Week 1 Thing 3

My knowledge of copyright pretty much consisted of citing work that wasn’t mine in a research paper and attaching a bibliography. Who knew it was so complicated and who knew there were so many people reusing someone else’s work and not giving credit where credit is due. With all the variety in sources today I can see how copyrighting can be a little fuzzy. For example, I was under the impression that images I found on Google were up for grabs, unless they had “copyright” written across the picture so that you couldn’t use it anyway. I decided to test this theory. When I got onto Google I conducted an image search for recycling. Right away 24,000,000 images popped up. When I realized I could change the usage rights, I was amazed at what I found. When my search was refined to “images labeled for reuse” I was given only 393 out of the original 24,000,000 and when I refined it to “images labeled for commercial reuse” the number of images shrunk to 269. I prided myself on being a model citizen, but who knows how many times I have broken the law all because I had to have the perfect picture on my newsletter! Ha! Ha! In all seriousness, this needs to be brought to the attention of our students. My class is starting a research project this week and when they are searching for pictures to display on their projects I will be talking about the usage rights.

Week 1 Thing 2

I have to say, I really like the idea of letting my students see my blog. I think it especially comes in handy with videos in the classroom. I am relieved that you can post a video and you don't have to deal with the dangers of a link. This brings back a bad memory from last year. The first grade team was hatching chicks for our unit on Living Things. Well, sadly the chicks didn't hatch but we still wanted the kids to experience this magical event. We decided to show them some amazing YouTube videos of chicks hatching and how they grow inside the egg. You can only imagine what kind of videos might pop up when you search "chicks". Good thing we had enough sense to find and preview videos before the kids came in:)

Week 1 Thing 1

I have to admit, I'm feeling a little overwhelmed. I am not as computer savvy as I look:) Also, being a first grade teacher makes me wonder exactly how I am going to apply this in my classroom. Six year olds aren't exactly computer savvy either. I am keeping an open mind and remembering that these kids have been exposed to technology since day one. I am curious to see what they are capable of. During our discussion of a powerful learning experience we have had, I noticed that a lot of people mentioned hands on learning and real world experience. I agree that these are so important and I am excited to see how the flip camera will come into play in that area.

Quote of the day!

"Time flies when you're creating blogs!"
-Erica Priest

My First Blog

Boy am I behind the times! I vowed to never blog about anything. Now that I have to, thanks to Mike, it took me 45 minutes to get this far. Who knew people would actually want to read what I have to say:)