Legal and Ethical Guidelines for Effective Use of Online Communciations.

I'd like to hear the reaction to this name change from  committee members who were unable to be at the meeting.

Below are minutes of our meeting, a kind of blend of Paul's notes and Dawn's recollections of what happened.  It was a hypertextual, quickly shifting discussion, one that we each probably remember differently.  Jim, Ted, and Bob--please add your recollection of important threads in our discussion.
 

Minutes of Meeting at NCTE

Because the meeting room tables were not marked, we had trouble finding each other.  By the time Jim Strickland and Dawn Rodrigues found  Paul Becker, Ted Nellen, and Robert Yagelski, they had begun talking about some issues.Here's what was talked about before Dawn and Jim arrived:
1.     Wanting teachers to get past the technology hurdles and get on to effective integration of technology.
2.     Wanting to help teachers understand reading/writing connections and how the Web facilitates instruction.
3.    The need to help students learn how to discriminate between various kinds of information coming at them:       Web/Internet is INTERactive and IMMEDIATE.   Teachers can't pre-select all content.
4.     Encouraging effective research in online use issues.
5.     Analyzing  culture studies in (and with) media for effectivenes

A Summary of What We Talked About

We discussed the importance of establishing guidelines not only for such issues as fair use, plagiarism, free speech issues, but also guidelines for effective and ethical practice.  That is, we feel that teachers have a responsibility to use online communications effectively in instruction.   If students are not introduced to effective, ethical use of online communications in an English class, they may not receive that instruction anywhere during their high school years.
We talked about the changing nature of the English profession: teachers can no longer teach effectively without including technology.  Some new skills they need to teach include the ability to discriminate between valuable and useless information on-the-fly.   A key problem for teachers: they can't predict what their students will locate in an Internet search.  They have to be ready for many possibilities.

We also came to consensus on the idea of proposing a book-size publication with Web links, perhaps with a CD-ROM component, too.  The task of putting this book together will help us accomplish all of our broader goal of disseminating focused information and advice about online communication to the NCTE membership.  Committee members who want to write chapters will have first choice before we issue a call for papers.

Some IdeasThat Emerged:

Making a standing committee out of our charge
Inviting ACLU to help us with legal issues.
Establishing open communication with the Technology committee.
Finding out if NCTE has any legal consultation available to advise us.
Finding out how NCTE has helped teachers who have had to deal with censorship issues.
Checking to see what information the CCC's Caucus for Intellectual Properties (legal issues regarding) can share  Communication to administrators and teachers (K-12) to learn of cases and situations that have emerged.
 

Some topics/problems to be addressed in chapter of our book:

-Acceptable Use Policies (including statements about acceptable uses in instruction)
-Teaching Legal and Ethical Considerations to pre-service and inservice teachers.
-Copyright infringement (e.g. downloading of images)
-Library Association statements
-Privacy Issues
-Issues related to open access of information (possible misinterpretion of pedagogy by legislators who might view drafts with errors and not understand the process-based writing instruction).
-Spam issues to email to unsolicitation of documents in protecting students (permission forms to inform parents)
Practice and accountability in student performance and TEACHER performance.
-Bad press of the internet (lack of knowledge to uncertainty of dealing with conventional issues and how does the internet change this?)
 

Tentative Assignments

Ted:  Web pages/Legal Ethical issues of student publication/information
Jim:  Teacher Training/Inservice (Pedogical to college and English Education)
Paul:  Communication of meeting information; Taking minutes
Bob:  Appopriate classroom uses/responsibilities from teachers
Dawn:  Coordination of Committee work; Planning for our Publication