The Edublogger — Edublogs blog on all things WordPress is a good resource for discovering new ways to use and design your blog.  (I used my old PressIt button to post this). For example:

Tips For Doing A Blog Makeover | The Edublogger

http://rreo.edublogs.org/2007/07/15/test-post-from-flock/trackback/

ACase’s EDIT 574 Blog » Week 1 Reading Thoughts

I’ll address the first 2 parts of your question this time:

Where do you draw the line between appropriate information sharing and copyright infringement, say when using pieces of textbooks or otherwise access-restricted journal articles that you as an instructor have the ability to see and want to share with your student population?

You don’t draw the line at all; it is drawn for you by copyright law and faculty and students need to know how restrictive it is.  Fair Use laws permit educators specific degrees of temporary or portions use of materials for educational/noncommercial purposes. The material I have for this class on eReserves is <10% of the total pages of the book that I am able to provide under FairUse guidelines – these can be fuzzy to understand for some. Creative Commons.org is a recent licensing approach that provides authors with more flexible licenses for their work.  CC-licensed learning materials are proliferating and you can typically use them as much as you want with only attribution required.  Everything I do is CC-licensed.   Check out their website. Also, so a search on Open Content movement.  I have many good resources on this.
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As an extension–what is appropriate to ask students to publish online using tools such as wikis and blogs?

I’m a little less sure in this area as an adjunct fac, but I know it can get tricky.  I assume students are aware that their work is public and will exercise the appropriate carefulness in what they say but otherwise that your work/ideas are yours.  This course doesn’t tend to get into controversial topics that require more security.  This is a tougher sell in K-12 environment.  Search for Will Richardson who has been evangelizing social software tools for K-12.  His book is on my recommend list.  I have a couple of his podcasts that I will use or share during the course.

Rick Reo
rreo@gmu.edu

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