Teaching Children Safely and Legally

1. Key points a tutor should know

All tutors should understand the following topics:

 Bullying and other online aggression.

 The impact of technology on health, wellbeing and lifestyle.
 Privacy and security.
 Copyright and Ownership.

2. Online Bullying
To bully someone is to seek to harm, intimidate, or coerce someone perceived as
vulnerable, this could be a young child, or perhaps an adult with learning difficulties.   When
we go online, things change, cyber bullying is any form of bullying which takes place online
or through smartphones and tablets.

This includes bullying through social networking sites, messaging apps or gaming sites.  Of
course, learning sites such as Acadsoc are not immune to cyberbullying.  All of these apps
are useful, we cannot learn and work without apps like WeChat, but as a teacher, you have
to be aware of what to do when things go wrong.

All over the world, cyberbullying is there.  Most children will come across it in their lifetime,
and it can happen any time, and anyplace.  There are so many ways of being a bully and
being bullied.  
As a teacher, you should be aware that such behaviors may be present in the pupil network,
and they could harm your pupil.

As a teacher, you are in a unique position to use your skills and your role to help to create a
safe learning environment.  You only have a short period to work with a child, but you are in
a position to notice behavior changes or other signs that cyberbullying may be happening.
3. Health and Wellbeing
One thing that is clear is that technology can impact on a pupil’s health and well being. 
Technology also influences lifestyle.

As a tutor, you have to understand the various systems to regulate age-related content.

Pan-European Game Information (PEGI) age rating system – this is a ratings service which
tells a parent how suitable an app or game is for their child:

The age ratings  This means that the content is suitable for all children over the age of
3.

The content ratings means that the game or app contains Bad Language.

In Canada, Mexico, and the United States we have the Entertainment Software Rating Board
(ESRB).  This body assigns age and content ratings, enforces industry-adopted advertising
guidelines, and ensures responsible online privacy principles for computer and video games
and other entertainment software.
It is difficult to write a policy to promote health and wellbeing, except to ensure that all
tutors have an understanding of current knowledge of the impact of technology on
learning. To that end, all candidates for the TESOL certificate must complete the reflective
exercise notes, and should be aware of the following points:

 Recognize the potential of online technology to distract from other things you might
do or should be doing (games, films, video).
 Understand that the use of technology can impact on healthy sleep and the
consequences for everyday life.
 Know strategies that can limit the impact of technology on personal health and
wellbeing (e.g. regular breaks, correct posture, sleep, diet and exercise).
 Recognize the importance of self-regulating use of technology (e.g. monitoring time
online).

4. Reflective Exercise
Search the internet for links that shed light on how to mitigate against the following issues.

Issue Links
The potential of online technology to distract from  
other things you might do or should be doing (games,
films, video).
Understand that the use of technology can impact on  
healthy sleep and the consequences for everyday life.
List of strategies that can limit the impact of  
technology on personal health and wellbeing.
The importance of self-regulating use of technology  
(e.g. monitoring time online).

5. Copyright and Ownership

Digital technology allows online content, including copyright-protected works, to be shared,
linked to, downloaded and extracted in different ways more easily than ever.  This presents a
significant challenge to the traditional copyright principles that protect content from
copying, distributing and communicating to the public.  Since the internet does not
recognize boundaries there are also questions as to where an online infringer should or
could be pursued.

Copyright (or author’s right) is a legal term used to describe the rights that creators have
over their literary and artistic works. Works covered by copyright range from books, music,
paintings, sculpture, and video, to computer programs, databases, maps and technical
drawings.
Works published online on a web page or a social media platform are generally protected
by copyright.  If that work is in the public domain – when the period of copyright protection
has expired – then you may use it freely.  Otherwise permission should be obtained from the
rightful owner before using it.  In the world of education, creators often adhere to the
principles of open access, in which they grant users the right to re-use (and in some cases
modify) their works.  They do this through the Creative Commons licensing schema.

It is worth noting that when using social media or other digital platforms, you are bound by
its “Terms and Conditions” of use. This usually grants the platform or service a non-exclusive
license to use your content, even if you still retain rights over the content you post.

Fair Use and exceptions for education

Fair use of a copyrighted work is any copying done for a limited and “transformative”
purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work.  Fair use of this
kind can be done without permission from the copyright owner.  One example would be
using part of a copyrighted work (e.g. music, video, image) so as to comment on it or
criticize it. 

In the United Kingdom, the Intellectual Property Office has published a guide that explains
the exceptions to copyright that allow teachers to use materials for teaching, learning and
assessment.  Similar guidance may be available for your country. If you plan to create your
own teaching materials for public use, it is important that you familiarize yourself with the
relevant copyright infringement laws in your country, as substantial penalties can be
incurred. 

Use of images in material and correct attribution

When you use an image in your lesson resources (the material proper) that is not your own
work, you need to give a proper attribution for that image, or else you're technically
claiming that it is your own work.  Google has developed tools that make it easier for you to
find creator and copyright information on an image. They now provide links to image
creator, credit and copyright notice metadata, whenever available, for images on Google
Images.  Despite this, it is advisable to begin your search for an image to use in your lesson
materials by looking in public domain sites such as Splash (see below).

One thing to look for when figuring out if an online resource (i.e. image, video, text, etc.) is
free to copy or embed in your lesson materials, is to look to see if it has a Creative
Commons license.  A requirement of all Creative Commons Licenses is that you attribute the
original author.  Within or at the end your learning materials you must attribute the image,
include their copyright information and link the photo back to its original photo page.

A typical Creative Commons license looks like this:

Re-use of Video (YouTube etc)
The re-use of video is more confusing than images.  YouTube appears to be full of remixed
videos or videos using commercial music.  But the same caveats hold as for images in
respect of observing copyright and carrying out attribution correctly.  Note that you can
watch any video clip freely in class, and that you are free to embed any video from YouTube,
Vimeo etc. in your learning materials so as long as the video clip offers you an embed code.
If you use any video that you are cutting, making changes to, or adding to a project, or
adding audio, it is better to use creative commons content, free or public domain content or
request permission from the copyright holder.

6. Reflection Exercise
Consider the benefits and the risks of teaching online from the point of view of a teacher
and a pupil, note your ideas below.

 Teacher View

 Student View