Week 4: Thing 9, Part I
Kathy Schrock's blog is chock full of information that is both useful and interesting - an unbeatable combo. One of her blogs that I enjoyed was an observation that she had about how technology can draw users into an event - even in absentia. Kathy told about her experience with middle schoolers as they watched, virtually, President Obama's back-to-school speech on September 14. She observed that her middle school students (watching virtually in Massachusetts) were as much a part of Obama's audience as the students who were actually seated in the auditorium of the Philadelphia location where Obama's speech was given. (Wow, was that a run-on sentence or what??) She said that when the actual student observers stood to clap, so did her virtual student observers. She noted that someone in the White House did a great job of angling the camera and giving thought to how the President's speech would appear to a virtual connection. It is an interesting dichotomy to me how technology can bring together a group of people, but also separate them by virtue of allowing us to communicate while apart.
As I perused Edutopia, I came across a blog about cool tools to use at the beginning of school.
One tool that was mentioned was Answer Garden, so I checked it out. It IS cool. What it does is allow you to embed a short question on your blog or web site that can be answered by limitless readers. It is a fun way to survey. I will post a question on my blog, and if you'd like to play with me, you can answer it.
Names for our school eagle:... at AnswerGarden.ch.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
RSS Feeds
Week 4, Thing 8:
Today, I subscribed to an RSS feed called FeedBlitz through Google Reader. I also subscribed to Alecia's blog, as well as to Kathy Schrock and ASCD Inservice. I originally was going to use Bloglines as my aggregator, but noticed that this site was closing as of November 1. I think I now "get" what the benefit of having a feed is. Now I can go to Google Reader and see, on one page, what everyone is saying. No more traipsing around to different sites. I have a feeling I'm going to like this!
Today, I subscribed to an RSS feed called FeedBlitz through Google Reader. I also subscribed to Alecia's blog, as well as to Kathy Schrock and ASCD Inservice. I originally was going to use Bloglines as my aggregator, but noticed that this site was closing as of November 1. I think I now "get" what the benefit of having a feed is. Now I can go to Google Reader and see, on one page, what everyone is saying. No more traipsing around to different sites. I have a feeling I'm going to like this!
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Copyright Concerns
Week 3: Thing 6
Creative Commons Images
I found some beautiful images of bees to show my students. I could see their proboscises as well as their fine body hairs. Too bad they were copyrighted!
Week 3: Thing 7
Copyright Issues in Education
When an educator is searching for material to use in the classroom, the choice often rests between having the needed material by copying it, or not having what is needed in order to observe copyright laws. Admittedly, I've copied copyrighted material to use in my classroom. It saves the school money. It saves me precious time. It is right? No. Is it sometimes necessary? Yes. Teachers are constantly on the prowl for materials. When they find what they need, most do not take the time to investigate whether or not it's copyrighted. On the internet, many assume that if it's "out there" then it's free game. Why would you put your work on the web if you don't want anyone to use it? Surely the creators are aware that it is very easy to copy, change, and redistribute their material. Several years ago, when I was making my web site, I was required by my instructor to give credit to all images and sites referenced on any page of my site. One site that I wanted to link with was created by a woman in California. I called her school, found out that she no longer worked there, and ended up talking to the web site developer. He told me not to worry about it and to go ahead and use it. His feeling was that material on the web was free game. The following web site clearly explains an educator's role in fairly using the material of others:
http://www6.district125.k12.il.us/staffdev/Copyright.html
The four factors used to determine whether or not the use of coyrighted material is a "fair use" case follow:
What are the Four Factors?
So, what's the moral of this story?
Week 3: Thing 7
Comment on three colleagues' blogs Check
Creative Commons Images
I found some beautiful images of bees to show my students. I could see their proboscises as well as their fine body hairs. Too bad they were copyrighted!
Week 3: Thing 7
Copyright Issues in Education
When an educator is searching for material to use in the classroom, the choice often rests between having the needed material by copying it, or not having what is needed in order to observe copyright laws. Admittedly, I've copied copyrighted material to use in my classroom. It saves the school money. It saves me precious time. It is right? No. Is it sometimes necessary? Yes. Teachers are constantly on the prowl for materials. When they find what they need, most do not take the time to investigate whether or not it's copyrighted. On the internet, many assume that if it's "out there" then it's free game. Why would you put your work on the web if you don't want anyone to use it? Surely the creators are aware that it is very easy to copy, change, and redistribute their material. Several years ago, when I was making my web site, I was required by my instructor to give credit to all images and sites referenced on any page of my site. One site that I wanted to link with was created by a woman in California. I called her school, found out that she no longer worked there, and ended up talking to the web site developer. He told me not to worry about it and to go ahead and use it. His feeling was that material on the web was free game. The following web site clearly explains an educator's role in fairly using the material of others:
http://www6.district125.k12.il.us/staffdev/Copyright.html
The four factors used to determine whether or not the use of coyrighted material is a "fair use" case follow:
What are the Four Factors?
- the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
- the nature of the copyrighted work;
- the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
- the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work. The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.
So, what's the moral of this story?
Week 3: Thing 7
Comment on three colleagues' blogs Check
Cool New Tool
While reading about blogging today, I came upon one of the greatest educational tools that I've ever seen. It's called "Glogster" and it allows you to create a poster on any topic imaginable. I played around with it and created an "All About Me" poster that I can show to my students. This will be the perfect tech tool to use with my students for our second-grade V.I.P. activity. I plan to share this site with them on Tuesday, and hopefully many of them will be able to create a personalized poster. I created a Glogster site for each of them, and now, by using my sign-in information, they each will be able to create their own posters. I anticipate that it won't be smooth going at first, but since it's a drop and drag application, they shouldn't have too much trouble navigating the site after a little practice. I anticipate using this site for creating field trip notices for parents and for many other needs. You can embed the finished product or e-mail it others.
glogster.com
More on Flickr
Today I spent quite a bit of time uploading photos of the kids to my Flickr account. Last year, I had used Shutterfly. What precipitated the change in photo sites was that my classroom web site company, Yola, supported the use of Flickr photos.
Here's my URL to Yola: http://sharonobrienrippen.synthasite.com/
Changing to Flickr would allow me to get one step closer to eliminating my Wetpaint Wiki that I am currently using to display my Google docs calendar and to embed videos.
Here's the URL to my Wetpaint Wiki: http://sharonobrienrippen.wetpaint.com/
Alecia, however, recently gave me a helpful site that will allow me to embed videos that I make during the school year. Yeah, Alecia! (While photographs are SO much fun to share, there's something about videos that make parents think you're a technological genius. :))
Here's the URL to the site that Alecia shared with me: http://www.vimeo.com/
The process of setting up an account was pretty painless. The part that took a lot of time was inviting all of my parents. Now, I only have eleven parents - although most have several e-mails. I know that there HAS to be an easier method of adding group e-mails to Flickr than the way that I managed to do it - but I don't know what it is yet. Something to investigate. I used the school PCR directory, highlighted all of my parents' e-mail addresses, and put them into an advanced search box. I had to do a lot of highlighting and deleting in order to get rid of extraneous information that was pasted onto Flickr, but I think that all parents were included and should now receive an invitation to join. I created a Second-Grade Group that I am the administrator of, and I made it private so that only my invited "friends" are allowed to share and post photos. (I guess my parents are my friends - until they prove to be otherwise! :) ) After I talk to Paula, my teaching partner, I will invite the other second-grade parents to join too, since I often take pictures of their children when second-graders are together as a group.
Flickr's organization and vocabulary is quite different from that of Shutterfly, so I had to play around with all of its functions to see what was meant by a "set" and a "group." Shutterfly let me create "albums" whereas Flickr lets me create "sets." It's all the same function but different vernacular - so I sat with my mouth open, with a confused screen stare for a while. This happens a lot. But you know what? The more you keep going, the less confused you become. My son is a lot less apt to make fun of me now. He is starting to respect my tech knowledge - although I'm definitely not up to snuff yet. That's my ultimate goal: to be as capable as a young person. I don't want them to have anything over on me!
Here's my URL to Yola: http://sharonobrienrippen.synthasite.com/
Changing to Flickr would allow me to get one step closer to eliminating my Wetpaint Wiki that I am currently using to display my Google docs calendar and to embed videos.
Here's the URL to my Wetpaint Wiki: http://sharonobrienrippen.wetpaint.com/
Alecia, however, recently gave me a helpful site that will allow me to embed videos that I make during the school year. Yeah, Alecia! (While photographs are SO much fun to share, there's something about videos that make parents think you're a technological genius. :))
Here's the URL to the site that Alecia shared with me: http://www.vimeo.com/
The process of setting up an account was pretty painless. The part that took a lot of time was inviting all of my parents. Now, I only have eleven parents - although most have several e-mails. I know that there HAS to be an easier method of adding group e-mails to Flickr than the way that I managed to do it - but I don't know what it is yet. Something to investigate. I used the school PCR directory, highlighted all of my parents' e-mail addresses, and put them into an advanced search box. I had to do a lot of highlighting and deleting in order to get rid of extraneous information that was pasted onto Flickr, but I think that all parents were included and should now receive an invitation to join. I created a Second-Grade Group that I am the administrator of, and I made it private so that only my invited "friends" are allowed to share and post photos. (I guess my parents are my friends - until they prove to be otherwise! :) ) After I talk to Paula, my teaching partner, I will invite the other second-grade parents to join too, since I often take pictures of their children when second-graders are together as a group.
Flickr's organization and vocabulary is quite different from that of Shutterfly, so I had to play around with all of its functions to see what was meant by a "set" and a "group." Shutterfly let me create "albums" whereas Flickr lets me create "sets." It's all the same function but different vernacular - so I sat with my mouth open, with a confused screen stare for a while. This happens a lot. But you know what? The more you keep going, the less confused you become. My son is a lot less apt to make fun of me now. He is starting to respect my tech knowledge - although I'm definitely not up to snuff yet. That's my ultimate goal: to be as capable as a young person. I don't want them to have anything over on me!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Flying Through the Flickr Photos
Week 3: Thing 5
Learning About Flickr
Learning About Flickr
Flickr is much like Shutterfly and several other picture sites. It is a wonderful timesaver, provides a central storage facility, and prevents a photographer from having to send pictures through e-mail that are too big to view. The parents love having a place to view classroom photos, and once the photos are downloaded to the site and put into photo albums, they can easily access them. The bee picture is a photo that I found on Flickr, downloaded to my picture file, and uploaded to this blog.
We learn about bees in second grade as part of science, and I thought this was a nice close-up of one.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Twenty Three Things: Weeks One and Two
Week #1: Thing 1
Read "This Thing and Find Out" . . . but . . . I'm not a librarian. Do I still have to do this? :)
Read the pointers about being a lifelong learner. I think I already have that disease.
Week #2: Thing 3
Setting Up a Blog and Making an Entry See Below
Week #2: Thing 4
Posting the Blog URL on STJES Staff Development Wiki Check
Just remembered that I had the 23 things to get started on - oh yes, that little task. This is my second blog site, but I've only written one blog entry - and that was because I HAD to do it for a tech class grade. I'm not sure that blogging is in me. It's sort of like my Facebook account. I have one, and I occasionally peruse what others are up to, but I hardly ever feel compelled to write about what's going on in my life. I guess I'm not much of an emoter (I think I just made up a new form of "emote"). Writing about what you are thinking and doing takes away time from actually doing it. I'm already short on time and would rather live the experience than tell others about it. Anyway, I've done what was asked of me. I even decorated my blog site in lovely hues of blue. The most irritating part of the whole process was that I couldn't get my avatar to be larger than a postage stamp. I even tried editing the file in Adobe Photoshop, but no luck. How will anyone truly appreciate the fine detail in clothing and accessories if THEY CAN'T SEE IT?? I will come back to this at a later time and try again. The purple mohawk do was tempting, and since no one can really see the actual hairstyle that I chose, I may as well have chosen something wild and crazy.
I do think that this experience will help the technologically inexperienced to move along in the literacy process. It will be a bit like a full body dunk baptismal rather than just a sprinkle, but it will either get people up to speed or cause an insurrection. Time will tell . . .
Read "This Thing and Find Out" . . . but . . . I'm not a librarian. Do I still have to do this? :)
Read the pointers about being a lifelong learner. I think I already have that disease.
Week #2: Thing 3
Setting Up a Blog and Making an Entry See Below
Week #2: Thing 4
Posting the Blog URL on STJES Staff Development Wiki Check
Just remembered that I had the 23 things to get started on - oh yes, that little task. This is my second blog site, but I've only written one blog entry - and that was because I HAD to do it for a tech class grade. I'm not sure that blogging is in me. It's sort of like my Facebook account. I have one, and I occasionally peruse what others are up to, but I hardly ever feel compelled to write about what's going on in my life. I guess I'm not much of an emoter (I think I just made up a new form of "emote"). Writing about what you are thinking and doing takes away time from actually doing it. I'm already short on time and would rather live the experience than tell others about it. Anyway, I've done what was asked of me. I even decorated my blog site in lovely hues of blue. The most irritating part of the whole process was that I couldn't get my avatar to be larger than a postage stamp. I even tried editing the file in Adobe Photoshop, but no luck. How will anyone truly appreciate the fine detail in clothing and accessories if THEY CAN'T SEE IT?? I will come back to this at a later time and try again. The purple mohawk do was tempting, and since no one can really see the actual hairstyle that I chose, I may as well have chosen something wild and crazy.
I do think that this experience will help the technologically inexperienced to move along in the literacy process. It will be a bit like a full body dunk baptismal rather than just a sprinkle, but it will either get people up to speed or cause an insurrection. Time will tell . . .
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