Fantastic podcast published today by Tim Wilson, “Scott McLeod: Legal and Ethical Issues.” Scott discusses issues of liability, picture phones, student blogs, cyberbullying, intellectual property etc.
Key among Scott’s comments are to remember that students cannot harass others, disrupt instruction, participate in activities harmful to others, damage the reputations of others at school irrespective of whether technology is used or not. Of course when students are using non-school technology resources on their own time to engage in these activities, that gets a little fuzzier, but if the instructional environment at school is impacted then “non-technological” policies and procedures are already in place which can serve as guidelines for teachers and administrators.
Scott reports that to date we have not seen court cases relating to student use of cell phones and blogs. Those technologies are so new, and the courts move so slow, that those cases just haven’t come up on anyone’s docket yet.