Technology Integration and Ethical/Legal Use of Information
Technology Integration and Ethical/Legal Use of Information tests your ability to integrate digital tools purposefully and to model compliance with copyright, privacy, accessibility, and acceptable-use rules. Questions often ask you to choose the safest lawful option, not the most convenient one.
Legal and ethical rules
- Copyright: assume a work is protected unless it is in the public domain, openly licensed, or your use fits fair use or a specific exemption.
- Fair use has four factors: purpose and character, nature of the work, amount used, and effect on the market; educational use is not automatically fair.
- The TEACH Act covers distance-learning performances and displays, but only for accredited nonprofit institutions, enrolled students, and limited portions; it does not replace fair use.
- FERPA protects education records; CIPA governs E-rate filtering and safety policy; COPPA requires verifiable parental consent for collecting data from children under 13.
- Use accessible materials and assistive technology, and teach digital citizenship: privacy, permanence, bias, and respectful participation.
Worked example
A teacher wants to record a read-aloud of a picture book and post it on a public YouTube channel. The librarian analyzes: the recording reproduces the text and images and performs the work; posting publicly harms the market for the book; the use is not transformative; and the entire work is used. A closed learning-management system for enrolled students, with a limited time window and no downloadable copy, is more defensible but still not automatic. The safer path is permission from the publisher or use of a public-domain or Creative Commons title, with attribution. The reasoning: apply all four fair-use factors, prefer licensed or permitted uses, and document the decision.
Traps that cost marks
- Assuming "educational" means free or that attribution alone cures infringement.
- Posting student work or photos without FERPA-compliant consent.
- Confusing CIPA, COPPA, and FERPA.
- Ignoring accessibility, licensing terms, or data-privacy policies.
- Using a whole work when a link, excerpt, or licensed copy would do.