A Love for Learning

We’ve been exploring the use of media in the classroom this week, so I ventured onto the two sites, Teacher Tube and Slide Share.  I found some good stuff!

I decided to stick to one topic, and since we’re learning about sharing and collaborating on work, my focus was on Fair Use and Copyright.  I especially wanted to find some good information about the Creative Commons License since both my students and my colleagues are just learning about this.  I myself only heard about it within the past year through a class at Fontbonne and a technology conference or two.  I’m much more tuned into it now, and I see the cc symbol a lot more often now.

The first video from Teacher Tube is called A Fair(y) Use Talk, which is just an introduction to what is meant by copyright and fair use using a zillion clips from Disney Films.    It was created by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University and it part of the Stanford Center for Internet and Society.  (Because it is a fairly large file, please use the link above to view the video.)
 

Here’s an instructional video on Teacher Tube from the Creative Commons people themselves, explaining how this new licensing works: 

 (The link is included in case my embedding skills aren’t finely tuned yet!)

Finally, Slide Share had several presentations about the Creative Commons License.  This one is from ericcc and was a Creative Commons Presentation for the July 11, 2007 Yahoo! Creative Talk.

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Happy viewing (and learning)!
 

Once again, I bow to Google, the superpower of the Internet.  I just signed up for a Google account, and I’ve been exploring two online applications they offer that might be useful in the classroom.

The first was Google Notebook, an online tool that allows students to take notes during class as well as document web pages that are pertinent to the topic.  Accounts are free, and a notebook icon can be added to your browser’s toolbar to make accessibilty very easy.  I set up an account to try out some of the features and found that it has a lot to offer.  My students all have laptops which they generally use in every class.  This system would be ideal for them.  (And it would also be very ”green” by saving notebooks!  I love that!)  Websites that teachers routinely use in the midst of their class could seamlessly be added to the student’s notebook.  When on the site, you can simply click the notebook icon, and you have the opportunity to save the link in your notes or even add a specific clip from the page. 

Google Notebook had many promising features.  You can create a new notebook for each class, and those notes are accessible from any computer.  Students can tag their entries and add formatting that can help highlight key points.  There’s a search bar to find all the notes which contain that keyboard.  Another simple but helpful feature is that every entry is automatically dated.  This can really help students to sort and organize their notes.  They also have option to share their notes with others and collaborate to make a more complete record for themselves.  Finally, you can send a file to Google Docs which gives you the option to print it.

I have just two concerns about this application.  Actually, I’m anticipating others at my school having some concerns about it, too.  Mainly the issue is privacy and ensuring that our students are safe.  There is an option to make the notebook public.  There’s a chance students would unwittingly give out too much information in this notebook, and there’s really no way for a teacher to control that feature.  All we’d be able to do is to advise them, and we all know that they don’t always follow our advice!  Also, I would imagine that teachers would be wary about having their students typing the entire time they are in class since they could certainly be doing many other things other than taking notes.  I don’t know if we can avoid that completely, and probably the best way to combat that is to find ways to engage them more in the class.  Our school is going to be using SynchronEyes next year (one of the SMART products), which gives teachers the ability to set the parameters of a students use of the Internet or even the programs they use, so I think this may alleviate that problem a bit.  Overall, I think it’s a worthwhile application for our students to use.

An equally promising application was Google Sites (once known as JotSpots I believe).  Another free application (with possibilty to upgrade), it also can be accessed from any computer.  It’s very simple to use, and the interface is similar to any commonly used word processor.   No HTML knowledge is needed to get all the features of a conventional web site.   I can see this being utilized well in a class to work on a long-term project or to establish a place where students can add links, collaborate or share tips and ideas.  They may also provide students a way to display portfolios of their work.  I’m the moderator of Student Council, and I would love to create a page for our club to help facilitate communication and promote our activities within the school.  Again, safety is a concern, and we don’t want to put too much information out there for all the world to see.  This application, however, had a lot more security features which I liked.  The creator of the web site can control who edits and even views the site.  You can also be informed via email anytime a page is changed.  I’m not sure how practical it would be to allow all 600 students + teachers to view the site, but it’s worth investigating.  Google Sites shows a lot of potential for the classroom.

Technology and education must be intertwined at all times.  The use of technology should be smoothly integrated (never forced)  into the daily life of the teacher, students and school community members.  I don’t believe we should use technology just for the sake of using it.  Rather, it should always be used as one of many tools that has the power to enhance a topic, engage a student, present an idea, promote critical thinking skills or serve as a method to practice a skill. 

As educators, we want our students to be prepared for the world in which they are living.  Technology will unquestionably and irrevocably be a part of this world throughout their lives.  The more opportunities we give our students to interact with different forms of technology, the more prepared they will be to use them effectively and, more importantly, to use them ethically.  I want my students to leave our school being literate on every level, strong and confident in both their values and in their sense of self, and able to navigate their way in the global society of which they will find themselves.