Of all the 22 Things we have done thus far, this is the hardest to do. It is the hardest Thing to do, because I have to stop investigating Classroom 2.0 and Ning in order to write about them. And that is a very difficult thing to do–to stop finding the little flash videos that I can use or suggest to my teachers that they use. There is a great one that I can use for reminding teacher’s about copyright. Then, the third grade teachers wanted something on Reuse and Recycle. There is a flash on what kind of world some third grade students want. It will be right on target.
I was a little disappointed on the discussions of the Library groups I was able to investigate. But I did learn some things. I plan to join one and to continue to monitor them. For years I have followed LM_net and found many useful bits of information. To me this is a very much upscaled list serve with lots of add ons. I even visited MySpace and Facebook . It was interesting, but not someplace I would like to spend a lot of time. My time will be spent on the Nings.
Techlearning July 25, 2008 entitled Copyright Bay discusses the educational fair use guidelines of all kinds of materials. (The portions dealing with the mixed media on the web and with software were sparse, as these guidelines are still being formed). Main points are below:
Videos
must be shown in classroom (not in gym, cafeteria, or gallery)
must be to meet the educational objective
must be legally obtained
When copying videos (or DVDs) as part of new work
may copy 3 minutes or 10%, whichever is less (music also)
May not copy that which is the essence of the work
Text Copies
must be spontaneous with no time to write for permission
can be used only once; cannot be kept and used each year
workbook type or standardized test booklets can not be copied
can copy small portion of whole (chapter from book, article from magazine, etc.)
Text as part of new work
only 10% or 1000 words, whichever is less
only 5 works by the same author or photographer
250 words of poem
five poem limit from an anthology
with poem or story only
only three poems of same poet
Databases copyied as part of new work
only 10% or 2,5000 fields or cell entries
Note:
All works on the original works are copyrighted even if they do not have a copyright sign or date
Original works on the internet are copyrighted (even if they do not say that).
Even being out of print does not change the copyright status.
You can not change the form or medium of the work. (Ex. You cannot make a DVD of a VHS).
A cute, informative, and fun quiz follows the article.
http://www.techlearning.com/showArticle.php?articleID=196605300 University of St. Francis, Janet Agnew, Glen Gummes, Mike Hudson
This was pure fun and helful! Anything that helps me stay organized is welcomed. I have to do this for my work computer. I put things I need to see at the beginning of the day on top: weather, bible verse, quote of the day, the top 3 things I need to do that day, email, and a post’em for other notes. Nearby are my most used tools: del.icio.us bookmarks, search boxes, and reader. I’m going to enjoy this! Yes, this will help me professionally; organization always does!
I have an idea I would like to implement in the library computer lab, but I don’t know if it will work. I would like for pageflakes to display each of the electronic databases that the school subscribes to, the library catalog, the AR list of quiz titles, school site, classroom pages, etc. I’m concerned about the databases. I don’t know if their RSS is available to us. I checked the free part of one of the databases, BrainPop. I could not find the feed anywhere. I don’t know if that holds true for the subscription part or not. But I’m thinking I could work around that using links or short cuts in a cute gray box. I will certainly try.
I love the idea of sharing and collaborating on a document via Google Docs. Personally, though, I had problems with the computer locking up with the newsletter that I was working on. In fact, several times a gray box came up saying it was sorry for the error and that it was working on it. This did not happen when I worked on the spreadsheets. They went very smoothly.
I get real excited when I think about students collaborating on just about any project using this program. To think you can actually see who has done what. Students could write a group book report after completing a book in literature circles. Also, it would be great for big projects such as a group Science Fair Project.
I investigated the many templates for spreadsheets and presentations. I was very impressed with the several budget/debt spreadsheets that were actually calculators in and of themselves. I can find a real use for those.
Also I found a great Christmas presentation that is actually a card with some animation and with music. But the main body consist of seven slides. It is designed so that you can use seven of your family Christmas pictures in those slides, fill in the family name and send out your ecard! A classroom could use this to send a Christmas card to a handicapped person.
Another idea I definitely will put into practice is an extended family calendar. That way everyone can keep up with the family events that are going on. Since I have one son who is constantly out of the country or away at some school, this would be a great help in planning around the times he will be home (which changes often). This will be especially useful around holidays when everybody has so many obligations. As the guy says on the video, “Google Docs Rock!”
Following the directions for searching on You Tube, I checked the square that blocked inappropriate videos.The first “How To” video that came up was “How to Kiss Like You Mean It.”Since I had filtered out the inappropriate videos, I thought I might as well enjoy this “How To”.The video was quite informative, but was a “teaser” for the website of the “intuitive counselor” who counsels couples.A very enjoyable “How To” video!
Using the search box, tags and related videos, I found several videos on pollution, environment and recycling.Our third grade teachers have requested a video on those subjects.There was a cute animated one on recycling.There was also a video made by a third grade (my guess) British girl on protecting our environment.Any of these would be appropriate for the classroom.
Just for fun I checked out the Wakko Animaniacs videos.I loved the ones on all the countries, states and capitals, presidents, and the one on the universe. The countries song plus puzzles of the world would go a long way to teaching students the location and name of all the countries.In fact, I plan to try to learn them myself using the video. So I have included “Nations of the World” by Wakko Animaniacs.
Oh my, how I dreaded doing the podcast! I did everything else to prepare for it, but put the actual recording off for over a week. But I managed to get a few minutes by myself and record the podcast. (I would not do it with anyone else around.) Well, wonder of wonders! I really got into it and enjoyed it. I definitely could see me doing several of these on different grade levels (maybe this years’ award winners) and making them available to the students! I can also see how this would be a great way for students to do book reports and put them on the web for others. A great experience!
I have been very enthusiastic about podcast in education, but the results of searching for podcast helpful to elementary students’ learning was disappointing. I began one podcast; the language was inappropriate. The second and third ones were not for elementary even though they were the results of searches for elementary podcast. I found others that sounded as if they were suitable, but either I could not get them to play, or they required that you download. (Since I am temporarily on a borrowed computer, this was not an option.) Finally, I just listened to one on how to have the DIY ethic. That was not very informative, so I listened to one on making a budget. That one was more practical. Hopefully, I will find more podcast in the future that would be helpful to elementary students.
As a member of Library.thing, I have already cataloged several books. These books were not for my personal use, but for the library. I had difficulty finding the bibliographical information on some donated books, and tried Library.thing. But it had been a long time since I had used the site, so I did the different searches. I enjoyed the cloud and the author’s page. I did the Suggestor and the search returned other books by the same author. But when I did the Unsuggestor, the results were the same as with the Suggestor. I tried this with different books and authors, and the results were the same. I think it just wasn’t working at the time.
I think older students might enjoy forming and being a member of a group. This would be a good way to encourage summer reading, especially since students in the same grade would have the same reading list. They could encourage each other. Also, a teacher might have the students use the site to keep up with what books they have read. On the whole, I was very impressed. In fact, in a future, less busy, year I would love to be a member of the 50 book group.
How delicious to be able to access my bookmarks from anywhere, from any computer, and to share with and glean from others who share the same interest. How delicious to be able to search in so many ways!
Learning from Del.icio.us is painless and almost passive. Since all the sites are related to things and/or people you are interested in you can “get lost” in new information. Such is the case with me and the Bamboo Project and the 50 Tools for Digital Storytelling. Both sites are sites I had not found on my own. So it was delicious to find them.
One of the most interesting and helpful articles from my Google Reader was concerning the Northern Texas Regional Library System Workshop. Here Helen B. shares a condensed 3 hrs. of presentation into a slide show. The supject is Learning 2.0. Very similar to what we have been doing in our learning 23 Things, she shares site after side in the Web 2.0 that produce or support learning. I am looking forward to investigating each one.
