“Legal responsibilities and web 2.0

A recent tweet on Twitter regarding a parent’s concern about introducing primary aged children to blogging got me thinking about an educator’s ‘legal’ responsibilities when using web 2.0 with students.

Do we consider:

copyright & creative commons?
defamation and libel?
cheating and plagiarism?
loco parentis (under 18s)?
breaking protection orders?
occupational health & safety?
the long term effects of developing a ‘digital foot print’?

when we are using web 2.0 tools with our students? Or, as in every other aspect of our teaching, are these very much at the forefront of our consciousness?

The Read Write web has captured our imaginations – and we often want to embrace very new web 2.0 and social networking tool into our ‘teaching and learning toolkit’, but do we take the time and effort to ensure that we have considered the legal responsibilities which these new tools carries with them?

Are there any other areas of legal responsibilities which educators should be aware of when they introduce their students to the world wide web?

Whose responsibility is it to be ‘in the know’ in this emerging area – the individual teacher or the Educational Institute?

Does your Educational Institute have a ‘Web 2.0 Code of Conduct’ – not just a ‘thou shalt not look at inappropriate sites’ Code of Conduct? But one which specifically deals with the realm of ‘user-created content’.

What should a ‘Web 2.0 Code of Conduct’ include?

In the midst of our excitement in ‘educating’ ours and other educators in the read write arena, how much of this education includes what our ‘legal responsibilities’ are in cyberspace?