Skill: Communicate 1.1.2 – Laws of Communication Quest

•                How can one refrain from violating FERPA guidelines in online communication?

FERPA stands for  family Educational Rights and Privacy Acts and is a Federal law that is in place to protect the rights of students and their families. One way you can avoid violating FEPA in an online communication is by suing common sense.. Many rules that we follow in a traditional classroom are also followed in the online setting. Teachers, no matter the classroom setting,  should never share confidential information including grades, address, disabilities, etc with anybody other than a designated guardian or parent.  In an online environment it is especially important never to share grades in an email because you can never guarantee who is on the receiving end of the email. Instead of a specific grade a teacher could say in an email, I am concerned about XX’s grade please check the gradebook and contact me so we can discuss how your students can be successful in class.”  I found this image to helpful when learning about FERPA

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•                What methods could be employed to verify that copyright is not being violated?

There are many ways to ensure that copyright is not being violated. As I discussed in an earlier blog Digital Rights and Responsibilities it is our responsibility to know what we can use and what we cannot.  When I am in doubt if I can use something I either look at this flow chart.

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OR I use the  Fair Use Evaluator Tool.  Both are suburb ways to determine if you are within copyright laws.  

•                Does copyright require that all work, images, words, and graphics must be original?

UNLESS the work, image, and or graphic is available for use for everyone then YES the work needs to be your own for you to copy, display, or distribute it. If it is the original author needs to be cited and credited.