Copyrights

My score for the quiz was:

30% (6/20)

 

Fair Use applies to copyrighted works that are being used for educational purposes under fairly specific and somewhat confusing conditions.  It applies to education because many teachers hope to use various media sources to enrich course work or give students ways to create worthwhile projects.  Based on the quiz, there seem to be a lot of different rules regarding Fair Use in schools.  As technology is becoming ever more important in education, Fair Use will be coming up more and more.  Fair Use will be VERY important for the coming generation of educators to understand.  This will take some time since there seems to be a lot of gray areas involved with copyright laws

Technology Matrix

For this blog post I choose the 1-1 activity for Collaborative/Adaptation.

What needs to be done by the students for the activity:

• Students use individual laptops with internet access to research poets and their poems.
• Students are encouraged to correspond with the authors to get a better understanding of the poem.
• Once the research is complete, students are to compile all of their information into an iMovie illustrating the meaning of the poem.
• Finally, students present their products to the class. 

The standards for the teacher for this activity would be:


1. Facilitate and Inspire Student Learning and Creativity

a.	promote, support, and model creative and innovative thinking and inventiveness.
b.	engage students in exploring real-world issues and solving authentic problems using digital tools and resources.
c.	promote student reflection using collaborative tools to reveal and clarify students' conceptual understanding and thinking, planning, and creative processes.
d.	model collaborative knowledge construction by engaging in learning with students, colleagues, and others in face-to-face and virtual environments.

I would be meeting all four points because the students would be working creatively to maneuver through a digital tool in order to complete the assignment.  If students are unfamiliar with iMovie either I or another student could guide the class along.

2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments

a.	design or adapt relevant learning experiences that incorporate digital tools and resources to promote student learning and creativity.
b.	develop technology-enriched learning environments that enable all students to pursue their individual curiosities and become active participants in setting their own educational goals, managing their own learning, and assessing their own progress.
c.	customize and personalize learning activities to address students' diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources.
d.	provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching.

Students would be able to explore which ever poet interests them and they can create the short movie in any manner as long as it explains the point.

3. Model Digital-Age Work and Learning

a.	demonstrate fluency in technology systems and the transfer of current knowledge to new technologies and situations.
b.	collaborate with students, peers, parents, and community members using digital tools and resources to support student success and innovation.
c.	communicate relevant information and ideas effectively to students, parents, and peers using a variety of digital-age media and formats.
d.	model and facilitate effective use of current and emerging digital tools to locate, analyze, evaluate, and use information resources to support research and learning.

As a teacher I would be responsible for all four of these as well.  Keeping up to date with technology and having hands on experience with it would allow any teacher to easily meet these four standards.

4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility

a.	advocate, model, and teach safe, legal, and ethical use of digital information and technology, including respect for copyright, intellectual property, and the appropriate documentation of sources.
b.	address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources.
c.	promote and model digital etiquette and responsible social interactions related to the use of technology and information.
d.	develop and model cultural understanding and global awareness by engaging with colleagues and students of other cultures using digital-age communication and collaboration tools.

Students may need to interact with other people on a blog or forum, so explaining proper internet etiquette will be important.  Communication would need to be done without slang or acronyms.  

5. Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership

a.	participate in local and global learning communities to explore creative applications of technology to improve student learning.
b.	exhibit leadership by demonstrating a vision of technology infusion, participating in shared decision making and community building, and developing the leadership and technology skills of others.
c.	evaluate and reflect on current research and professional practice on a regular basis to make effective use of existing and emerging digital tools and resources in support of student learning.
d.	contribute to the effectiveness, vitality, and self-renewal of the teaching profession and of their school and community.

Continued inquiry and involvement with technology inside and outside the classroom will allow a teacher to be able to fully communicate technology to their students and colleagues alike.


 As far as my level of technology is concerned, I would have to say I am at the adaptation stage.  The software we used for podcasting and recording is not new to me, but creating slidecasts and a blog is still rather new to me.  This class so far has helped me learn a few new ways to communicate online as well as reinforce what I was already experienced in.
 

Podcast

The point of this podcast is to have students listen to a selection of reading and identify the main points of selection.  This is to help students focus on important main ideas instead of superfluous details.

       

   
   
Podcast Powered By Podbean
   

   

Do Schools Kill Creativity?

First, I must say that I'm glad we watched a TED talk, everyone should take a look through the catalog of videos and I'm sure you will find something that will interest you.

In some ways schools are killing creativity.  As budgets are constrained the school systems are made to make difficult decisions and a lot of these decisions affect the arts departments of schools.  I agree with the video, something needs to be done to our education system in order to secure the future for our children.

Ken Robinson says that we intellectually as well as physically diverse.  We make distinctions between each other based on physical appearance, nationality, age, and gender.  If we live in a heterogeneous physical world, why must we subject ourselves to a homogeneous intellectual world?

Fad or Key?

The issue with 21st Century skills seems apparent; will we forgo traditional teaching methods to adopt these new methods that promote critical thinking and problem solving?

I'm on the fence about this, I can understand both points of the argument.  Proponents of 21st Century Skills are saying that the traditional education system is ill-preparing our students for the real world.  The opponents of 21st Century Skills say that without content knowledge students will not be adequately prepared for being able to successfully solve problems.

Both sides take the extreme point of view:  proponents think this must be implemented immediately to ensure that students will be prepared for an increasingly globalized world and opponents feel it is just a fad. 

I feel that 21st Century Skills are neither.  Content is just as important as critical thinking skills and a balance will be found between the two as we continue to question the state of our education system.