artie.com)

Thing 7. Get to Know the Research Project Calculator

Here I am offering the fabulous services of the Research Project Calculator (RPC)!!! Well not exactly but almost. Earlier this year when I worked with Mamiko's and Jill's classes I did introduce the students to the calculator, put in the dates for the project we were working on and put the printed outline into the students own hot little hands. I could be all wet but sometimes I feel that "our" students don't have the best organizational skills. They don't even know where to begin (outside of Google) to break down a project into smaller, manageable pieces. The RPC is an excellent tool that will guide the students through each step of the research process.
(Image taken from http://www.loancalc.com)