President's Current Message

Change is part of life – or so my Mom always said and April leads us some changes.

1. Sources say that the government will table a new copyright bill before the summer recess. That will give us the summer, when we are supposed to be on vacation and relaxing, to study it and prepare a response. In the past, CNIE-RCIE has made presentations to parliamentary committees and government sponsored town hall meetings about our members’ interests, needs and wishes regarding Canadian Copyright laws. Your CNIE-RCIE Board of Directors will continue to do this in the coming year as the proposed copyright law makes its way through government procedures.
2. The Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case about defamatory statements, websites, hyperlinks and publishing. The court will decide if a hyperlink from one website to another website which contains material that one person considers libelous or defamatory, constitutes defamation or libel. Is the hyperlink akin to a footnote or a publication? The resolution of this case will have implications for all of us who create, manage, supervise and or host websites.
3. Dr. Mark Bullen and his team delivered a very interesting research based Wise and Witty Wednesday session about today’s students – is there such as thing as a digital native versus a digital immigrant? If you missed it, the session is archived and available through the CNIE-RCIE website. While the research says some very interesting things, many teachers and post-secondary professors are seeing changing attitudes in their students. Here’s an example - This year I had one university student who insisted he had the right to use his personal computer on the university network during class to gamble (with real and not pretend) money in an online poker party. His outbursts when he won or lost were disruptive but he claimed he was multitasking effectively. The class was divided on whether they supported his right to engage in this behaviour or whether he was disruptive.
4. The CNIE-RCIE Annual General Meeting at the May 16-19,2010 conference in Saint John, New Brunswick will see the installation of a new CNIE-RCIE Board of Directors and the introduction of new editors for CJLT.

People will be discussing these and other topics at the May 16-19, 2010 CNIE-RCIE conference in Saint John, New Brunswick. Crackerbarrel sessions and Harbourside Hangouts will be perfect settings to exchange ideas, information and innovations about Canadian Copyright laws, Fair Dealing versus Fair Use, Supreme Court of Canada decisions, and research that infuses our practices and policies. Please join CNIE-RCIE new and returning members, invited speakers, graduate students, exhibitors and sponsors at the CNIE-RCIE conference, May 16-19, 2010 in Saint John, New Brunswick www.innovationineducation.ca. See you there!

Maureen Baron 2009-2010