My husband and I visited my son in Senegal during the third week in March. He is there on a semester abroad program. What an experience for him and for us.
I am a little late in finishing this course. The trip slowed me down a little. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.....
I am posting this picture from Flickr. One of the many things I learned in this class. What fun!
Friday, April 4, 2008
Thing#23 (Week 9)
Copyright Comments and Summary of Course:
The issue of copyright has become a big issue in my school district. As teachers become more savvy with technology, they are finding it easier and easier to put materials on the Web for students to access. We have found teacher Web sites containing entire chapters from books. The teachers scanned the pages and uploaded them to the Web. We have called the issue to their attention and offered to put the materials on reserve in the library. So far we have made little progress.
I hate the perception that library teachers are the "copyright police," when what we are doing is notifying staff of the law. One of my colleagues has written a grant proposal to our districts Educational Foundation for a copyright Web page. If we receive the funds, we will develop a Website with FAQs and dos/don'ts for teachers, staff and students.
I was interested in the Creative Commons material. I have found Wikipedia can be a good source for "open source" images. If you click on an image in Wikipedia, the image will open in a new window with information about the image. Many of them are available for sharing under Wikimedia Commons. I showed this to students in a World History class who were researching major pieces of art from the Renaissance.
The is a slippery slope however. It is hard to tell students to use Wikipedia for the images but to be wary of the content.
Final questions:
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
There were many things I enjoyed. It is hard to choose my favorites. After reviewing the 23 Things, the applications that came to mind are:
- Creating an avatar. I have always wondered how this was done. I noticed a student creating a avatar on a school library computer a few days ago and knew exactly what she was doing. Made me feel, in a small way, that I was keeping up with the kids.
- Flickr. This photo sharing app is easy to learn. I taught my son who is in Africa for a semester how to post his pictures to Flickr. Nice way for the family to share.
- Zoho. This is a powerful wordprocessing/spreadsheet/presentation application. I would use it more at work for sharing files and information. Problem is our connection is often too slow. We encourage students to save work on Google docs as well as flash drives. Great way for them to backup their work.
- LibraryThing. I am still thinking about the best way to use this amazing tool.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It is a challenge to keep up with technology. I take a least one course a year to keep my skill up-to-date as much as possible. This course was a convenient way to keep that momentum going.
Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised by how many of the applications I already knew. I knew wikis, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, RSS feeds (to a limited extent), Google docs, and Library Thing, among others. I was also suprised by how much is out there. Web 2.0 is growing by leaps and bounds. The area we didn't cover was social networking ala FaceBook or My Space.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
It felt "lonely out there." Keeping a blog that few people viewed felt odd. All the other online courses I have taken, create a sense of community among the participants. I recommend creating pairs or teams in the future. Each member of the team would be required to read and comment on the blogs of the others in the group. Just suggesting that participants post to other blogs doesn't do it...
I also recommend that the affiliation with CSLA be carefully worked out in advance. Too many of us wasted time clarifying whether we would receive graduate credit for this course. That is not something for which students s/b responsible.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Yes.
How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?
At times I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by the amount of time and energy this course took - in the end I was proud that I was able to make my way through each of the lessons.
Now I have to attend to completing the requirements for getting graduate credit.....
The issue of copyright has become a big issue in my school district. As teachers become more savvy with technology, they are finding it easier and easier to put materials on the Web for students to access. We have found teacher Web sites containing entire chapters from books. The teachers scanned the pages and uploaded them to the Web. We have called the issue to their attention and offered to put the materials on reserve in the library. So far we have made little progress.
I hate the perception that library teachers are the "copyright police," when what we are doing is notifying staff of the law. One of my colleagues has written a grant proposal to our districts Educational Foundation for a copyright Web page. If we receive the funds, we will develop a Website with FAQs and dos/don'ts for teachers, staff and students.
I was interested in the Creative Commons material. I have found Wikipedia can be a good source for "open source" images. If you click on an image in Wikipedia, the image will open in a new window with information about the image. Many of them are available for sharing under Wikimedia Commons. I showed this to students in a World History class who were researching major pieces of art from the Renaissance.
The is a slippery slope however. It is hard to tell students to use Wikipedia for the images but to be wary of the content.
Final questions:
What were your favorite discoveries or exercises on this learning journey?
There were many things I enjoyed. It is hard to choose my favorites. After reviewing the 23 Things, the applications that came to mind are:
- Creating an avatar. I have always wondered how this was done. I noticed a student creating a avatar on a school library computer a few days ago and knew exactly what she was doing. Made me feel, in a small way, that I was keeping up with the kids.
- Flickr. This photo sharing app is easy to learn. I taught my son who is in Africa for a semester how to post his pictures to Flickr. Nice way for the family to share.
- Zoho. This is a powerful wordprocessing/spreadsheet/presentation application. I would use it more at work for sharing files and information. Problem is our connection is often too slow. We encourage students to save work on Google docs as well as flash drives. Great way for them to backup their work.
- LibraryThing. I am still thinking about the best way to use this amazing tool.
How has this program assisted or affected your lifelong learning goals?
It is a challenge to keep up with technology. I take a least one course a year to keep my skill up-to-date as much as possible. This course was a convenient way to keep that momentum going.
Were there any take-a-ways or unexpected outcomes from this program that surprised you?
I was surprised by how many of the applications I already knew. I knew wikis, blogs, podcasts, YouTube, RSS feeds (to a limited extent), Google docs, and Library Thing, among others. I was also suprised by how much is out there. Web 2.0 is growing by leaps and bounds. The area we didn't cover was social networking ala FaceBook or My Space.
What could we do differently to improve upon this program’s format or concept?
It felt "lonely out there." Keeping a blog that few people viewed felt odd. All the other online courses I have taken, create a sense of community among the participants. I recommend creating pairs or teams in the future. Each member of the team would be required to read and comment on the blogs of the others in the group. Just suggesting that participants post to other blogs doesn't do it...
I also recommend that the affiliation with CSLA be carefully worked out in advance. Too many of us wasted time clarifying whether we would receive graduate credit for this course. That is not something for which students s/b responsible.
If we offered another discovery program like this in the future, would you choose to participate?
Yes.
How would you describe your learning experience in ONE WORD or in ONE SENTENCE, so we could use your words to promote CSLA learning activities?
At times I felt overwhelmed and frustrated by the amount of time and energy this course took - in the end I was proud that I was able to make my way through each of the lessons.
Now I have to attend to completing the requirements for getting graduate credit.....
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