Out here in the Ed-tech world, the Edu-Blogosphere, the Personal Learning Networks or whatever you want to call it we do a lot of talking. We read, we write, we share, we site, we connect, we learn. There is an unspoken decency that keeps all the conversations civil. A common understanding that sometimes leads to the creation of little communities of teachers doing great work, sharing ideas with like minded people and learning immensely.
If you can escape the repetitive echo-chambers of jargon and boot licking of some of the better known Edu-bloggers, who seem to have been saying the same things for years now, you will find a core group of teachers worldwide who are blogging and Tweeting the revolution one classroom at a time.
I personally have met a tight group of teachers whom I respect immeasurably. I have never actually been in the same room with many of these people, but through the sharing of our lives and our work, I know that we see education and many other topics in the same light.
Occasionally, though, someone ignores the rules of common decency and acts inappropriately. These transgressions can be ignored, for they never cause much harm, but if we are trying to create a new way of communication for our societies, if we are serious about the things we teach our students, things like: cite ones sources, be honest with the work and ideas you use, never steal other people’s work and pass it off as your own, then we must call to the table when one of our own acts irresponsibly.
I am not writing this post to admonish the perpetrator for his action. I am seldom in the mood for confrontation these days. I am writing this post as an act of solidarity and support for a good friend. I am writing this post as a learning opportunity. I am writing this post as a tool to share with students about plagiarism. I am writhing this post as a way to correct a wrong done to the community of which I am a part and one in which I take pride.
Here is the gist of what has happened: Keri Lee Beasley wrote a post called Ten Great Ways To Use Audacity With Your Students over at her blog The Tip of the Iceberg over a year ago. She recently sent out a Tweet dismayed that Alan Cain had simply cut and paste her post verbatim and put it on his blog. It was word-for-word down to the title. He never made any mention of her work or cited her in anyway. You can find the post here. Judging by his Tweets, it appears that Alan simply shares resources and tools. Seems harmless enough; we have all had some spam blog take our work, but this seems different Alan appears to be a flesh and blood educator. So why would he do this? Doesn’t he teach his students about plagiarism, about Creative Commons and the need to give credit where credit is due? Sure! Share the tools. Use Keri-Lee’s work, just say that you got it from The Tip Of The Iceberg. How hard is that?
Don’t get me wrong, I am no longer a fan of copy righted material. I think once you put something onto the Internet it should be used by as many people as possible. Let our ideas be shared, tweeted, and made viral. Let them be altered and changed. Let them evolve into something new, but I do believe that it is common courtesy to credit the person who put in the blood, sweat and tears.
Why not write a post about Audacity using your own ideas and then link to Keri-Lees post as further reading? It is so simple to create a hyper-link. This way not only are you being respectful you are making connections and expanding the network, giving value to the community?
I am curious if this was a case of misunderstanding or laziness. I hope in the next few days we here from Alan. I hope that he will explain why he came into our community and sole something that belonged to one of our members. I am sure if he is honest and explains himself we will take him in and help him. We are a forgiving bunch. Like I said no one is looking for confrontation or to be possessive. It just doesn’t feel right to have something like this happen in your neighborhood. You can also read Keri-Lee’s response here.
The ball is in your court Alan…
Jabiz-
Thanks so much for sharing this post….I have been thinking about this a lot as I start to use posterous. For me it has been a way for me to instantaneously take ideas from a site, and reflect on it and post simultaneously in a number of places. It has jumpstarted me back into blogging a bit. But it definitely raises some questions. I wanted to share a story…
This week I have been working on a tremendous program called Powerful Voices for Kids. In trying to create an atmosphere of sharing, I have been trying to find articles related to the ideas of using media literacy strategy. The other day through google alerts I came across this article I wanted to share with the team. While there was a citation at the top “This is from an excellent website: classroomtools.com. Checkout the links below to help you Navigate your way through the Lies of Media Trickery!” in reading the page you would think that it was a collection of resources put together by the author… HOWEVER, when I scrolled to the bottom of the page there was a link return to the Propaganda in the Classroom page . When I navigated to and through that page, I found THIS PAGE which was word for word what was posted on the blackbox page…and frankly, I was a little uncomfortable. here is what I ended up sharing with the team, but it caused me to ask….when we have the ability to copy and post with the click of a button, how do you ensure that it is clear the source of things you post and what implication does it have in other places? Hope you don’t mind that I repost this on my own site 😉
I think I was right that Alan was not trying to be malicious. Received this as a comment on his blog:
I have send a mail to Keri-Lee Beasley giving her the acknowledgment she deserves and I have altered the post to reflect this. Also I am not a teacher I am just a normal everyday fella who likes to share good blog posts.
He has also added a citation giving Keri-Lee credit for her work. Nicely done Alan. Hope to see you around the neighborhood.
Hi Jabiz,
What a fabulously written post on so many levels.
Firstly, you highlight the sense of community, and strong ties that develop amongst educators in the edublogosphere. I certainly feel that, and I am honored you consider me part of your PLN.
Secondly, you outline the unwritten code that we all believe in – share and share alike, but give credit where it is due.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of your post (at least, for me), is that you didn’t use this as an opportunity to slate someone, but rather an opportunity for others to learn from. You identify us as a forgiving neighbourhood, which we definitely are. I don’t want others to judge me solely on my mistakes – and I won’t judge others on theirs.
So I, like you, welcome Mr Cain into our community, where I look forward to his next blog post.
On a more personal note, I thank you for standing beside me and bringing a new perspective to this issue. I certainly felt a sense of solidarity reading your post.
Keri-Lee
Excellent post. I would completely agree (love the comment about echo-chambers and boot licking near the top) but have to question one thing. Without reading Alan’s response to this, and I think Keri said he did, would challenge that he did this for one of two reasons you stated: laziness or misunderstanding. I think you were being too kind.
When our kids plagiarize its often out of laziness or even misunderstanding (never taught about plagiarism). When an educated adult involved in a community of networking does this, I have to imagine its simply for glorification. Now, like I said, I didnt read his response, and I am not judging him personally on this, but if someone took a statement I made, a blog I posted, an article I wrote and simply copied it as his/her own, my first instinct would be that they just wanted credit for the idea which is much more about glory than about lethargy.
Great post, thanks for supporting bloggers everywhere with this!