Digital Law

Digital law refers to the rules and policies that govern online spaces.

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Fernández-Molina, J. C., Moraes, J. B. E., & Guimarães, J. A. C. (2017). Academic libraries and copyright: Do librarians really have the required knowledge?. College & Research Libraries, 78(2), 241. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.78.2.241

The authors of this study conducted a survey of academic librarians in Brazil to determine their knowledge of copyright. Brazil is a unique context for this study because the country does not follow the same copyright practices in regards to libraries as other nations. Specifically, most countries allow for a copyright exemption for libraries and when teaching. This is not the case in Brazil. The findings of the study indicate that academic librarians in Brazil have minimal knowledge of copyright laws. The authors suggest training be conducted to help librarians acquire the necessary knowledge. 

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Hickman, B. (2021). The $12,000 Tweet: A collision at the intersection of social media and copyright law. Journal of Cases in Educational Leadership, 24(2), 3-16.

Many teachers are unaware of copyright law, but districts can be liable for copyright infringement. This article examines a case of a teacher retweeting a trademarked phrase and the ensuing lawsuit that was threatened by the individual that owned the trademark. The article describes the events that took place and the actions taken by the superintendent of the school district. The article ends with a discussion of existing copyright laws and professional development that should be in place for school employees. 

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Johnson, Y. M., & Johnson, N. M. (2016). Copyright resources for school librarians. Knowledge Quest, 45(2), 18–24. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1119273.pdf 

Authors in this trade journal article prepared a list of resources specifically for school librarians to use when fielding questions within the school related to intellectual property. These resources are organized by theme including created works, movies, music performances, novels and more. Examples of resources include The Fair Use Evaluator, Copyright with Cyberbee, Creative Commons, the Visual Resources Association and more. 

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Moon, E. C. (2018). Teaching students out of harm’s way: Mitigating digital knowledge gaps and digital risk created by 1:1 device programs in K-12 education in the USA. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society, 16(3), 290-302. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICES-02-2018-0012

The author of this study conducted a literature review to determine how 1:1 programs in schools are impacting students. Findings indicate that 1:1 programs are increasing gaps in knowledge about technology and exposing students to risk. Risks for students include loss of privacy, victims of illegal activities, and psychological harm. The article ends with a discussion of the social implications of the findings and how schools should advance. One of the primary takeaways is that the author suggests schools should implement a digital citizenship curriculum.

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Pyman, H., & Sundsbø, K. (2021). Copyright dough: A playful approach to teaching copyright. Journal of Information Literacy, 15(1), 54-67. http://dx.doi.org/10.11645/15.1.2832

Copyright is an important concept for individuals interested in scholarly communication. Students also need to understand copyright so that they legally engage with content. However, copyright can be a dry concept. To help make copyright instruction more engaging, the authors of this article created a game they titled Copyright Dough. In the article, the authors describe the game Copyright Dough and explain how to use the game to teach copyright literacy. The authors describe their inspiration for the game and the play-testing methods used to refine the game. The article concludes with a list of challenges the authors experienced and their recommendations for using the game. 

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Tang, H., Lin, Y. J., & Qian, Y. (2020). Understanding K‐12 teachers’ intention to adopt open educational resources: A mixed methods inquiry. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51(6), 2558-2572.

The authors of this article conducted a mixed method study with the technology acceptance model to determine when teachers are likely to adopt open educational resources (OER). Both the perceived effort the teachers needed to put forth and how valuable they saw OER to their work impacted their willingness to adopt OER. When teachers saw OER as easy to use and valuable for their work with students they were more likely to implement it. Due to this, the authors recommended that creators of OER repositories design for ease of use. The authors also recommend including instruction on OER in post-secondary education programs and helping pre-service and in-service teachers use open education practices such as remixing, revising, etc. 

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Zimmerle, J. C. (2021). Safe, sound, and private: Promoting data protection for students. Computers in the Schools, 38(1), 1-18.

The COVID-19 pandemic meant that many teachers used technology tools that they had not previously incorporated into their teaching. To support educators during this time, many companies released free versions of tools and gave away free licenses. While there are positives from this, teachers also need to consider the privacy of students and how best to keep them safe when using technology tools. The author of this article considers privacy considerations for student data and explains how best to vet technology to protect students. The authors also discuss laws on protecting student data and they included a list of online safety resources that teachers can use.