sharing videos

I shared the commoncraft videos with two teachers, one friend, and my mom. I found that both of the teachers thought that the videos were basic and informative but not all that interesting. Not to say that they did not like them, just that the teachers already knew how to do most of the tasks and the description was just bland and boring. However, one of the teachers responded by sharing a website with me: www.storyjumper.com. I checked out this website a little bit and found that you can create a story book from scratch. THe teacher that shared this with me said that she has used this with her students and that she got a great response form the children. She recommended that I use this with 2nd or 3rd graders.

My mom, liked the idea of the videos however, she seems to lack the interest and/or patience in learning a new computer skill, so she did not give the videos much time. I find that with my mom's generation, it seems that people find new technology too intimidating or just not worth the trouble.

Copyright Readings

What did you chose to read or watch?

I chose to read The Purpose of Copyright by Linda Pallas Loren, Copyright 101 For Educators: Winter 2003, and Copyright for Educators. I found that The Purpose of Copyright by Linda Loren was very informative about the technicalities of copyright and what copyright is and how it works. I found that Copyright 101 for Educators was interesting when learning what sources one needs to site and how to teach our students why sopyrighted material is important and what the appropriate use of this copyrighted information may be.

What is the Teach Act?

The teach act is something that allows teachers to teach online to class and share images, videos, and other media to the class without dealing with copyright. For example when in a blackboard shell class, I can watch these videos that Lee has assigned us to watch and has shared with us through the shell. However, if I were to paste this video on face book or some other online site and claim that the video or pod cast was my own, this would be a copyright violation.

What is something new that you learned?

Based on the information from The Purpose of Copyright by Linda Pallas Loren, I found out that copyright is not to protect music of artists and inventors but rather to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." I have always thought, as addressed in this article, that copyright was to make sure that artist, inventors, and discoverers were protected and given credit. As addressed in Copyright for Educators, the copyright law does NOT say that if you use 10 seconds or less of a video or any multimedia that you do not have to site the source. I thought that if you used such a small portion of a piece of music or movie that I would not have to site it.

What is Copyright?

Copyright, according to Copyright for Educators, is what legally protects the work of someone from others taking their idea. This is something that becomes extremely complicated when money is involved and the reuse of commonly used images and media. For instance the image of Obama with the red, blue, and white is a hot topic these days because the print that was made by the artist looks like it was made from a photograph taken by another artist. For this reason, the initial photographer needs to be credited and asked for permission to use this image.

What are you going to do differently based on this information?

I found that the different sources gave me an insight to the different resources out there. What I found especially interesting was from the video, Copyright for Educators where a person from the audience spoke about her elementary students sitting photographs. I know that I personally use google images for multiple power points and other presentations, but I have trouble remember to site the sources.

Lesson Idea: Recycling Promotion Poster

Name: Joanna Lende

Grade Level: 4^th grade

Subject: Social Studies

Learning Goals: At the completion of this assignment and lesson the students will have made a poster that promotes recycling in an appropriate yet creative manner. The students will have advanced their knowledge of recycling, the environment, and technology.

Digital Photography Used: Digital photography will be used to enhance the posters that the students make to promote recycling and keeping our environment clean. Digital photography will be used in order to make the posters more personal, creative, fun, and something that the children can really be proud of and want to show their friends and family.

piZap!

I found a really fun digital imaging website called piZap. This is a neat website that allows you to docker up your image by adding crazy eyes, fun hair, talking bubbles, borders, and much more. This website is free and you can upload your own images and save them back on to your computer when you are done!

Digital Citizen reflection

I found the digital citizen article to be informative and interesting. I guess I have just never thought about the norms or technology and how they change. While reading this article I was thinking about some technology use norms that I am aware of. For instance I am a firm believer in putting away your phone when you are talking to someone. I think that texting while having a conversation with someone face to face is rude and that we should all learn that the text can wait. I have noticed that more and more today I come across signs at the library or counters of stores that say, "we will be with you when you finish your conversation" accompanied by a no-cell phone sign. I love technology but I do not think that technology can replace face to face interaction and contact. I believe that the advances in technology make communication easier and more accessible however, we have to be careful to not let technology push personal communication away. In addition I was pleased to see these social norms with technology to be listed because I do not believe that everyone that uses technology knows these norms. However, when a person is texting while you are trying to speak to them face to face, how can we blame them if no one has taught them that rule or the proper phone etiquette?

Blog Visits!

Blog Visits:

http://education.change.org/

--This blog is pretty neat because it is designed for education petitions. In other words there are petitions and comments on those petitions posted on this website for various school related topics. Some of the top petitions that are up today include: save first place daycare for homeless toddlers, tell scholastic to stop pushing corporate PR in the classroom, and tell your senators to save the Pell grants. I found this blog easy to use and I even signed one petition that I felt especially attached to. This blog is very useful because not only can you sign petitions and learn about the politics of education but you can also post your own petition to get support from other blog followers.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/rural_education/

I found this blog especially appealing because it pertains to rural teaching and education. The blog contributors post news articles and information on rural education and how we can better the education of our students. Some hot topics include the availability of resources in rural classrooms and the different grants that are available for rural schools.

http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/college_bound/

I found this blog to be more like the reading a novel in comparison to an assigned reading. In particular I found that this blog talked about the interests of college students and the new college news. For example scholarships are posted on this page, college testing strategies, and ideas on ways to cope and excel in college. The blog also has information on new and different majors that are offered and great internship and abroad opportunities.

http://educationtechnologyblog.com/

This website is a really neat resource for teachers. I found some of the apps and software that the blog recommends to be extremely interesting and exciting. I like this blog so much that I have bookmarked it so that I can stay up on the technology in order to meat the national technology standards for the teachers. On app that the blog featured was the swipe tap tap app, which is a puzzle game that could be used in the classroom to work on the concentration of the children.