Cheating is good and sharing is bad. No wonder digital ethics have kids confused.

Two of my students, let’s call them Josh and Cole, are in the library talking about “modding” (modifying) a video racing game called Need for Speed Underground. By downloading “cheats”—tips or codes that allow users to manipulate content—the boys can personalize their race cars, changing various elements, such as engine size, to rev up the performance. Instinctively, I flinch. “Isn’t this hacking? Patent violation?” I ask. Well, no, Josh and Cole explain. They’re pondering a common activity among gamers that is, in fact, perfectly legal. Video game companies, anxious to satisfy teen demand for accessibility and control, have actually created software that is designed to be modified, and downloading cheats is encouraged. However, the kids would be crossing the digital ethics line if they added a “mod chip” to their Xbox to alter the playing platform or created a copy of the game, either to sell or share with friends. Just how easy is it to take that next, illegal step? I recently performed a simple Google search that retrieved thousands of links to how-to-hack sites. What’s a media specialist to do? In a perfect world, our students would apply the ethics that we teach in guiding their school-related use of technology to their activities beyond campus. But in reality, they often don’t make the connection. As educators, we should be aware of how students are using entertainment technologies and help them make good decisions—both on and off our watch. For example, Kathy Leers, a seventh- and eighth-grade language arts teacher at Vernon-Verona-Sherrill Middle School in Verona, NY, has created “Anticipatory Set” activities, which foster critical thinking about issues including ethics. A related unit on John Steinbeck’s The Pearl, for instance, prompted a classroom discussion of the unethical action of the novel’s greedy doctor, and Leers’s students were asked to consider their own views on stealing and what motivates people to do it. She says she’s always amazed by the candor of their discussion, which often turns to technology use. “Students get excited about issues they can relate to their own lives.” Judging by the sea of earbuds I encounter each day bobbing through the hallways of my school, the specter of file sharing isn’t going away. While many students rip music from their own CDs or download legally from music subscription sites, others may be tempted by illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing networks such as Ares Galaxy and bitTorrent, where they can obtain music or video files for free. Especially for kids who are too young to have their own iTunes credit account, it’s tempting to turn to friends or the Web for free music. Further muddying the ethical waters is the advent of social networking sites, which allow budding musicians to offer their music to the world, free of charge. Brad Blakely, a guitarist for the indie rock band Adore, has gained valuable exposure by uploading his songs to sites such as MySpaceMusic and SoundClick. “On one hand, I am eager to have my music heard for the sole purpose of being recognized as a talent,” he says. “On the other, I can see how it must be frustrating as a professional musician and see the potential [monetary] loss.” In this environment, the notion of copyright becomes rather fluid, and young musicians may be unaware of their own property rights. These content creators might very well be my own students, and I want them to know what’s at stake. One way to get that message across is to help students value what they produce on the Web. Understanding their role as copyright holders has the added benefit of fostering the notion of fair use, the principle that allows limited use of another person’s work without their permission. For example, students should know they have the right to download songs from a purchased CD onto an MP3 player, but it’s not OK to copy the music and share it via a P2P network with a few (million) friends. To introduce the issue of fair use in the classroom, I recommend an activity called “Where I Stand,” which can help gauge how much students know about an issue and, importantly, how they feel about it. In this exercise, the teacher asks students to place themselves in front of a continuum along the classroom wall as a measure of where they stand on a particular question related to file sharing, for instance. Once committed to a number value, students are then asked to explain or defend their choice. The results can be a springboard for discussion. Another good resource is Downloading Copyrighted Stuff from the Internet: Stealing or Fair Use? (Enslow, 2005) by Sherri Mabry Gordon. This book is a solid introduction to digital ethics for kids, providing an accessible overview of the topic, and both sides of the debate are represented. On the Web site Education World, you’ll find practical tips and K–12 lesson plans related to technology use, including using fairy tales to debate ethics and “Wire Side Chats,” a column that includes “A Guide to Doing the Right Thing,” guidelines on ethical online behavior. An Education World contributor, technology guru Doug Johnson, is also the author of Learning Right from Wrong in the Digital Age (Linworth, 2003), a humorous approach to the “3P’s of Technology Ethics: Privacy, Property and A(P)propriate Use.” Johnson hosts the Blue Skunk Blog, where he invites readers to respond to his witty reflections on technology, among other topics. Worthwhile posts include “Rules for pod people and a proposal for banning pencils” and “Student bloggers: Can we stop them? Can we steer them?” Then there’s the nonprofit public service site Net Family News. Created by journalist Anne Collier to keep parents updated and advised about Web safety, new technologies, and related ethics, the resource also provides interesting links, such as “Teen gamers’ views on games” and “File-sharing realities for families.” As my experience with Josh and Cole illustrates, library media specialists have a unique opportunity to interact with students about their Web-related entertainment activities, and we would be smart to stay in the loop. Moreover, we need to help our teaching peers integrate digital ethics into the curriculum. For starters, we can help them introduce the important concepts of copyright and fair use. As students and their entertainment habits continue to evolve, our diligence in enhancing ethics awareness will go a long way in helping young people make good decisions—in and out of school.

---

Vicki Reutter is a library media specialist at Cazenovia (NY) Jr. Sr. High School.